Did you ever think about the

rice you’re eating everyday?

Name: Aimi Sekiguchi Teacher: Mr. Booth Class: B5

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Table of Contents How Important is Rice?   Where does the Rice We Eat Come From? -Step 1 -Step 2 -Step 3 -Step 4 -Step 5 Can you name the Parts of Rice? What’s so Different? Brown and White -Features of Brown Rice -Features of White Rice Ways Farmers are Growing Rice Naturally and why it is Important to Do That -Rice-duck Farming -Using other Living Things -Using Objects and Scientific Reasoning Keep Rice Our Staple Food! Glossary Bibliography

Did you ever think about what would happen if there was no rice in the world? You wouldn’t have rice noodles, rice cakes, and of course the plain simple rice we eat everyday. The steps in growing rice uses various kinds of devices, and the steps are based on the seasons. All types of rice is basically grown in the same way, but after harvesting, grains of rice re not the same type. Differences in brown and white rice are very obvious in taste, health, how it is produced, and looks. Only a single grain of rice can be very complicated. It has many parts, and weird names. Because of the farmers’ care to make healthy and safe rice, the food “rice” still exists. If every farmer only thought about making money in the least complicated way, the food chain would be destroyed. First, lets see how rice is grown.

ow Important is Rice?  

Step 1:

First, the farmers grow the seedlings. Usually, this is done in March. The farmers get thousands of seeds ready, and to test if it’s a good, strong, healthy seed or not, dip the seeds into salt water. The seeds that sank are a good seed, so they don’t use a seed that floats. Then seedling-raising boxes are provided, and the farmers will disinfection them, to prevent the seeds from getting ill.

The boxes are placed in a vinyl plastic hot house. The seeds are then planted into the boxes filled with soil. After planting the seeds, they cover it with a thin layer of soil. Farmers give water, and disinfections it. To make the seeds sprout properly in the right speed, the room will have to be over 20˚c at noon.

Within 1 week, the expectation is that the roots get stable to the soil. The seedlings are supposed to grow a new stem from the bottom of the original one in about 20 days. After growing one stem, more and more stems will grow. Within 60 days, the seedling will grow about 20 stems. When it grows 20 stems, the seedling won’t need much water as before. As it grows more stems, the farmers will add fertilizer 2~3 more times.

Fat, strong seedlings are what we would expect, and thin, long ones are weak to the cold, so it would be very

here does the Rice We Eat Come From?  

challenging compared to the strong ones. (Fat is expected more than long) Step 2:

Then, farmers will have to get the rice paddies ready. (This step depends to the farmer, and some might do it before growing the seedlings. So there is no exact month to do this step.) First, they will plow the dry, hard sand-like dirt. The farmers use a machine called a tractor to plow the soil. Next, the farmers will give fertilizer to the dirt, so that it will be soil, where it is filled with nutrition to give to the crops. Then, after the soil has gone soft from plowing, they will have to flood the rice paddies with water. The tractors also can level the soil. Tractors have a turning axis on the back, with teeth that plows the soil. It is like a bicycle, with pedals and handles.

At this time, farmers will also make levees to make

irrigation easier. If they don’t make levees, the water will flow out of the paddy, no matter how much you flood it. Tractors are also used for fixing levees. Step 3:

Next, farmers will plant the seedlings into the prepared paddies. The seedlings are big enough and ready to plant when it grows 4~5 leaves, 12~13cm in length. To make the seedlings use to the air outside and the cold, the vinyl house is opened a tiny bit everyday. But they are very aware of the temperature inside, so that the seedlings won’t be damaged.

Then, the farmers can plant the seedlings. In order to plant them, they will set the seedling-raising boxes

onto the rice trans planter, where it can plant as fast as 2 hectares every day. (20,000 square meters) The trans planter has extra tires and engine for when it is damaged, or used up. When the rice trans planter plants the rice, it doesn’t plant one seedling at a time. They plant them in stocks. The rows are each 30cm apart, and the stocks are at least 15cm apart. When you plant, it is very important to remember to keep them apart, or otherwise the seedlings won’t get enough nutrition from the sun, wind, and fertilizer. They can get sick easily, and they will be very week to bugs. Step 4:

Through May~September, paddies are lessened or greatened the amount of water according to the growth of the crops. Once there are enough stems, the farmers stop adding water, so that it won’t grow more than necessary. But not adding anymore water doesn’t mean dry like sand. The soil should be as soaked that when you walk on it, footsteps appear. While this time, the farmers will have to fight with illness, noxious insects, and weeds that threat the crops. They pull out all the weeds, sprinkles insecticides to kill the noxious insects, and they take the best care possible on irrigation, and looking at how each crop is feeling. At around July through August, spikelet start to grow. Step 5:

