Rice of the prairies-oat that is like rice

[shootingstar]

Farmer created an oat that looks and tastes like rice in Manitoba. Doesn't require fields to flood to grow.

http://www.thestar.com/living/food/article/888360--farmer-grows-rice-of-the-prairies

Apparently low-glycemic too.

[zoom-zoom]

That sound fabulous! I will definitely be keeping my eyes open for that. :D

[smilingcat]

rice plant does not need to be flooded for it to grow or grow well.

The reason for the paddies is to kill competing grass and weed. Rice plant is able to tolerate drowning far better than the competition. By flooding, you weed less.

This info is from a book titled "One Straw Revolution" by Masanobu Fukuoka

[Eden]

Is flooding necessarily bad? - From what I understand aquaculture can occur in rice fields too - sometimes carp in the east, down in Louisiana they grow crawfish in the fields after the rice is harvested. With the crawdads, they are grown in the opposite season from the rice and feed on the stubble. They fertilize the field naturally for the next season. It seems like a good use of farm land.

[DebW]

Rice paddies produce methane when flooded, a major anthropogenic greenhouse gas. Methane concentrations in the atmosphere have been rising steadily since rice field flooding became the standard practice in Asia in around 5000 years ago. This increase in atmospheric methane, well before CO2 began increasing dramatically in the industrial era, has almost certainly affected world climate, possibly forestalling another ice age. See works by Ruddiman and others.

[tulip]

Cows in India produce tons and tons of methane. Rice has been grown in the traditional (flooded fields) way for millennia. Climate change hasn't been an issue until the last 100 years.

The real problem is that there are too many people on the planet. But I digress...back to your oats.

[shootingstar]

Cows in India produce tons and tons of methane. Rice has been grown in the traditional (flooded fields) way for millennia. Climate change hasn't been an issue until the last 100 years.

The real problem is that there are too many people on the planet. But I digress...back to your oats.

Gosh, I never knew such an interesting thread would result.

No, flooding for farming is not a bad thing, if there are nearby sources of water to do this without a ton of human effort. Just for northern temperate areas it gets more complicated, because of freezing. :o That's why the article caught my eye. We just get wild rice in the northern climates, which is not the same as other rice varieties.

I didn't know smilingcat, about rice not needing flooding.

[Catrin]

rice plant does not need to be flooded for it to grow or grow well.

The reason for the paddies is to kill competing grass and weed. Rice plant is able to tolerate drowning far better than the competition. By flooding, you weed less.

This info is from a book titled "One Straw Revolution" by Masanobu Fukuoka

Interesting, I had no idea. It makes sense...

[OakLeaf]

Cattle in India produce some methane (just as human bodies do), but not nearly as much as feedlot cattle in the USA. The real problem is that cattle can't really digest corn, yet it's most of what they're fed in feedlots. The carbon footprint of grass-finished beef (as well as the lipid profile for human consumption) is much healthier.

[smilingcat]

I'm tickled pink with this thread. :D :D

Lots of fun facts!!