HEALTH

One of the world’s most important food crops may be declining in quality due to greenhouse gas emissions. (Scientific American)

Where is rice a staple food? Use our resources to find out.

Teachers, scroll down for a quick list of key resources in our Teachers Toolkit, including today’s MapMaker Interactive map of rice-producing nations.

Discussion Ideas

• The nutritional value of rice may fall as atmospheric carbon dioxide rises. Why is rice’s nutritional value important?
  • Rice is a staple food for more than two billion people around the world. A staple food is one that makes up the dominant part of a population’s diet. Food staples are eaten regularly—even daily—and supply a major proportion of a person’s energy and nutritional needs. Learn more about staple foods here, and nutrients here.
    • Rice is rich in carbohydrates, a macronutrient that is essential for human life. Carbohydrates provide the body with sugars, which are converted to energy used to support bodily functions and physical activity.
      • Other essential nutrients provided by rice include proteins, vitamins (vitamin B6, vitamin E and vitamin K1), and minerals (magnesium, phosphorus, zinc, manganese, thiamin, niacin).

 

• The new study seems to discredit the idea that rising levels of atmospheric carbon benefit plant growth. Why?
  • While increased atmospheric carbon can contribute to increased seed production, those seeds have lower nutritional value. “Bigger crops aren’t necessarily useful to human societies if they’re less nutritious.”
  • Increased levels of atmospheric carbon are just one of many climate factors that impact plant growth. Temperature, precipitation, the length of the growing season, and extreme weather events all influence crop yields and nutritional value.

 

• How might rice’s lower nutritional value impact populations that rely on it as a staple food?
  • The authors of the study caution that more research is needed to evaluate the real risks posed by an alteration in rice’s nutritional chemistry. Future studies might examine how much of each nutrient a person derives from rice, as opposed to other food sources.
  • Lower nutritional value of staple foods can put populations at risk for undernourishment. Learn more about undernourishment here.
    • Undernourishment can put people at risk “for a wide range of other adverse health outcomes, particularly stunting, diarrheal disease, and malaria.”
    • Undernourishment can have an especially dramatic impact on childhood development, contributing to stunting, wasting, and being underweight.

 

• What regional populations might be most impacted by a change in rice’s nutritional value?
  • “[T]he bulk of these changes, and the greatest degree of risk, will occur among the highest rice-consuming countries with the lowest GDP.”
    • Today, these countries are primarily found in Southeast Asia: Bangladesh, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Madagascar, Myanmar, and Vietnam. Developing countries with rising rice consumption include Guinea, Senegal, and Côte d’Ivoire.
    • The world’s biggest rice producers, China and India, are also the world’s biggest rice consumers. However, Chinese and Indian consumers are consistently relying on more diverse sources of nutrition and are in a better position to shift their dietary habits if rice becomes less nutritious.

 

TEACHERS TOOLKIT

Scientific American: As CO2 Levels Rise, Rice Becomes Less Nutritious

Nat Geo: Staple Food Crops of the World

Nat Geo: Rice Production

Nat Geo: What is a nutrient?

Nat Geo: The Paradox of Undernourishment

(extra credit!) Science Advances: Carbon dioxide (CO2) levels this century will alter the protein, micronutrients, and vitamin content of rice grains with potential health consequences for the poorest rice-dependent countries