When the spikelet ripens and the bottom of the plant turns 80 golden yellow, they are ready for harvesting. Harvesting can’t be too early, or otherwise the rice will stay green and hard. But it can’t be too late, because the rice will be too delicate, and can be cracked easily. The

farmers use combines to harvest the rice. The combine also threshes the crop, and even puts the chaff into bags for fertilizer. But before using the three-way machine, the farmers will have to wash away all the water and dry the water, or otherwise the combine can’t even go into the paddy. Drying the soil is required high skilled people, because if you dry the soil too fast, the rice will not ripen, and become low quality. At the front of the combine, there are sharp blades to cut the crop from the bottom. There ones that you push, or ones that use gasoline, and you ride. It pulls the rice plant a little bit to straiten it, and then cuts it with the blade. After harvesting, it goes to the harvesting area of the combine, where it is automatically divided into grain and hay. The hay is cut into small pieces in the combine, before being scattered in the fields for fertilizer.

Then rice is sent to be dried, tested, ranked, gets classes, and gets sent to markets… but that's a whole new story. 1 of the most important part after being harvested is being chosen weather if it is going to be brown rice, or white rice.

Brown rice and white rice are from the same type of crop. But the reason why they have different names is because they have completely different features. The grain of rice has many parts and names. Each of the parts has various kinds of nutrition. On the tip of the grain, there is a point called a panicle. A hard shell-like first layer called the husk protects the grains of rice. We never eat the husk, no matter if it is white or brown rice. Under the husk is a layer of bran. This layer is soft and protective like a cushion. This layer contains fiber, protein and minerals. Bran is light-brown, black, or red depending on its specie. Then comes the aleurone layer, which is a group of cells. It includes fat, protein, vitamins, and minerals (cilium and magnesium.) This layer covers the endosperm, which is the part that we eat. The endosperm gives nourishment to the germ, or the seed of rice, while it is growing. The germ in a grain of rice includes vitamin A, B1, B2, B6, B12, and E. it also has nicotinic acid, pantothenic acid, and folk acid. Have you ever noticed the little dent on the corner of a grain of rice? This place is where the germ was once located. The germ is important, because it is the key for the next generation to grow.

an you name the Parts of Rice?  

Brown rice is when only the husk is removed from the endosperm. Due to the fact that the bran is not removed, the color is brown. It provides us better amounts of nutrition that we need each day than white rice, so it is healthier. For example, when a 30-year-old woman eats 140g of brown rice, she can get 25 percent of the magnesium you need in 1 day. But if she ate the same amount of white rice, she’ll only get 14 percent. If it is healthier and better for our body, why do most people enjoy eating white rice? That is because it has a dry texture. Recently, because of its better nutritious value, they developed new recipes using brown rice. If you use a pressure pot and cook, the brown rice gets softer, and it is an easier texture to deal with. Now, some rice cookers even have modes just to cook brown rice. It is sometimes eaten

hat’s so Different? Brown and White  

White rice is a very public type of rice used in Japanese food, like sushi. Why does white rice actually look white? When the husk is taken from the grain, it is brown rice. But after taking off the husk, the farmers polish the rice. The endosperm is the white colored part we see. It is flavorful and starchy, but it gives us fat and not much nutrition. When you eat 140g of white rice, it costs 235kcal. But when you eat the same amount of brown rice, you get less calories. White rice is easier to digest in your tummy, so when you’re sick, or have tummy aches, white rice porridge will be good. Because of the starch and moisture, it gives a nice touch to our tongue, soft but still chewy.  

When farmers raise rice, they sometimes use chemicals, like insecticides or scientific fertilizer. But always using those kinds of man-made effects on raising might cause pollution to the lakes beside the paddies and kill the fish. If you use fertilizer improperly, the next crop gets affected, and it wouldn’t grow big, rich grains. So to prevent from all these accidents or careless miss, farmers these days are trying out ways of how to raise rice under control, without using agricultural chemicals.

