BETWEEN HISTORY AND LEGEND
Eat your rice, the rest will take care of Heaven.
Today, China produces about one billion seven hundred million tons of rice. The amount is large. However, it is one third of annual world production now tending to five billion tons.
The rice in the world
The arrival in Italy
Gian Galeazzo Sforza, Duke of Milan in 1475 sent a gift to the dukes of Ferrara some rice seed, he emphasized the ability of multiplication of the cereal of eastern origin: each sack of seed is transformed into twelve sacks of rice.
Spend, however, some decades before the rice ("Renaissance crop" such as maize and potatoes, which were received in Europe following the discovery of America) is able to establish itself permanently in the Po Valley.
Only in mid-1500 will increase from 5 000 to 50 000 hectares. And only in 1690, settlers arrived from Europe will begin to grow rice in South Carolina
First in Europe
The annual production exceeds 11 million tons of paddy, accounting for 0.25 percent of world production. From each hectare are obtained on average 55-60 pounds of paddy while in the last century were hardly exceeded 24 tons.
The internal market needs 4 millions and half, the other countries of the EEC 3 million and non-EU countries, fewer than four million of quintals. Italy is very active with regard to exports, it is part of the international trade of rice, accounting for 5% of the global harvest.
The origins of Java
The rice plants have originated in Java or Cambodia. The Egyptians didn't know nor the Bible mentions it. Instead, the Greeks and Romans knew of its existence, however, considered the cereal a spice. Pliny the Elder wrote in his "Natural History" that had fleshy leaves. Theophrastus and Strabo were more accurate.
The rice journey from East to West has mysterious sides . Perhaps Alexander the Great it became known in Greece.
It is likely that in Italy they has been introduced by Arabs. Other versions will give credit to the Venetians.
As documented in a "Book of the expenditure" of the Dukes of Savoy, the rice was already sold in Turin in 1300. During the Middle Ages was also grown in the botanical edges of monastic orders. The monks of Monte Cassino would have studied and have selected the first seed for crops, thereby initiating its success in the West as a food with extraordinary nutritional properties.