Rice

Rice, whether it is served with curry, bundled with fish, or alone, it is one of the biggest staples in the world wide diet. When I picture rice the laborers, who work hard so that we can each have it at our dinner tables, I often imagine third world countries, poor working conditions, and back pain. And, while much of that is true, some of the data is rather surprising. By many estimates the USA is third or fourth highest exporter of rice overall, and the only major exporter of rough rice. Thailand leads the way at the top, followed by one of the largest consumers, India and thirdly, Vietnam. China and India are at the top of the least for consumption, and make up for roughly 50% of the worlds supply.

What probably strikes me the most about this list is that the USA isn't what you would expect when seeing the names of some of the other countries. I was rather startled when I went to the local grocery store to buy my favorite sushi rice (short grain, milled) to see that, despite its Japanese styled marketing, it was grown and processed in California. According to CalRice.org, most of the American rice production is automated, preparing the soil is done carefully by machine that makes sure the patties are perfectly level via laser, seeding is done by plane, harvesting is also done by machine, and finally milling is done in facilities only needing a few workers. That isn't to say that the hours aren't long and the work hard, https://www.ffa.org/ suggests that while pay is relatively good at an average of 45k, the hours are indeed long at 60 a week.

While investigating conditions worldwide, I found the language barrier to be my largest foe. Thailand largely handles rice production the old way, by hand, and with a large number of farmers. As the video says, the Rice  Industry is leading to many issues for the country, as with much of the world, fresh water is becoming scarce; a reality we will not likely realize for many years. But also, the lack of large scale oversight is causing contamination of the waterways. There was very little data about how much of the profit the farmers get to keep. Many of the farmers work as peasants on government land, and are allowed to continue so long as they can pay the government taxes, however as the overhead to stay in production has increased over the years (namely do to new practices like using mulch to conserve water) many of the peasants are losing their plots and are forced into renting from landowners, likely at a lower profit point. What bothers me about Thailand's practice is the leadership from the country is pushing for more land to be converted into patties which means less opportunity for work that isn't rice labor. It is currently estimated that over half the population works rice fields today. There is a large variance in labor practices, and social conditions for rice. There have been successful social movements in the past to get better conditions, and compensation, but it still bothers me that so little information seems accessible, especially given the nature of the internet.