FERN’s Friday Feed: Can I speak to the rice sommelier?
Welcome to FERN’s Friday Feed (#FFF), where we share the stories from this week that made us stop and think.
The quest for the world’s best rice
Taste
“[T]he concept that a person’s palate can be trusted to rate and rank batches of plain white rice, like single-origin coffee or grower Champagne, has a mainstream following in Japan,” writes Kenji Hall. “National newspapers, lifestyle magazines, food websites, radio shows, daytime TV programs—there’s no shortage of printed pages and broadcast airtime filled with in-depth commentary from ‘rice sommeliers’ about what types are better for a light breakfast of fermented soybeans and seaweed or as fried rice for dinner. In addition, shopkeepers certified as ‘five-star rice meisters’ demonstrate their expertise with their special in-house blends and taste charts.”
Mexico’s wheat fields have a laughing gas problem
The Washington Post
”[S]cientists who have studied this valley for decades know that in these precise moments and conditions — when water mixes with nitrogen fertilizer, and when no crop is in the ground to absorb it — huge surges of nitrous oxide gas are released into the atmosphere,” write Joshua Partlow and Chris Mooney. “As a contributor to climate change, nitrous oxide remains a mysterious villain, crudely measured and less-studied than carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases. But it has caused 6.5 percent of the world’s current warming, and its concentration in the atmosphere is growing at an accelerating rate.”
Why Chinese restaurants became a Christmas mainstay—and not just for Jews
LAist
”The tradition probably originated in Manhattan, where Jewish and Chinese immigrants clustered in neighborhoods near each other,” writes Fiona Chandra. “Plus, Chinese restaurants tend to stay open every day of the year, holidays be damned. Whatever initially drew diners to Chinese restaurants on Christmas, they’ve become a beloved destination for holiday feasts on both coasts, and everywhere in between.”
For rich and poor alike, feasting is about joy
The New York Times
“The scolding American lawmakers who want to forbid the use of food stamps to purchase junk food are part of a long lineage that goes back to the Victorian workhouses, which made sure that the food was never inviting enough to encourage sloth,” writes Abhijit Banerjee. “The pleasure of eating, to say nothing of cooking, has no place in this narrative. And the idea that if working people knew what was good for them, they’d simply seek out more food as fuel is a woefully limited view of the eating experience of most of the world. As anybody who has been poor or has spent time with poor people knows, eating something special is a source of great excitement. As it is for everyone.”
How aquaculture and conservation can co-exist
High Country News
“A self-proclaimed genetics nerd, [Stuart] Thomas is charged with reviving the Olympia oyster for the Swinomish Shellfish Company,” writes Sarah Sax. “The Englishman had spent years working in Washington’s commercial shellfish industry before joining the company, which is owned by the Swinomish Indian Tribal Community. Now he operates under a different set of rules, with a unique prime directive: Do not mess with the eelgrass beds.”