"Taiwan needs a campaign to promote rice consumption like the 'Got Milk?" campaign did for milk in the US"

Taiwan needs a campaign to promote rice consumption like the "Got Milk?" campaign has done for milk in the United States

When Koxinga arrived in Taiwan in 1661 to fight the Dutch, one of the first things he noticed was that the natives on the island were all busily growing and harvesting rice. Actually, it wasn't the large-grained variety of rice known as 'dao-mi' 稻米which the mainlanders were used to. Instead, it was the smaller-grained millet or 小米, and Koxinga quickly brought in seeds from mainland China to grow 'real' rice on the fertile western plain of Taiwan.

250 years later a different kind of observers landed on the shores of Taiwan and again found it lacking in suitable strains of rice. This time it was the Japanese, who took control of island at the end of the Sino-Japanese War in 1895. The Japanese found the Taiwanese strain of rice indica, which the Taiwanese referred to as tsailaimi在來米 or 'locally-grown rice'.  In 1926 the Japanese administration introduced a new strain of rice from Japan, which it called penglai rice蓬萊米to help differentiate it from Japanese-grown rice when it was shipped back to Japan.

The Japanese Occupation of Taiwan ended in 1945 with the conclusion of the Second World War, and after the Japanese withdrew Taiwan began to feel the influence of an entirely different kind of people, members of a culture in which rice was a much less important part of the culture. With inroads by the culture of the Americans and Europeans, the eating habits of more and more Taiwanese began to shift slightly away from rice-based foods and more toward products made using wheat and other grains.

So what is the situation with rice in Taiwan now? Rice is still an essential part of the diet in Taiwan, as shown in the fact that the average consumption of rice is currently about two bowls a day. But this is a far cry from what the levels have been in the past. Taiwan's per capita consumption in 2007 was 50.2 kilograms. Compare that with the 134 kilograms consumed in 1974 and it's easy to see that rice occupies a considerably smaller part of the diet now than it did less than two decades ago. This is a trend that is also taking place almost everywhere in Asia and throughout the rice-eating world, but it is much more pronounced in Taiwan.

Much of this has come with changes in lifestyle habits as people look for speed and convenience in everything they do - including what they eat. There are plenty of places to get fast food with rice, with everything from Japanese chain stores selling domburi to local diners with lunch boxes and rice dishes ready to go. But they compete increasingly with Western-style fast food outlets offering fried chicken and hamburgers, further contributing to the decline in rice consumption, especially among the younger generation.

How have these upstarts managed to make such inroads into the diets of Taiwanese, particularly in light of the long history of rice as a staple food? After all, the latest findings in China indicate that domestication of rice took place in an area along the Yangtze River in central China as long as 11,000 years ago. This means that for 11,000 years people have been cultivating, harvesting and eating rice and figuring out ways to make it easier to grow and better tasting, and using it to make everything from wine to glue to paper.

What kinds of rice are there anyway? There are basically three main varieties of rice on the market in Taiwan: xian mi秈米 or common rice; geng mi粳米 or non-glutinous rice; and nuo-mi糯米 or glutinous rice. The latter, glutinous rice is very sticky when cooked and is used to make the Chinese New Year specialty nian-gao, mochi and the zongzi associated with the Dragon Boat Festival, as well as rice cakes and even the gooey lumps in the wildly popular 'pearl tea'. Common rice is dryer and includes varieties such as indica rice; it is suitable for making rice flour, rice noodles, turnip cakes and the 'planks' of Hakka cuisine, and for cooking up fried rice. Non-glutinous rice is in between the other two types in stickiness and includes japonica rice; this is the 'white rice' that is served with most meals.

Rice is also classified according to the type or amount of milling it undergoes before reaching the user. The amount of nutrition delivered is usually affected by the amount of milling involved. There are three categories: rough rice 糙米, brown rice 胚芽米 and white rice白米. Rough rice is the rice as it appears after husking, with no further processing. Brown rice is what is left after a brief polishing, and white rice is produced by milling away the brownish outer layer of bran from the grain. A full slate of milling leaves white rice about 70% of the original size of the grain. Although it makes for bright, fluffy cooked rice, white rice is inferior to both brown rice and rough rice in terms of nutrition. For example, 100 milligrams of rough rice has about one milligram of fiber while brown rice has 0.4mg and white rice only 0.12mg, about one-ninth the original amount of fiber. Although fiber has no caloric value, it helps to stimulate the lower intestine and promotes bowel movements. It also helps prevent cancer of the colon, helps avoid constipation and helps prevent hemorrhoids and other diseases of the lower intestinal tract

There are also significant variations in the amount of vitamins delivered by the three types of processed rice. 100 grams of rough rice contains 0.54 mg of vitamin B1, while brown rice has 0.3mg and white rice only 0.12mg, the latter only about one-fifth of the original content. Vitamin B1 is a type of vitamin B, and insufficient amounts of vitamin B1 in the diet can lead to diseases such as beriberi. Beriberi causes blisters and can affect the nervous system and can even lead to ulcers, festering and death if not properly treated.

