Do you know what's growing in the picture above? Believe it or not, it's rice! Most of us have never seen it growing in fields, or rice paddies.
How often do you think about rice? Probably not often!
Rice is a highly produced crop throughout the world, second only to corn. Since corn is mostly grown for purposes other than human consumption, rice is the most important grain for human consumption.
There are more than 40,000 varieties of rice that grow on every continent except on Antarctica. Asia, where about 90% of rice is grown, has more than 200 million rice farms.
There is enough rice grown in Arkansas, California, Louisiana, Texas, Mississippi and Missouri to rank the USA as the twentieth largest rice producer in the world and the second largest exporter of rice. About half of all the rice grown in the USA is exported.
This month you will be reading a lot about rice in preparation for our Curriculum Fair in April. So rather than have a reading assignment here this month, I am giving you a different challenge. You will have an opportunity to practice your skills in vocabulary, math or geography, as well as providing food for people living in poverty.
Rice is the most important food crop of the developing world and the staple food of more than half of the world's population. Worldwide, more than 3.5 billion people depend on rice for more than 20% of their daily calories. Even though so much of it is produced, it still costs more than many people can afford. For this reason, I'd like to introduce you to a website called Freerice.
Freerice was founded in October 2007 by John Breen, as a way to help his son prepare to take the SAT tests for college admission, and also to help erradicate world hunger. In March 2009 Mr. Breen donated the site to the UN World Food Programme. In making the donation, Mr. Breen expressed his hopes that Freerice will be able to grow over the coming years, helping to feed and educate as many people as possible throughout the world. When you play, you can actually see the amount of rice you are donating.
So, this month, spend some time playing the games on Freerice.com. Try different subjects and different levels. Play for at least 30 minutes, and then report on what you played and how much rice you earned. This is information from the site:
About Freerice.com
Freerice has two goals:
- Provide education to everyone for free.
- Help end world hunger by providing rice to hungry people for free.
This is made possible by the generosity of the sponsors who advertise on the site.
Whether you are CEO of a large corporation or a street child in a poor country, improving your education can improve your life. It is a great investment in yourself.
Perhaps even greater is the investment your donated rice makes in hungry human beings, enabling them to function and be productive. Somewhere in the world, a person is eating rice that you helped provide.
1. Why is this book a "Reach" for you?
That's something I just learned when I googled February holidays! Since many of us are, or would like to be, pet owners, I thought this would be a good topic for this month. 
