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Regarding rice, the United States is one of the world's MAJOR RICE EXPORTING NATIONS ~ not the biggest but still a major. I think Viet Nam is the second largest big boy in that game ~ right behind Thailand ~ which isn't what the Commies imagined was the point of their stupid wars, but there you have it. Viet Nam grows great rice ~ people actually like it BTW. They get more than two crops a year and it's one of the few places you can do that.

The US doesn't eat much rice ~ it's not a major staple here, but we can grow it just like ringin' a bell ~ see Texas, Arkansas, South Carolina ~ darned near entire countries worth of rice in each one.

Now, Saudi ~ used to didn't have agriculture. About the time I graduated from highschool somebody there said "Hey, bro, we be pumpin' water" ~ so they began working with Midwestern agricultural specialists (called farmers and universities) to figure out what to do with their relatively mild climate, warm days, cool nights and all that water left over from the oil industry.

They came up with wheat, corn, garden vegetables, and so on.

Now obviously that stuff was expensive ~ in the beginning ~ so you never saw it in stores. After they'd developed tens of thousands of acres they finally had enough of their own people trained in farming to begin raising specialty crops. I think you can also find vast areas of greenhouses there too ~ keeps the plants from drying out.

The Saudi farmers have found themselves in an enviable position ~ they have enough water to grow stuff that sells for a top market price. At the same time they can easily grow rare specialty crops and export them. I'd love to have a little box of Saudi rice sitting there next to a 25 pound bag of California's Kokuho Rose!

The guys in Saudi put a lot of money into finding ways to filter seawater so they can pump it into their fields. Eventually the water in the oil fields will wither away, but before then they want to make sure they have the technology that'll make it possible to continue living there.

This is no small issue. When I took my first Middle Eastern studies course decades back Saudi claimed 7 million people ~ although most analysts thought it was more like 1.5 million ~ they lied for self protection. Now, they claim 24 million people and NO ONE doubts they have that and more.

Because of their wealth traditional restraints on family size disappeared and everybody had a couple of generations of HUGE families. Now the've gotta' figure out how to support 'em.