Rice is a very important part of the diet and the culture of Taiwan. Yet rice and the rice industry are facing increasing pressure from changing economic and social conditions, and the problems are mounting. Rice farming is less attractive than before because the government no longer offers many of the incentives and supports it provided in the past. The average age of rice farmers is going up, as are land prices and labor costs. Many of the advantages Taiwan enjoyed in the past in producing rice have disappeared, including low labor costs, land availability and easy access to water. Current producer prices in Taiwan are about three times those found in the United States.

Still, many farmers are reluctant to give up their rice fields. They may be forced to add other crops or even devote part of their fields to cash crops like betel nut palms or yams, but they have grown rice for centuries and their irrigation systems are designed for rice production. They have the skills and tools which have been perfected over the millennia, and they still account for more than 40 percent of the farms in Taiwan.

Another form of pressure comes from Taiwan's entry into the WTO, which opened up the market to imports of rice from abroad. Fortunately the impact on the rice market has not been as severe as what was seen in areas like rice wine or locally produced rum, where prices went up five and six-fold almost overnight when WTO membership took place. Many different types of imported rice are now available in Taiwan, ranging from aromatic or jasmine rice from Thailand - the world's number one exporter of rice - to Japan's vaunted koshihikari rice strains. Prices on these varieties of rice vary greatly, with koshihikari demanding up to NT$250 per kilogram while California rice from the US and Thailand's jasmine go for NT$50 per kilo, putting them in competition with one of Taiwan's highest priced strains, the Taikeng Number 9. Importers have fiddled with prices and juggled brand names to make these imported products more attractive to local consumers. For example, one import house bills koshihikari as 'the rice eaten by the Emperor'. The Japanese kanji for koshihikari is 越光米; the importer changed the name to 月光米, using the character for 'moon' to lend a more romantic feeling to the product.

Of course trade is a two-edged sword, and Taiwan has made modest progress in exporting its own varieties of rice to other countries. Taiwan's Chihshan rice was developed by the Taitung District Agricultural Research and Extension Station (TDARES), one of seven such regional agricultural research centers under the cabinet-level Council of Agricultural Affairs. Chihshan rice has won numerous awards and is well-known throughout Taiwan, and proved to be popular with consumers when introduced to Japan in early 2007. Chihshan rice is grown in an ideal natural environment with a moderate climate, fertile soil, and high quality water for irrigation, and TDARES continues to improve its agricultural technologies for the planting and cultivation of rice.

At the same time, Taiwan is fighting fire with fire. Japan's koshihikari rice has been introduced to Taiwan and is already produced in many different places including Xi-lo in Yunlin County, in Miaoli County and Taitung County, and also in Wu-jie township of Yi-lan County on the East Coast. Koshihikari rice grown in Yi-lan's Wu-jie township has been judged best in Taiwan in several rice contests.

Contests are one method being used by government agencies at all levels to promote rice consumption, raise awareness of the types and brands of rice that are available, and to encourage farmers to use the varieties of rice that grow well and will be accepted by consumers. The activities are too numerous to count, including the Taiwan Rice Festival organized by the Council of Agriculture as well as the Annual National Rice Competition, the Quality Taiwan Rice Autumn Fair, and an online event called the 'Popular Rice Delicacy Shop' which invites visitors to cast votes for shops featuring products that use high-grade rice as a main ingredient.

Another area where rice is making some headway is, perhaps surprisingly, in the area of fast foods. The Japanese chain Mos Burger is opening new outlets all over Taiwan these days, with part of the impetus coming from patrons who like the hamburger buns made with rice, barley and millet. Mos Burger's success in Taiwan led McDonald's to introduce its own version of rice buns for the Taiwan market, selling more than five million of the burgers in the first six months. Although it has not been played up in publicity, the McDonald's rice bun relies heavily on home-grown ingredients, in particular Taikeng No. 9 rice grown in Miaoli County.

In some ways, then, rice is down, but not out. Rice will always be the backbone of the Taiwanese diet, and Taiwan will always produce enough. The problem is encouraging people to continue to eat rice and to maintain a healthy diet. High levels of rice consumption will ensure that enough rice is grown in Taiwan for the island to remain self-sufficient and that farmers and researchers continue to work together to develop and grow varieties of rice that are easy to produce and offer high nutrition.

Government agencies like the Council of Agriculture are working to promote rice production and consumption through the activities named above. Perhaps the COA and other involved agencies should take a leaf from the notebooks of the California Milk Processors Board, which hired a San Francisco advertising agency to develop a campaign for them in 1993. The result was the 'Got Milk?' series of advertisements which is still running and still drawing support from athletes, models and celebrities eager to show off their milk moustaches. Why can't Taiwan come up with a similar campaign to draw attention to the benefits of rice?