Kim1

TheGeographyofFood

DeborahKim

APHumanGeography

Mrs.Grant

11/23/14

Kim2

A. WhereandHowisthePrimaryFoodstuffProduced?

Most of the rice harvested in the world are from East and Southeast Asia. China, India,

and Indonesia are the top three producing states, respectively. Rice are grown in paddy fields.

Paddy fields are flat areas of land that are covered with shallow water. To hold the water in the

land, farmers usually put up a wall of dirt on the edges of the field. Paddy fields are tiered in a

fashion so that water is conserved as much as possible. The crop is also versatile enough to grow

in the drier areas, such as the Middle East and the United States (Rost). However, rice cannot

grow in extremely arid climates. A solution is for the people in the latter trade with the people in

themorehumidregionsandtradelivestockforrice(Swanson244).

Consequently, rice is the most consumed crop in the world. China is perfect for growing

rice, since its vast, fertile rice fields are annually flooded by monsoons. Its flat plains also help

rice farmers save water. There is no average size of a paddy field it is usually clustered with

other paddy fields to form areas of arable land for both subsistence and commercial farming.

Large corporate farms tend to produce the most rice in the region, since not many are close

together. The typical worker would be either a family member of the farming group, or an

employee of a rice producing company. Pesticides for rice eating bugs such as Weevil bugs and

other water bugs were a common tool used in rice farming nowadays, however, the use of them

decreased as more people prefer organic crops. The bugs are usually harmless and easy to kill for

normalconsumers.Riceplantationsalsousemachinessuchasriceharvesters.

A rice field worker plants rice in a field. After it

fully grows, and tractor or another group of people

comeandharvestthegrains.

Kim3

B. WhyisthePrimaryFoodstuffProducedinthisregionorcountry?

Since China and India are the most populated countries in Asia, it is believable that the

two states lead in the world production of rice. It is traced back to about 2,500 B.C.E in China. in

which the consumption and harvesting of rice were documented (Carr). This explains how

China, alongside with being the most populated state, has produced the most rice out of all

countries. People began to harvest and cook the crop, and it spread to other regions such as

southern Europe to northern Africa. Since China has been the leader of rice production, it is

possible that the Chinese who made the idea of rice fields to work. The yearly monsoons gave

Asian countries an advantage to cultivating rice because rice is a thirsty crop according to the

United Nations, it requires at least 2,000 liters of water for one kilogram of rice. Rice, being the

staple food source for most Asian countries, hugely impacts a countrys economy. China, in

2009, exported 37% of its rice production to other states. Even though China imports little rice

from countries like the United States, it is

incomparable with Chinas amount of exported

rice.

China hugely encourages rice farming in its

country, giving out incentives such as county

awards.

Kim4

C. HowandWhereistheBreakfastFoodProcessedandTransportedtoMarket?

Rice is very resilient to dilemmas of other foods, such as corn or oranges. Fruits and

vegetables are easy to perish right away if not stored in the right condition. Packaged corn could

spoil in a maximum of a week after the printed date, both fresh or cooked. In comparison,

correctly packaged brown rice, a popular choice in the western part of Asia, can last fresh up

until eight months of storage. White rice is preferred in eastern Asia, such as in Korea or Japan.

This was at first because shaving off the shell (the Brown part) increased the lasting period of

rice, particularly because all the moisture of the rice has been removed. It enabled the rice to stay

edible past the printed date four to five years after the printed date on the package, which is

usually a long period of time after harvest as well (Staff). IRRI, or the International Rice

Research Institute is a big impact on rice economy it decides most of the cost and overall

marketingofriceanditsproduction.

A normal system of rice: From

planting to sale. After a consumer buys rice from a market, he or she would most likely eat it

withtherestofhisorherfamily.

Kim5

D. HowistheItemAdvertisedandMarketed?

Rice advertisement hugely relies on sensory words such as adjectives describing taste and

smell. The picture is usually the same: a picture of a bowl full of grains of rice. Nowadays,

companies also use awards as decorations on the package, mainly pertaining to how healthy or

organic it is supposed to be. The target market is for the whole community, no matter what

gender, race, or age. However, since many women do the the actual shopping, companies use

marketing towards middleaged women. The packaging advertising is very important for

marketing, since people tend to buy fancier or more certifiedlooking products. For example, if

an average woman shopping at an Asian market is choosing between two big bags of rice of the

same quantity, she would probably choose the bag that is more eyecatching (How). Even though

the appearance of the container does not affect the product, the strategy still works on many

people who is part of the economy. Particularly in the more developed countries, quality is very

important. Many in the United States even think quality is more important than quantity, when it

comestofood.

For most consumers, they would prefer

thesecondbagofrice.

Kim6

E. Mapit

Ricedoesnotonlyservethepurposeoffeedingthehumanpopulation,butalsoforanimalfeed.

Kim7

F. WorksCited

Carr,Karen."Rice."+LVWRU\IRU. LGV.Kidipede,2014.Web.23Nov.2014.

"HowRiceGrows."+RZ5LFH* URZV.TheCaliforniaRiceCommission,2014.Web.23Nov.

2014.

Marsh,Meredith,andPeterS.Alagona."AnswersforMultipleChoiceQuestions."%DUURQV$3

+XPDQ* HRJUDSK\. Revised ed. Hauppauge, NY: Barron's Educational Series, 2010. 358.

Print.

Rost,ThomasL."Rice:History."Rice:History.UniversityofCaliforniaDavis,1997.Web.22

Nov.2014.

Staff."Rice."(DW%\ DWH.EatByDate,2013.Web.23Nov.2014.

Swanson, Kelly. "World Crop Regions." $3+XPDQ* HRJUDSK\ . New York: Kaplan, 2013.

244.Print.

http://www.google.com/url?q=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.historyforkids.org%2Flearn%2Ffood%2Frice.htm&sa=D&sntz=1&usg=AFQjCNHgg6DPO-W2PyqN2di3vz5VuQWZFQhttp://www.google.com/url?q=http%3A%2F%2Fcalrice.org%2Findustry%2Fhow-rice-grows&sa=D&sntz=1&usg=AFQjCNF5jzaYgPHLOUq1ct5okDu7680AAAhttp://www.google.com/url?q=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.eatbydate.com%2Fgrains%2Frice-shelf-life-expiration-date%2F&sa=D&sntz=1&usg=AFQjCNFBYNEcL2ENUjWuB5SSGMWndYyOcAhttp://www.google.com/url?q=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.plb.ucdavis.edu%2Flabs%2Frost%2FRice%2Fintroduction%2Fintro.html&sa=D&sntz=1&usg=AFQjCNFBbtwAfsEIxzb63nS5XrymkaB0fQ