Free Republic

Striations and residue found on stone tools in China reflect harvesting methods.Anew Dartmouth-led study analyzing stone tools from southern China provides the earliest evidence of rice harvesting, dating to as early as 10,000 years ago. The researchers identified two methods of harvesting rice, which helped initiate rice domestication...Wild rice is different from domesticated rice in that wild rice naturally sheds ripe seeds, shattering them to the ground when they mature, while cultivated rice seeds stay on the plants when they mature.To harvest rice, some sort of tools would have been needed. In harvesting rice with tools, early rice cultivators were...

An international team found that during this period, crops were being cultivated in a remote location in what is now northern Bolivia. The scientists believe that the humans who lived here were planting squash, cassava and maize. The inhabitants also created thousands of artificial islands in the forest. The end of the last ice age, around 12,000 years ago, saw a sustained rise in global temperatures... Researchers have previously unearthed evidence that crops were domesticated at four important locations around the world. So China saw the cultivation of rice, while in the Middle East it was grains, in Central America...

The new story begins in Southeast Asian rice fields. The earliest known chicken remains come from Ban Non Wat, a dry rice–farming site in central Thailand that roughly dates to between 1650 B.C. and 1250 B.C. Dry rice farmers plant the crop on upland soil soaked by seasonal rains rather than in flooded fields or paddies. That would have made rice grains at Ban Non Wat fair game for avian ancestors of chickens.These fields attracted hungry wild birds called red jungle fowl. Red jungle fowl increasingly fed on rice grains, and probably grains of another cereal crop called millet, grown...

The study by James Gangwisch and colleagues in the department of psychiatry at Columbia University Medical Centre (CUMC) looked at the dietary glycemic index, glycemic load, types of carbohydrates consumed, and depression in data from more than 70,000 postmenopausal women who participated in the US National Institutes of Health's Women's Health Initiative Observational Study between 1994 and 1998. Scientists said that while carbohydrates consumption normally increases blood sugar levels, eating highly refined carbohydrates, such as white bread, rice and junk food, triggers a hormonal response that affects the glycemic index. This then exacerbates changes in a woman's mood and triggers...

On October 12th, the menu spotlights National Gumbo Day for food holidays. This heavily seasoned, stew-like dish fills us up on chilly fall days. #NationalGumboDay Originating in southern Louisiana during the 18th century, Gumbo typically consists of strongly-flavored stock with meat or shellfish, a thickener, and seasoned vegetables. The seasoned vegetables may include celery, bell peppers, and onions. In Cajun cuisine, the trio is known as the “holy trinity.” Most people serve Gumbo over rice. Gumbo also falls into different categories based on the following types of thickener used: African vegetable okra Choctaw spice filé powder (dried and ground sassafras...

This wasn’t supposed to happen. For months, I have been writing article after article about the rapidly growing global food crisis, but even though drought is devastating so many other crops all over the planet I thought that there would be plenty of rice in 2023. Unfortunately, I was wrong. As you will see below, some of the biggest rice producers in the entire world are being hit really hard, and rice production is going to be way below expectations this year. Of course rice is one of the primary staples that poor nations depend upon, and so this is...

It is regularly eaten by more than half the world's population. And now, it's been grown in microgravity, on board the newly launched Chinese Wentian space laboratory. Wentian launched in July and joined up with the Tianhe module of China's new space station. Its original complement of eight experiments included one that attempted to grow rice in microgravity. There were actually two types of rice launched as part of the experiment. A tall shoot variety reached almost 30 centimeters in the first month of growth, and a dwarf variety reached around 5 cm. Both of these growth amounts are on...

India has restricted exports of some varieties of rice, effective Friday, as the world's largest supplier tries to ensure domestic provisions amid global pressure on the food market. The government said it has prohibited exports of broken rice -- fragmented grains that are generally cheaper and more accessible to the poor. It has also imposed a 20% tax on export sales of some varieties, including husked brown rice and semi-milled or wholly milled white rice. The move comes amid concerns over lower rice production during the ongoing crop season as uneven monsoon rains have left some areas parched. Outside India,...

President Joe Biden’s staff continue trumpeting the president’s legislative victories but have allowed the president to disappear into his August vacation. Earlier this week, Biden appeared at the White House briefly to sign his massive green energy and health care bill but has not taken questions from reporters at the White House or appeared for any interviews to promote his agenda.

Food insecurity is rising globally because of the war in Ukraine, according to experts, with Africa expected to be hit the hardest. The world’s superpowers, China and the U.S., say they are trying to mitigate the fallout but at the same time are accusing each other of exacerbating the crisis. A state newspaper, The China Daily, placed blame for the situation partially on Washington, saying: “Food prices have reached an all-time high, as Russian and Ukrainian grain exports are hindered by port disruptions and Western sanctions.” The U.S., for its part, has accused China of hoarding, after President Xi Jinping...

