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Dismissed as a joke, UK's first rice crop ripe for picking after hot summer
- ggm 1y agoPaddy fields aren't the only way to grow rice, you can do rows and flood soil alongside, you can do upland style dry fields rice planting. I guess the point of the experiment was with climate and increasing flooded landscape (like the fens?) But the risk would be salt incursion as much as anything else. If it's climate (temperature) alone, it didn't need paddy fields. I think a lot of Australian rice is irrigated but not full flooded fields, or a reduced flood compared to traditional approaches. More amenable to massive fields and a water storage system. Recently saw a cotton farm at St George and the (huge!) fields are groomed with a laser level to control for irrigation flow, I think they do the same for rice, when it makes sense.
- zeristor 1y agoI think the article pointed out that wet fields help preserve the fenlands peat. If it dries out it shrinks, and the organic content is consumed generating CO₂
- zeristor 1y agoAfter manually searching for the 2 subscript I found out one can install and use a scientific keyboard. K₂SO₄ - not the imperial droid
- dotancohen 1y agoCompletely OT, but which scientific keyboard did you choose? I was somewhat expecting to find a scientific layout for Gboard.
- zeristor 1y agoSciKey on the iPhone. The free version works OK, and for 99p it can do something fancy, I’m not sure what though. Subscripts especially for CO₂, has been irksome for me for ages.
- HPsquared 1y agoI just use Google for obscure Unicode characters or emojis. Usually there's a result I can copy / paste. https://www.google.com/search?q=2+subscript+unicode https://www.google.com/search?q=2+subscript+unicode
- rob_c 1y agore-naturalising them also helps preserve them. That should be getting a higher priority if that's the concern
- mytailorisrich 1y agoIt's just a climate issue to grow rice outdoor in England. Rice is grown in Southern France and Northern Italy. So it is unsurprising that this may be moving North, as summers het warmer, and this summer was almost Mediterranean in England.
- stavros 1y agoAnd it was Saharan in the Mediterranean.
- ryangibb 1y agoEly (a few miles south of this project) used to be an island with a large eel fishing industry, from which it derives it's name. The Fens were drained in the 17th century with help from Dutch engineers, and I believe much of the area is now below sea level; the river Ouse is raised above the surrounding land with embankments. I've ran past some of the pumping stations on the Roman lodes myself: https://www.openstreetmap.org/way/125065713 https://www.openstreetmap.org/way/125065713 I wonder what the risk is of rising sea levels to this project?
- ljf 1y agoEast Anglia and Cambridgeshire are both highly at risk from rising sea levels - we might see the effects in our lifetimes. https://cambridgeshirepeterborough-ca.gov.uk/news/new-climate-report-finds-time-running-out-to-save-the-fens/ https://cambridgeshirepeterborough-ca.gov.uk/news/new-climat...
- eru 1y ago> The Fens were drained in the 17th century with help from Dutch engineers, [...] Fun fact: the English tried to drain the fens a few times on their own, but only succeeded once someone had the bright idea to involve the Dutch.
- db48x 1y agoAnd the technology got better, and everyone got richer, and the population was higher, and…
- deleted 1y ago[deleted]
- zkmon 1y agoRice crop requires climate, soil, water, fertilizers, good seeds and machinery. In India, the second crop for rice is grown through the winter which is not much warmer than British summer. Also England has black soils with less sand, which are good for rice. Looks like all conditions are met.
- dotancohen 1y agoIsn't rice very labor-intensive? Didn't the Brits just recently get rid of their cheap(er) labor?
- eru 1y agoWell, if they keep up their economic policies, the price of labour will drop all by itself.
- rob_c 1y agoDon't worry, Id cards will fix it
- zkmon 1y agoRecent advances in farm machinery reduced dependency on labour significantly, even in Asian villages. I was shocked to see drones doing fertilizer and pesticide spraying in the remote villages that do not even have proper roads and drinking water.
- dotancohen 1y agoWhich country was this? Thailand?
- zkmon 1y agoIndia. The drones (and other farm machinery) are operated on rental, not owned by farmers. There is hardly any farm worker available in villages, due to migration to towns and cities.
- contrarian1234 1y ago> We often think of rice as a tropical plant, but it does grow in colder climates. ..? Is Japan and Korea tropical for the British? The BBC seems to love to ram in a climate change narrative in every possible hole it can find. While it's a serious problem, trying to fit it into every story just starts to make me skeptical of every climate change related things they report It probably has a lot less to do with air temperature and more to do with amount of precipitation and humidity. You also don't have bamboo growing in Europe or the Mediterranean. It's not because it's not hot enough in Italy or Egypt Just look at some other BBC article and they explain there is a impending water shortage in Britain. https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cj939kpnvx8o https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cj939kpnvx8o
- remyp 1y agoHumans are lazy and bad at preventing long-term problems. We need to be reminded frequently, otherwise we get complacent and take naps instead of saving our species.
