Past, present and future of rice

An ancient Chinese legend tells of a benevolent Genie who watched over the countryside and its inhabitants. Powerless in the face of yet another terrible famine and unable to bring aid to his people, the good Genie fell into such deep despair that he pulled out his teeth and threw them to the wind. The teeth, however, ended up in a swamp and, like seeds, sprouted into many green plants that bore thousands of ivory-white grains. From that day on, the poor farmers of the Chinese countryside could rely on rice and escaped starvation.

In Asia, legends like these, which pass down rice as a divine gift, are numerous, testifying to the centrality of this cereal in Eastern civilizations. This grain, which "sprouted" about ten millennia ago in the plains watered by the great rivers of China and India, has played and continues to play the same fundamental role in the East as wheat, then corn, and potatoes in our own time. A virtually irreplaceable food, shrouded in a sacred aura, its cultivation directly overseen by the emperor in ancient China, and still sown today according to the instructions of the "rice priests" in some areas of Indonesia. A good harvest, in fact, was and still is a guarantee of survival and well-being for entire populations, so much so that an ancient Chinese saying proclaims "eat your rice, heaven will take care of the rest."

Rice has been gaining increasing popularity in Europe since the 16th century, and many experts predict it will continue to do so worldwide. Due to its adaptability to even unfavorable environments, such as swamps, and its higher yield per hectare than corn and potatoes, new crops will emerge in Africa in the coming years, thus helping to solve the food problems of a continent in perennial subsistence crisis. Rice already provides 27% of the energy needs and 20% of the protein needs of the populations of the poorest countries. If these predictions are confirmed, the grain born from the teeth of the Chinese Genius will likely continue to work miracles.

The "if," however, is necessary because rice is not only an essential food, but also a strategic commodity, even more so recently with the rising price of wheat following the war in Ukraine. As a strategic commodity, it must be subject to market and power rules that too often elude us.

To understand this further, essential reading is the essay "La moneta bianca" (Il Saggiatore, 2025, pp. 240), written by Francesca Grazioli, an expert on climate change and food security in various regions of the world. From the origins of Chinese civilization to the rice fields of Northern Italy, from feudal Japan to the illusion of modern subsistence programs in India and the Philippines, from billboards in Senegal to our tables, "La moneta bianca" first and foremost recounts the global history of rice. It then offers us a journey across continents, eras, and economic systems, in which rice becomes the key to understanding the transformations of the modern world.

Francesca Grazioli follows the thread of this age-old cultivation, delving into the rural villages of Bengal, the coasts of Senegal from which slaves were shipped to America for crops, and the Italian countryside where monoculture shaped the landscape and social relations . Beginning in the 16th and 17th centuries, rice began to appear more frequently on Italian tables as an alternative to polenta, bread, and potatoes for the poor, even though its cultivation had the significant drawback of being grown in stagnant waters, unhealthy environments, and where malaria thrived. Therefore, the poor ate better, but got sick more often. The situation improved in the 19th century when rice fields were established where water was kept constantly flowing, so as not to create marshy miasmas. Finally, the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869, combined with the spread of steamships, facilitated the arrival of large quantities of rice from Asia and made this white cereal a constant presence on European tables, the main alternative to wheat.

Continuing his narrative , Grazioli then recounts the impact of the Green Revolution of the late twentieth century on local economies, the promises of biotechnology, and the inequalities created by the global market. Rice, from a tool for self-sufficiency, has thus transformed into an object of control, a vector of power, a lever for reorganizing territories, bodies, and communities. White Money thus reveals itself as a well-documented and compelling story that spans economies, migrations, and production systems. At its core are the figures of women rice workers—laborers, farmers, and harvesters—who for centuries, around the world, have supported the economy of this cereal while remaining invisible: underpaid, marginalized in decision-making processes, yet central to daily survival.