Green - An environmentalist community

Basically ideas:

• Rice consumption and production in Asia is enormous (surprise!)
• Productivity jumped a while ago with the introduction of new strains and farming methods, but that has slowed in recent years. Credit goes to overuse of pesticides, fertilizer, and irrigation poisoning soil; urbanization; and global warming.
• Rice paddies contribute directly to global warming through methane from bacteria and indirectly through deforestation.
• Rice, especially white rice, is not very nutritious, leading to both malnutrition and diabetes.

Policy makers could help in a few ways:

• Provide crop insurance instead of overgenerous subsidies on rice production. This will help farmers switch over to new growing methods and seeds that resolve the above issues.
• Switch to new grains that are more nutritious and have a lower environmental impact. India and Indonesia are already in the midst of doing this.
• Stop buying rice and redistributing it for free. Instead, provide income support for farmers and cash transfers for poor people. This allows them to try out alternative grains.