A Word About Rice

For millions of people, maybe even billions rice forms the staple of their diet. With the rapid expansion of the Chinese economy, the population is is booming, and despite controversial efforts by the Chinese government to control this population growth, the demand for food in this part of the world is increasing. Now would be a bad time to mention that the rice plant (Oryza sativa) is incredibly inefficient. The amount of energy the plant intakes and the amount of which that is converted to biomass is relatively small compared to other crops such a wheat.

With increased land being used as rice paddies, would it be ethical to modify this plant in such a way that it was able to convert more of the energy absorbed into biomass. This could potentially save millions of hectares of space, maybe even lifting the restrictions on family size in China.