Rice and Grains

The dried seeds of various grasses are man’s oldest food. The seed is a plant’s storehouse of fuel, and for its size it is one of the richest sources of nutrition known to us. In the ancient world they leftly respected this treasure and named gods after grains.

Agricultural science and modern technology have improved and perfected the cultivation of many grains. We now have a ‘green revolution’, in which grain harvests can yield a third more, or even double than fifty years ago. Yet the tragedy is that we can still not feed the hungry world. We grow enough grain to be able to give two pounds to each person per day, but half of the grain cultivated in the world is taken by the West to feed livestock and factory-farmed animals, which are to be killed for meat. Another third of the half left is taken by the West for its own consumption.