Rice has been feeding us for over 7,000 years. The first rice cultivation is hard to pin down, but is thought to have originated in the region stretching from southern China across Thailand and Burma to Assam.
In Myanmar (formerly Burma), the average person consumes around 310 pounds (140kgs) of rice a year. In Canada we only average 18 pounds (8kgs) per person, per year due to a much more diversified diet.
In India, rice is associated with prosperity and with the Hindu goddess of wealth, Lakshmi.
