Every culture has its "staple" food. This is the food product that anchors each meal. For some cultures, it is meat and potatoes. However, for most of the world, regardless of region, rice is the staple that is served most often. . It is “A food staple of half the planet’s population” (Reynolds pg 1). But why rice? Why not bread or potatoes as is common in western countries? Within nutrisional basic food pyramid, rice is part of the breads, cereal, rice and pasta family. This family is the baseline foundation of human nutrition. Rice is a popular crop as it can be grown and cultivated fairly easily. Rice is grown by individual families for their personal needs, or can be cultivated by large farms for supply to the world. Rice is simpler to grow than wheat or potatoes because it does not have a long growing time and can grow in smaller areas and provides a greater yield per square acre than wheat or potatoes. Regardless of how you like your rice, it is basically prepared the same way, boiled. Once the rice is cooked, cultures take a different approach to the completion of a rice-based dish. Rice has a long history of being the perfect accompaniment for even the simplest of foods. Rice makes a dish hardy. It is a starch, so it adds bulk to a dish. My Grandmother was Japanese and she was the matriarch of our family. She cooked every meal with care and concern not only to appease our hunger, but she strived to create dishes that appealed to our palates and provided for our well being. She took care that each meal was balanced nutritionally and was delicious. In Japan, rice is revered as it has fed generations upon generations of people. It is the center of the Japanese diet. She would take the greatest care ... ... middle of paper ... ...h of rice and the traditions surrounding its growth and preparation go back thousands of years. Its flavor may not be easily expressed, but the satisfaction from the consumption of rice is easily described. Three quarters of the world cannot be wrong, rice is good. Works Cited Holloway, Ph.D., Joseph E. "African Crops and Slave Cuisine." Slavery in America. Web. 06 Apr. 2011. . McCulloch, Julie. Japan: A World Of Recipes. Chicago, ILL: Heinemann Library, 2001. Print. Pringle, Elizabeth W. Allston, and Charles W. Joyner. A Woman Rice Planter. Columbia, SC: University of South Carolina in Cooperation with the Institute for Southern Studies and the South Caroliniana Society of the University of South Carolina, 1992. Print. Reynolds, Jan. Cycle of Rice, Cycle of Life. New York: Lee & Low, 2009. Print.
But corn meal bread, with little or no meat, and no vegetable diet, is extremely hard fare. I am very certain, from an attentive observation to this subject, that a negro deprived of meat diet, is not able to endure the labor that those can perform who are liberally supplied with it; and that the master who gives his field hands half a pound of meat per day, and two quarts of meal, (or something short of this when an allowance of vegetables is made,) is better compensated by slave labor, than those who give the ordinary quantity. Their food should be cooked for them twice a day, and carried out to the field. It is a general custom in this part of the state, to have their food cooked but once a day, and to require each negro to cook for himself at night, and carry with him his food for the morning’s meal in the field. (Web, para
Quarles informative historical writing gives the reader a deeper understanding of African contributions to the U.S. and presents his argument in an objective manner. By and large, this novel was without a doubt a subject deserving of study. Quarles novel deeply relates to my selected topic of slavery impact among southern U.S states because he briefly emphasizes the contributions in which African slave’s affected southern U.S. soil, such as rice plantations in South Carolina. Quarles introduces the noteworthy product delivered in provincial South Carolina was rice. The creation of this product required its specialists to have learning of the area and rice development, too an adequate work power ready to look after it. Because of the oversight of this harvest in their European society, English pioneers who settled the rich North American area did not have the mastery required for the generation of
Boxer, C.R. : The Dutch Seaborne Empire (London, 1965). Canny, Nicholas: The Oxford History of the British Empire, Vol I, The Origins of the Empire (New York 1998). Curtin, Philip D: The rise and fall of the plantation complex: Essays in Atlantic history (Cambridge, 1990). Dunn, Richard S.: Sugar and Slaves (North Carolina,1973).
Eventually, the West African slaves that were brought to the American South to work in an agricultural context d...
Walker, Alice. (1974). “In Search of Our Mothers’ Gardens.” Ways of Reading. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, pp. 694-701.
