To agree that Indians should keep their rice.

[orangeleavesinautumn]

Of course Indians should not be going hungry while the rest of the world eats the rice they have grown- that is madness.

They should keep and eat their own rice, and the rest of the world should eat something else - we have other cheap food in the UK, carrots, potatoes, bread, etc - we absolutely do not need to be eating Indian rice while Indians have nothing to eat.

I understand there is a problem where other populations rely on cheap rice imports, but we don't so I can't understand why anyone in the UK feels hard done by missing out on non premium rice

Aberdeen Angus is Scottish unit english

we never eat rice in my home. have some but, is mainly all other carbohydrates

Aberdeen Angus is a breed of cattle. It might be from anywhere. See also Belted Galloway, Highland etc.

Probably not correct - (had to research this for a book once). The one acre per person is what’s needed for our current lifestyle, but - post Green Revolution- we wouldn’t starve if we had to stop food imports. We probably would be looking at a WW2 style ‘Dig for Victory’ campaign, eating a lot less meat and maybe rationing.

Kenneth Mellanby did the initial research back in 1975. Simon Farlie has also come to the same conclusion.

Agree countries need to look after themselves first but won't they suffer financially if they don't sell to other countries?

It is over 200 years since the UK was self-sufficient in food.

There are people alive today who can remember food rationing during WW2 - and afterwards too, as food rationing did not end until 1954, almost 9 years after the end of the war.

Since then, although crop yields and animal yields have increased so has the population, and during WW2 every available plot of land was used for growing food, including public parks, and there was still a need for rationing. And where there were once green fields and market gardens there are now housing estates, ring roads, B&Q and Tesco's and their accompanying car parks so there is far less land available for crops and pasture than there was 70 years ago.

Here's a picture of the WW2 adult ration for a week:

Yes sorry should have said UK!

there are indians all over the world,
should they go without rice?

At least a third of the population are obese, so that balances out nicely 😀

They can afford and eat basmati.

That's really interesting, during rationing was the price of food dictated by the government as well? It just feels like nowadays if we were even in a similar situation the price of food would sky rocket and only the well off would be able to afford the good stuff.

That is really shocking 😮

Maybe they should stop spending money on trying to get a rocket to the moon if people are starving???

I only buy basmati so I'm not part of the problem I guess.

Just Indians or Bangladeshi and Pakistani folk too??

The real problem will be poor parts of Africa.

Without rice from India and grain from Ukraine, there will be food shortages.

I don’t disagree in theory, although food trade is of course complex: but perhaps you should also tell India that they need to start thinking about their local ecology in terms of their population too. It is one of the few places in the northern hemisphere where their population is still increasing and likely to do so in the foreseeable future. They then export that population, who then help to increase (note help to, obviously other factors are driving demand in the west) the demand for rice from other countries.

Perhaps you could also tell India to focus on women’s rights and poverty, while they are researching nuclear weapons and sending rockets to the moon.

That's just the rationed food though, doesn't include veg and other non rationed foodstuffs. Which maybe is your point, but some people might not realise.

Anyway, here and now - one thing for sure, the population of the U.K. as a whole could do with eating (and wasting) less carbs, from whatever source.

That’s not all people had to eat for a week though. Vegetables weren’t rationed, not were plenty of other things. So you can add things like apples, carrots, cabbage, marrows, berries and potatoes to that picture, and bread of course. As well as at times various different tinned goods as there were food imports at times. Not exactly luxurious but nobody starved during the war. That’s what rationing was for.

That’s ww2 picture is of the rationed items quantity though. Things like potatoes were unlimited.

I grow lots of my own. Not sure I could fit a paddy field in my front garden though. Or live in the right climate.

Thanks, I thought it'd be something like that.

It’s also a non-negotiable fact that the UK does not produce enough food for its current levels of population, nor can it do so.

I'm not aware of this situation as I try to avoid news as much as possible nowadays.
but yes India should definitely ensure its own population is well supplied with rice first the export any excess. I hate how countries like ours UK have become so reliant on imported foods and we are no longer self sufficient. we'd be screwed and all starve if war broke out or some major world disaster and we could no longer get the imports. why the hell do we need things such as spuds,carrots etc to be grown abroad when it can be done here and would probably be much fresher and better quality.

India's population boom is a thing of the past and fallen below replacement level. India’s population will start to shrink sooner than expected (economist.com)

Its space programme is the most economical in the world, and one of its space missiles cost less than it cost to produce the movie "Gravity".

As well as at times various different tinned goods as there were food imports at times.

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