If you were to place all the rice consumed each year on one side of a scale, and every person in the world on the other, the scale would tip heavily towards rice's favor.
This beloved crop contributes over 20% of the calories consumed by humans each year.
Korean bibimbap, Nigerian jollof, Indian biryani, Spanish paella, and countless other culinary masterpieces all begin with rice.
So how did this humble grain end up in so many cuisines?
The roots of rice go back thousands of years to when early farmers in Asia, Africa, and South America each independently domesticated the crop.
First came Asian rice, which many plant geneticists believe originated in what's now China.
Over 10,000 years ago, nomadic hunters in the region began gathering and eating seeds from a weedy grass.
Then, around 9,000 years ago, they started planting these seeds, prompting nomadic hunters to settle into farming communities.
With each harvest, growers selected and replanted seeds from the rice plants that pleased them most — like those with bigger and more plentiful grains or aromatic flavors.
Over millennia, thousands of varieties of Asian rice emerged.
