Save the Rice Paddies
Brookline, MA
2021, Senior, Creative Writing
When I visited my birthplace a few years ago, I was shocked to find decrepit housing and no electricity. These people were the definition of rural China and agricultural farming. Karst hills cascaded in front of me with the blue sky as the backdrop. The scenery looked like the picturesque tour guide photo. It was a place that is admired from the comfort of the car window, but where few would ever consider living. The closer we came to the mountains, the more evident the poverty was. Families stood on the side of the barely paved road and attempted to sell general store items. Clothes were washed in metal buckets and half-naked children pranced atop rubble. Houses were nothing more than dilapidated sheds, and the kitchen was in a small hut behind the house. Fire was their main tool of cooking. There was a stone mill powered by a donkey to grind flour. Despite all this, it was apparent that they were happy. They may have lacked the resources that many people take for granted, but they had maintained authenticity instead.
Out in the field, farmers were bent-double harvesting rice. Water buffalos were guided along narrow pathways, digging up the dirt for the rice to be planted. The sun beat down on the backs of these farmers, but they continued to work, masking their exhaustion. I saw a strength and determination in these laborers that I had never witnessed before. They woke up every morning to be out in the rice paddies by 7 a.m. At the beginning of the season, in the warm climates of the spring months, these farmers hacked away at the earth creating clean lines where the rice would be planted. Plants would have to be submerged six inches in water at the start of the rice season. But as the rice matured, the paddies would have to be drained and farmers would start harvesting the plants by hand with scythes and sickles. Long sweltering days would be spent outside getting the job done, with it taking 198-395 hours per acre to harvest the rice (Spiegel. 2014). I watched as the rice was harvested and the grains dislodged from the sheaves. To do this, farmers would slam the sheaves against wooden tables with holes. Once the grains fell out, the rice would be milled so it would further dry for storage and transportation.
China is the world’s largest rice producer and consumer. Rice makes up 90% of Southern China’s calorie intake (Anderson. 2021). China produces 49 varieties of rice, and in 2014 they produced more than 207 million tons of rice (International Rice Institute). This is enough rice to feed China and much of the world. Being Chinese, I personally know the significance of rice in daily meals. Almost anytime I eat Chinese food, rice is accompanied as a side. My family even has a rice cooker. Rice makes up every meal in Southern China, with people eating congee, a rice porridge, for breakfast; a bowl of rice with meat and vegetables for lunch; and 12-ounce bowls of rice alongside dinner (Anderson. 2021). Much of the world has a high dependency on rice, and it’s even part of Chinese culture.
But as sea levels rise, rice production gets affected. This image as I know it, this birthplace of mine that is immersed in nature in ways that much of the industrialized world is not, is slowly ceasing to exist as temperatures and sea levels rise. The Yangtze River and Yellow River are subject to tidal waves from sea level rise (Nguyen. 2002), and soil for growing rice is harmed as salt water contaminates the otherwise fresh water. This salt will stunt rice plants, roll plant leaves, and create white tips and grain sterility (Nguyen. 2002).
However, these aren’t the only impacts of rising sea levels; there are also adverse health effects due to flooding in paddies. As temperatures rise, arsenic levels increase in the soil. Rice plants will absorb the arsenic as floods loosen the soil (Tucker. 2019). If people are exposed to arsenic, they could develop skin lesions, cancer, and cardiovascular diseases (Word Health Organization).
Flooding also wipes away the months of hard work put into growing the crop. Unfortunately, flooded rice paddies are only one casualty. These small rural areas do not have robust infrastructures, so during flooding events, many parts of the village are destroyed and are unable to bounce back.
It’s a well-known fact that carbon emissions are one of the largest contributors to climate change. These villages lack electricity, having some of the lowest carbon footprints, yet they are the most susceptible to climate change. Already, lives are being upended around the world because of climate change affecting farming. Many of these people have grown up in these villages their entire life. They have built their community together. Many farmers don’t have a choice but to continue farming. Their daily routines are starting to become broken. Rising sea levels not only affects these communities directly, but they also start to affect the world because China is the largest producer of rice. If floods and rising sea levels prevent rice from being harvested, rice production will decrease, leaving millions hungry.
Diminished rice production has a ripple effect, and it harms at personal, local, national, and international levels. For me, even though I don’t live in Yiyang anymore, I still consider those villagers my people. It’s painful to think of my foster mother having to be displaced or no longer being able to work in the rice fields. How will I ever reach out to her if she relocates? It’s just as painful to think of the place of my roots being wiped away by devastating floods that are a direct result of people’s disregard for the planet.
Reflection
Growing up, I’ve always had a deep fascination with water and the depth of it. Anytime we’d pass a body of water, I’d ask “How deep is that?” My room's walls are still painted like the ocean from when I was in second grade. I love the ocean; it fascinates me. It also plays a huge role in climate change, and I’m aware that parts of the ocean (coral reefs and animals) are slowly starting to slip away. The effects of climate change are interconnected and expansive with rising sea levels, extreme weather, health effects, food security, habitat loss, etc. But I chose to write about socially vulnerable communities being affected in particular because it hits me on a personal level. I come from Yiyang, which is in Southeast-central China. This may not be where I live today, but I can’t help but feel shame in the ways that I’ve contributed to climate change. It doesn’t seem fair that people who are contributing the least to climate change have to suffer the most.