rice

The Codex Alimentarius Commission, the UN's food standards body, adopted a maximum allowable level for arsenic in rice of 0.2 milligrams per kilogram during a meeting in Geneva. Arsenic occurs naturally at high levels in soil and groundwater in some parts of the world. Rice, a staple food for hundreds of millions of people, absorbs more arsenic than other crops. Long term exposure can cause cancer and skin lesions as well as other ailments.

For Randall's Island Urban Farm, the hardest part of growing rice in New York City - much farther north than most U.S. rice growers - was hulling the grain, "nothing but pure chore," according to "Homegrown Whole Grains." As related in a blog at The New Yorker, the farm grows small amounts of rice so a commercial-size hulling machine was out of the question. So, it did what other small-scale growers do - it bought a pocket-size huller hand-built by Don Brill in his spare time. A bicycle provides the power.

Olive trees are taking root as a cash crop in California, with the drought as an inducement, says the Sacramento Bee, which cites a farmer who switched to olives from rice.

A soil microbe that inhibits the rice blast fungus, which destroys an estimated 30 percent of the world's rice crop, was identified by researchers from the University of Delaware and University of California-Davis, according to an announcement.

California growers are curtailing rice plantings by 18 percent due to drought but larger plantings in the Delta will offset much of the downturn for the sticky rice used in sushi. "The decline in California medium-grain plantings due to drought and water restrictions have attracted more acres of medium-grain rice in the Delta where plantings in 2014 are projected up 39 percent," says USDA. In the end, medium-grain area will drop 6 percent.

Researchers from four countries around the world say that as the carbon dioxide level in the atmosphere rises, the amount of zinc and iron in wheat, rice, soybeans and field peas went down significantly; wheat and rice also had notable declines in protein content at the higher levels of carbon dioxide used in the experiment. Zinc and iron deficiency is a global health problem.

The leaders of the United States and Japan say "they have made significant progress on the agriculture and auto issues that have blocked a huge Asia-Pacific trade deal following intense talks," says Politico.

President Obama will meet the leaders of four nations - Japan, South Korea, Malaysia and the Philippines - during a trip through Asia that begins on Tuesday.

It's well-known that agricultural practices can affect soil fertility, water quality, wildlife populations and pest numbers for good or bad.

The global rice market is still feeling the impact of India’s decision last August to limit its rice exports in the name of battling high domestic food prices, said two IFPRI analysts. “Rice-importing countries in sub-Saharan Africa have felt the greatest impacts, scrambling to find alternative sources even as global rice prices have risen more than 20 percent since India imposed its restrictions,” they wrote in a blog.