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People have been eating rice for more than 5,000 years, archeologists believe. From its origin in China, rice spread across Asia and to Europe, but its arrival in North America was an accident.
More than 300 years ago, a ship bound for England with a cargo of rice hit a storm in the Atlantic Ocean and was forced to limp into Charleston, S.C. The ship’s captain gave a gift of rice seed to a local planter. As it turned out, South Carolina proved an ideal place to grow rice, with its flat, fertile fields.
The U.S.A. Rice Federation offers two booklets that teach those and other facts about rice: “Facts About Rice” and “Teaching the Fun Way With Rice,” a children’s activity and cookbook. For copies, send a self-addressed, stamped envelope for each publication to Facts About U.S. Rice, The Rice Council, P.O. Box 740123, Houston, TX 77274.
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