Currently in Japan, the most common way to prevent

weeds and bugs is rice-duck farming. In one rice paddy, the farmers release about 20 ducks. They protect the ducks from raccoon dogs and foxes by surrounding the rice paddy with nets. The ducks eat all weeds and noxious insects. As they paddle around the paddy, it mixes the soil and water, which makes the water turbid. If the water becomes turbid, it barely lets any sunshine in. So it prevents weeds. Paddling around doesn’t only prevent weeds, but also provides fresh oxygen, by mixing water and the oxygen in the air. The manure the ducks produce becomes 100% natural fertilizer. But just because rice-duck farming is the most popular way in Japan doesn’t mean that it is the only way.

Farmers have found out that other living things help.

A ladybug is an example. Cockroaches suck liquid out of the crop, and ladybugs are there enemy. We don’t always

ays Farmers are Growing Rice Naturally and Why it is Important to Do That  

see the living things help us. They use a natural enemy microorganism called BT. When a larva of a moth eats food with BT on it, the poison works in its digestive tract, and kills the larva.

Not only living things help us eat healthy, safe rice.

Things around us also help the farmers. For example, when growing the seedlings, to make sure that bugs don’t enter the vinyl house, they light yellow-colored lamps, which is a color that most noxious insects don’t like. They sometimes pour India Ink in the paddy, since the color black doesn’t let light in. If light doesn’t shine underwater, then weeds can’t grow.

Rice has been our staple food for the people in Japan for

about 2000 years. As technology has evolved, it has impacted agriculture, including rice farming. There are a variety of steps in growing rice, so machines and devices have developed over time to make rice farming easier. Brown and white rice are grown in the same manner, but the nutritional value is higher than the brown rice. Due to the influence of the West, the traditional Japanese diet is not followed any more. And there has been a decrease in rice consumption. Even so, Japanese people eat about 50-60kg of rice every year. So it was fascinating to become more knowledgeable about the process of raising rice.

 

eep Rice Our Staple Food!

l Aleurone layer- A layer of cells that keep protein in

plants. l Bran- It is a hard layer that protects the grain of rice.

It is softer than the husk, so the husk is like the armor and the bran is like a cushion.

l Combine- An agricultural device that farmers use to

harvest, thresh and pack the grain into bags. l Chaff-It is the same as the husk. It is the outer shell of

a grain, and the name changes by in what conditions it is in. When it is on the grain, protecting it, it is called a husk. But when it is took apart by threshing, it is called chaff.

l Endosperm- Part of the grain mainly ate by living

things. Contains starch and protein. l Germ- The seed of the plant. l Husk- The outer layer that is as hard as a shell. It acts

as a protection. It is dry and rough. l Insecticides- A type of agricultural chemical that kills

the noxious insects.

lossary  

l Levee- A path that dams water inside the rice paddy. It is like a little mountain continuing all around the paddy to stop from water leaking.

l Panicle-The tip of the grain. It is pointy. l Polishing- The step to remove bran from brown rice, to

change it into white rice. l Rice paddy- The field for growing rice. l Spikelet- Little flowers that bloom at the panicle of the

grain, and produces all the parts inside. l Threshing- The step of removing the husk from the

grain, to make it brown rice. Once this step is done, it is eatable. (It’s not poison if you eat the husk, but it is not tasty and also, it would be stiff even after you cook it.)

Difference of types of rice l http://www.okomehp.net/category/category001 l http://www.eiyoukeisan.com/calorie/gramphoto/kokuru

i/gohan.html l http://www.eiyoukeisan.com/calorie/gramphoto/kokuru

i/genmai.html l http://www.local.co.jp/hiroko/genmai.html Steps in growing rice l http://www.yamatane.co.jp/kome/deki_index.html l http://ytnk.jp/tanadakai/kometukuri.html l http://fukushimano-kome.com/html/delicious.php The different equipment used in the process of rice l http://www.komenet.jp/faq/sc15.html l http://www.okomehp.net/grow/grow006 Agricultural chemicals, the effects and types l http://www.jcpa.or.jp/qa/a4_01.html l http://ractruth.web.fc2.com/index.html l http://www.maff.go.jp/j/nouyaku/ Ways Farmers prevent from Using Chemicals l http://edu.city.ogaki.gifu.jp/open/kdata/aigamo/ l http://study.kids.yahoo.co.jp/picks/detail/003.html l http://www.jcpa.or.jp/qa/a6_14.html l http://cgi2.nhk.or.jp/school/movie/clipbox.cgi?das_id=D

0005402293_00000&keepThis=true&TB_iframe=true&width=920&height=480

ibliography  

Books Zronik, John Paul. The biography of rice. New York, NY : Crabtree Pub. Co., c2006.