Earth Equity News

A Food Revolution That Starts With Rice. By William J. Broad, NYTimes, June 17, 2008. "Norman T. Uphoff, [67, an emeritus professor of government and international agriculture,] working in a leafy corner of the Cornell University campus, is leading an inconspicuous [revolution]... The secret, he says, is a new way of growing rice... Harvests typically double, he says, if farmers plant early, give seedlings more room to grow and stop flooding fields. That cuts water and seed costs while promoting root and leaf growth. The method, called the System of Rice Intensification, or S.R.I., emphasizes the quality of individual plants over the quantity. It applies a less-is-more ethic to rice cultivation. In a decade, it has gone from obscure theory to global trend -- and encountered fierce resistance... Yet a million rice farmers have adopted the system... The rural army, [Uphoff] predicts, will swell to 10 million farmers in the next few years, increasing rice harvests, filling empty bellies and saving untold lives."