The lowlands, including a lot of of the Acadia French regions of Louisiana and also the surrounding and the, enclosed a varied diet heavily influenced by Africans and Caribbeans, instead of simply the French. As such, rice contend an oversized a part of the diet because it contend an oversized part of the diets of the Africans and Caribbean. Additionally, unlike the uplands, the lowlands subsistence of protein...
Rice was another cash crop that required a substantial investment in land, labor, and equipment. It was among the most intensive and extensive crops developed in colonial North America. Its cultivation helped shape the development of societies in South...
Northup, Solomon, Sue L. Eakin, and Joseph Logsdon. Twelve years a slave. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1968. Print.
Mintz, Steven. "Food in America." Digital History. History Online, 2007. Web. 01 Apr. 2012. .
When colonist came to the Americas, corn was quickly adopted as a new grain. With England across the ocean, there was no easy way to acquire food. The ability to grow ones’ own crop dictated the death or survival of a colony. Corn was easy to grow and provided a good source of carbohydrates. Corn so...
Anthony Bourdain states in his interview on Being Wrong, “Food is everything we are. It’s an extension of nationalist feeling, ethnic feeling, your personal history, your province, your region, your tribe, and your grandma. It’s inseparable from those from the get-go.” Food, in general, can bring people together, whether it is for social purposes, to celebrate or for religious reasons. A plate of food can help fuel our bodies with energy, enhance our moods, help us build relationships with others, open and expand our viewpoints on different cultures, and so much more. Overall food has a vast and strong impact in our everyday life, making us feel certain emotions that influence our mental and physical health. The
I was born in one of the countries in Asia, and our staple food is rice. Rice is always at the center of the table, and the rest of the viand surrounds it. Here in the United States, my household still eat rice every day, accompanied by cooked vegetables and meat. My food choices are influenced by culture and family. Vegetables and fruits of my choice are abundant at the International Market and other Asian grocery stores. Vegetables are also available for a cheaper price at the farmers market. I myself buy these foods to ensure its freshness, prepare and cook them for my entire family. Inspired by Asian and American cuisine, our food is prepared with variety of cooking styles; such as dry like barbecues, baked and fried, with sauce
Among other crops, rice is the most popular crop in Japan. This is true for almost all eastern Asia regions. Due to its flavor and various usage, Asian people do not like barley or corn but much prefer rice. As for rice, Japanese people could use it to make many dishes, including sushi, porridge, or fried rice. During the 1800s, Japanese people used a special approach called tenant farming system to grow these crops in order to promote efficiency, Tenant farming system, also known as landlordism, is similar to a slave system in ancient Europe or America that the tenant is owned by the landlord and had to make payment to the owner periodically through a fixed portion of crops. This system was quite effective as tenants had to work hard or they would not be able to hand in the crops. As the result, Japan accounted for 15% of world rice production.
Golden rice: Was created by Inro Protrykys. He wanted to eliminate the deficiency of vitamin A in rural areas and under developed countries and areas. The idea was to create a production of beta-carotene., which is mainly found in gold rice plants. Beta-carotene is one of the main sources of vitamin A. By adding only two genes, a plant phytoene synthase and a bacterial phytoene desaturase, the pathway is turned back on and β-carotene consequently accumulates in the grain. This allows for more vitamin A to be present in the rice and thus bettering the amount of nutrients one will get from Golden Rice. (The Science of Golden Rice, Golden Rice Project, 23 April 2014, http://www.goldenrice.org/Content2-How/how1_sci.php)
Rice was introduced into Japan between the Final Jomon and the Early Yayoi Period, some scholars suggest that it could have been as early as six-thousand years ago. There are various Japanese characters from each time period that represent the growing of rice. In order to grow rice in Japan, the steep land has to be terraced. This creates small areas high on mountainsides where various things are grown. In 2012, 1.55 million hectares were used to grow rice in Japan. However, this number is significantly smaller than it has been in previous years. In 2008, 4.68 million hectares of rice were being harvested. The average field for one farmer is very small and the production of the rice is highly mechanized. The steep decline in hectares of rice grown is because the number of Japanese farm households has declined dramatically in recent years. Some farmers in Japan even consider rice farming to be a part time job and not as important as other commodities. The decline is also from a change in the Staple Food Control Act in 1969. The Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries asked farmers to reduce their rice acreage because of the overproduction of rice. This was put into place to lower the rice amount and spend more focus on other agricultural products in order to compensate in other areas.