After Rep. Tom Rice became the first electoral victim of Donald Trump's revenge campaign against the Republicans who voted to impeach him, a GOP colleague who had also backed the former President's impeachment reached out to the South Carolina lawmaker and attempted to console him. "I told him afterward, I said, 'So much for the adage that members of Congress are more concerned about their next election than their job here,'" retiring Rep. Fred Upton of Michigan recalled telling Rice, in a nod to the fact that his impeachment vote is likely what cost him in last week's Republican primary...

Former President Donald Trump has gone 1-for-2 in his endorsements of challengers to incumbent members of Congress from South Carolina. Rep. Tom Rice, one of just 10 House Republicans who voted to impeach Trump after the Capitol riot, has been defeated in a GOP primary by a Trump-backed challenger. According to a race call by The Associated Press, South Carolina state Rep. Russell Fry, who had Trump's endorsement, easily topped Rice, a five-term U.S. representative, giving Fry the 7th District's Republican nomination. In the 1st District, meanwhile, GOP Rep. Nancy Mace bested her Trump-supported challenger, according to the AP. Fry...

For more than a year, Democratic lawmakers and like-minded advocates have pleaded with Joe Biden to create a “gun czar” to address the epidemic of violence. Each time, the president’s team pushed back with force, contending it has the perfect person already in place, someone with command over the issue and extraordinary access to the president himself. That person is Susan Rice. As director of the Domestic Policy Council, Rice leads a team of roughly a dozen staffers examining ways to push through modest gun reforms should Congress again falter, and explore new executive orders even if lawmakers succeed. Her...

Representative Tom Rice (R-SC) said Sunday on ABC’s “This Week” that if the Republicans take the majority in Congress, Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) would make a “great” Speaker of the House. Rice was one of the ten Republican lawmakers who voted to impeach then-President Donald Trump.

All across California, residents are being told to scrimp and save water because of historic drought conditions. Meanwhile, state officials are dumping freshwater into the ocean while intentionally depriving rice farmers of the water they need to grow food. Colusa County in Northern California is the top producer of rice in the Sacramento Valley. The area generates more than 150,000 acres of rice in a normal year – but as you can probably tell by now, 2022 is anything but a normal year. Officials there say that only a fraction of the usual rice crop will be grown there this...

Campus Watch Research Originally published under the title "Georgetown University Whitewashes Islamism and Smears the West (again)." [Caption] Erdoan Shipoli (l) and John Esposito (r) of Georgetown Univ. use their positions to whitewash Islamism and attack Western civilization. Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was former President George W. Bush's "teacher at Yale," stated Erdoan A. Shipoli at an April 27 Georgetown University webinar. While Rice was indeed a child prodigy on the piano, her intellectual prowess was not quite so grand as to land her an Ivy League teaching position as an adolescent. Born in 1954, she was only...

White House domestic policy adviser Susan Rice said Monday that she had tested positive for COVID-19 — just five days after attending a meeting with President Biden. “I’m feeling fine and grateful to be vaccinated and double boosted,” Rice wrote on Twitter. “I last saw the President in person on Wednesday—masked—and under CDC guidance he is not considered a close contact.”

There's a weird trend going around, and it isn't a new TikTok dance, but rather food processing plants catching on fire. Since the beginning of this year, there have been a high number of food distributing and processing facilities catching on fire and creating massive damage. Why are so many food processing plants catching on fire? Social media and Twitter, in particular, are drawing attention to a trend occurring in numerous food processing plants — they are catching on fire. While some of them have been able to bounce back, others are stuck trying to rebuild and resume distributing goods,...

Following a tour of Conway Medical Center’s flagship hospital on Thursday, former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie stood side-by-side with U.S. Rep. Tom Rice and said the congressman had earned his support, friendship and endorsement. “Congressman Rice has an extraordinary conservative record that Republicans all over the country should be proud of,” Christie told reporters. The former Republican governor of a reliably blue state praised Rice for helping to create jobs in Horry County and across South Carolina’s 7th congressional district. Christie said such work has “been incredibly helpful to lift people out of poverty and give their families a...

Farmers in China, India, Bangladesh, Indonesia, and Vietnam — the largest rice-producing countries could experience reduced output due to soaring fertilizer prices. The International Rice Research Institute warns that harvests could plunge as much as 10% in the next season, equating to about 36 million tons of rice, or enough food to feed a half billion people, according to Bloomberg. Chemical fertilizers, such as nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium, are the most applied nutrients for high-yielding rice cultivation. Farmers have been particularly vulnerable to soaring fertilizer prices as some have reduced the amount of nutrients to save costs. This threatens future...