Rice Consumption around the World

By Allen Wang ight now as youre reading this, someone on the other side of the world is very likely to be eating a bowl of rice. Think about it. Asia populates almost half of the world and also consumes about three-quarters of the worlds rice. In 2004,

China and India themselves ate nearly 60% of the worlds 400 million tons of rice produced that year. Contrast that to the average American who eats about 15 pounds per year and the average European who eats 7 pounds per year. Were talking about a grain that has been grown since the earliest times of recorded history. A Staple Food Since 8000 B.C, rice has been cultivated to feed families all around Southern and Eastern Asia and is still a very important staple food around the world. There are families everywhere who spend most of their income on rice to feed their children and live. Some people eat rice two to three times per day and count it for half of their daily calories. This foreign food is the basis of life for millions of families across the globe. For many people, rice is crucial enough so that it has grown past culture and tradition and into religion. In Chinese prayers, there is a phrase that is always spoken: Give us this day our daily rice. Even a Japanese Proverb states, A meal without rice is no meal. In the Chinese language, the phrase for eat rice is the same as the phrase for eat food. Its quite clear that rice to Asia is the same if not more important than fried chicken to America.

Authors Connectio n
I was born in China and was raised there for three years before moving here. I still eat rice every day for dinner and make it routine just like everyone else in my family. In other words, I go to school, get back home, eat rice, sleep, and repeat.

Life Food In the United States, rice is an alien food. We rarely eat it. Of course, there are also American foods that are unknown to Asia, but the way Asia is dependent on rice is much different from the way were dependent on beef or chicken. Asia is a very populous continent and includes very many large cities, farms, factories, and rural country sides. For the people who are outside of cities and live privately, many of their families base their life on growing, harvesting, and eating rice. Some families spend three-quarters of their income on rice just to survive. It is inevitable that at one point, rice will run out and farmers will have to go through more and more backbreaking work to feed all of the new people that will consume rice. Unlike the way we buy beef at a store or market, rice growing is a part of daily life in Asia and is mostly grown for family needs. Recent Discoveries Of course, rice is mostly consumed in Asia, but is also spreading around the world

Rice Consum ptionS urvey

Once a Month 26% 1-2 Tim es/Week 23% Every Day 25%

and into the United States, Europe, and Africa. Most Americans only eat about 12 pounds of rice per year, but that number is increasing

3-4 Tim es/Week 8%

because of foreign influence and 5-6 Tim es/Week immigration. Im Chinese, and 18% although my family lives in the United States, we still eat rice every

single day. Several of my friends are in same or similar situations. Here are the results of a survey for rice consumption from 38 randomly selected Americans. As the pie graph shows, one-quarter of the people interviewed eat rice every day and 18% eat rice 5-6 times per week. Out of these two categories, all of the people in there were Asians, which isnt very surprising. This shows that rice is spreading across the world and is caused mostly by foreign influence. Most of us dont usually take time to think about how rice affects billions of people across the globe and is also a part of culture and tradition. For people like me, rice will continue to stay in my life until the day I die. The Future for Rice Now, the world is producing about 700 million tons of rice every year. This is equivalent to 1 trillion and 4 billion pounds. Thats almost unthinkable to us, but at the rate the world is consuming rice, production will need to speed up and farmers will have to expand their land and grow more. People give birth at a quicker rate than people die, so millions of rice consumers will be added into the world every year. We cant keep up with that. If the world gets overpopulated, families everywhere will die. We are thousands of miles away from that problem, but in Asia, Its looming in front of their faces. This distant food has little importance for us, but what we dont realize is that half of humanity is at risk because of their everlasting dependence on rice.