The first documented account of rice was by a Chinese emperor about 2,800 BC and it continues to be an integral part of Chinese life and cuisine. This is probably why the Chinese word for rice is the same as the word for food, and instead of asking, “How are you?” they ask “Have you had your rice today?”

But rice has made its mark around the world, not only in China. The Thais say, “Come eat rice,” when they call their families for dinner and is also the first food a new Indian bride offers her husband. Furthermore, in the cold lands of the north, the Finns count the number of rice grains in the bride’s hair to predict how many children they’ll have.

Rice is also a symbol of life and fertility, which is why, in some parts of the world, it's thrown as confetti at weddings.

Cultivation and consumption:

Rice has its own unique way of flourishing. It thrives in flooded fields and even in the dry lands of South America. Around the world, 150 million hectares of land are devoted to growing rice. In fact, the only continent where rice is not grown is Antarctica. There are more than 40 000 different varieties of rice and over 29 000 grains of rice in just 500g of long grain rice, and, besides being used in beer, dog food, baby food, breakfast cereals, snacks, frozen foods and sauces, rice also helps to feed two-thirds of the world's population.