Life cycle of the whole food

How is this product used in our society?

How are all the materials harvested and prepared?
How are people involved in its production or processing?
What are all the ways it is consumed?
Consider both the ingredients and the manufacturing process.
What packaging and shipping is needed?
Is this a globalized product?

How is this product used in our society?

-A major food source in global food consumption.

How are all the materials harvested and prepared?

-The mill first processes grains of rough rice by using sorting machines the strips the
kernels and brush away unwanted particles like dirt and dust. Then the hull is
removed leaving the grains with only bran layers on them, this is brown rice. This
layer can also be removed revealing the white rice.
-Detailed
Pre-cleaning
Dehusking or dehulling
Paddy separation
Whitening or polishing
Grading and separation of white rice
Mixing
Mist polishing
Weighing of rice
Packaging

How are people involved in its production or processing?

-In some smaller countries with low rates of industrialized farming many manual
labour are required for the harvest and the production.
-In some parts of China many rice plants are planted by hand.
-Children sometimes are also involved in the planting of the rice plants.
-Long term working in the rice paddies can result in chronic back pain as it is
required for the farmer to bend by their waist all day long.
-In mechanized production people are usually just there to maintain and supervise
the machines.
-Sometimes before packing a manual inspection will occur checking the product for
quality.

What are all the ways it is consumed?-(Ricepedia)

-Steamed in pots and consumed with stir fry and other food.
-Grinded and made into rice cakes and rice noodles.
-Rice flower cake and dumpling.
-Rice crackers
-Rice milk

Consider both the ingredients and the manufacturing process.

-Rice is a raw food material, it is usually involved in the manufacturing in other

foods.
-Farming of rice plants are now mostly mechanized.

What packaging and shipping is needed?

-Most rice packaged are in plastic bag although some are also package in traditional
woven plant fiber bags.
-Most packaging machinery are maintained manually .
-When shipping overseas the containers usually include 80% white rice and 20%
paddy rice.
-With a mix rice ration it is plausible to keep the rice dry.

Is this a globalized product?

-Yes, rice now has coverage over 81,000,000 hectares of land worldwide.
-Rice originally was most produced by China and fellow Asian countries but now is
produced and exported worldwide.
-More than 3.5 billion people depend on rice for their daily calorie intake.
-India is currently the top exporter of rice followed by Thailand, Vietnam and
Pakistan.
-The top importers of rice are Saudi Arabia, China, Iran.

Environment - What is the impact on the environment? Is its production sustainable

in the long term? How are all the materials harvested and prepared? Are there
typically herbicides, fungicides, pesticides, fertilizers, hormones, antibiotics, etc
used? Where does this take place? What is the impact on the environment? How is
the product or the remnants of it disposed of?

Pesticides
Herbicides
Hormones
Fungicides
Fertilizers
Deforestation
Water

Impact on the environment

-The traditional way of farming requires 3000-5000 liters of water to yield on kilo of
rice.
-In California more than 40 types of pesticides were discovered to be treating rice
crops. -(Panna)
-Aggressive expansion for rice and palm oil in Southeast Asia have cause Mangrove
deforestation.

Economy

-Rice is the most important food for the food consumption of the developing world.
-With better technologies and farming methods more rice can be produced at a
cheaper price helping to relive poverty around the world.

Social
-Rice farming includes many occupational hazards, including skin infection and
fungal/parasitic infestation.
-Some developing countries uses child labor as a means to plant, and harvest rice.
-The cost of farming is significantly reduced as more effective methods are
introduced.
-Usually the wages for the worker are paid in minimum wage or in some case paid in
partial of the harvest.
-Rice farming creates thousands of job worldwide and is usually considered a low
skill requirement job.

-Due to the fact that rice farming does not require schooling and higher education
rice farming serves as alternative for over more complicated work.
-This provides an abundance of jobs for developing countries.