- ebisoka 1y agoYes propaganda only works when used frequently
- dotancohen 1y agoI would rephrase that as anything repeated frequently enough is perceived as true, no matter it's merits.
- contrarian1234 1y agoThis is why there is a global crisis of confidence in science. B/c science is constantly portrayed as a tool to push agendas and policies (that are maybe even necessary) and not an exploration of facts. It's done so blatantly and transparently that anyone with a skeptical mind is just turned off by the whole thing This isn't an indictment of science or scientists, but of science reporting. If the story is climate-change related then it's reported. If it's not, then they find some climate change related angle. If they can't then the story is usually dropped.
- zeristor 1y agoThere’s a UK Centre for Hydrology, and Ecology video to go along with this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UklW0ELgaME https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UklW0ELgaME
- londons_explore 1y agoRice isn't a very profitable crop unless you either have super cheap labour (not in the UK) or massive fields and lots of automation. The UK has small fields and complex land ownership arrangements which mean the 100,000 acre farms of the USA won't happen there. Overall, I think that unless the UK wants to subsidize rice production or use big Japan-like rice import tariffs, the rice industry is dead-in-the-water. Maybe there's a little market for restaurants and high value products which want to advertise 'under 100 food miles' or similar. But such things tend to be very economically inefficient, so the government would be wise to discourage such production.
- RandomLensman 1y agoWhy should the goverment discourage such production instead of leave people free to pursue it? Do you expect (high) social costs from a failure there?
- xyzzy123 1y agoFarming sector in the UK was heavily subsidised in the past, not sure of today or what if any support rice farmers might be able to get. I agree it shouldn't be "discouraged" (as a private enterprise) but it seems reasonable to debate whether they should receive subsidies or grants etc. EDIT: this looks more like research than production, so I think it makes sense for it to be supported by grants.
- eru 1y agoFarming sector as a whole is heavily subsidised in most of Europe, but that doesn't mean everything you do as a farmer (and every crop) is subsidised. Eg potatoes grown for eating are almost completely unregulated and unsubsidised in the EU. Similar with grapes grown for eating. In comparison with potatoes grown for starch and wine grown for grapes. It's crazy.
- swores 1y agoTo be fair, without subsidies only fools would grow wine for grapes! (Sorry, just my way of pointing out a minor typo. If you edit without replying to me I'll delete this.)
- rob_c 1y agoAh rice that cheap crop that requires lots of farm land and without golden rice is leaving certain vitamins... Yes _that_ is the product you choose to grow. Not idk products popular amongst British customers...
- zeristor 1y agoDo you mean frozen oven ready chips?
- rsynnott 1y ago> Not idk products popular amongst British customers... ... Are you under the impression that rice isn't popular in the UK?
- rob_c 1y agothere's absolutely no shortage in such a saturated market. Besides I'm referring to the british who just use the white plastic as a side for kormas, vindaloo or a rice pudding. Pretending this is economically viable is short sighted at extreme best.
- hinkley 1y agoWhy is this a surprise? I think people have forgotten that the First Nations people near Lake Superior had rice as their staple crop. Growing wild in the shallows of lakes and ponds. Reseeded by being intentionally sloppy with the harvest. If it can grow in Minnesota it sure as fuck can grow in the UK.
- nkurz 1y agoThe wild rice grown near the Great Lakes (Zizania palustris) is an entirely different species than the rice typically eaten elsewhere (Oryza sativa). There is no particular reason to presume that both can be grown in the same environment.
- graemep 1y agoThat is a different, albeit closely related, genus. I wonder whether that might grow well in the UK.
- hinkley 1y agoIt’s been a bit since I was offered wild rice in a dish but is out there in the culinary repertoire. Not going to be used for making sushi or curry of course, but it has a place, and could have more. 50% more protein, but unfortunately still 0% vitamin A.
- catchcatchcatch 1y ago[dead]
- vachina 1y agoWelcome to the Ricefields - Pink guy
- joecool1029 1y agoRice is grown in New Jersey as well, it's just expensive (they do the dry field type): https://bluemoonacres.com/rice/ https://bluemoonacres.com/rice/ Also apparently in New York: https://cals.cornell.edu/news/2019/10/can-rice-be-grown-new-yorks-climate https://cals.cornell.edu/news/2019/10/can-rice-be-grown-new-...