Word: asianized
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...That's a question millions of Asians are asking. Across the region, the price of food, from wheat to pork, is increasing at dizzying rates. But it is rice, the foundation of Asia's diet and a potent symbol of its cultures, that is causing the most anxiety. In Thailand, Vietnam, Bangladesh, India, Pakistan and elsewhere, the price of rice has doubled in the past year, a hike that hurts all the more because Asian families often spend half of their weekly budget on food, more than double what Western households spend. In an effort to contain spiraling domestic prices...
...thing if you can't find pork at your local market. You can always buy chicken. But rice has no good substitute in many Asian diets. In Mandarin, the word for rice is also the word for food. The Thai phrase "to eat" translates as "eat rice." "Rice isn't just another commodity," says Robert Zeigler, director general of the International Rice Research Institute in Manila. "In Asia, rice has cultural, social and, in many places, even a religious role, so it carries much more psychological weight." Indeed, Asian nations have reacted to the mere prospect of shortage with something...
...Asia's rice crisis isn't likely to ease soon, and may get worse due to ominous long-term trends. The Rice Institute's Zeigler says rice production is not keeping pace with demand from surging Asian populations. The U.S. Department of Agriculture estimates that worldwide rice consumption increased 0.9% last year, to nearly 424 million metric tons. Production increased less than 0.7%. "This has been coming on for several years now," Zeigler says, noting that global stocks are at their lowest point in decades. "We're consuming more than we've been producing. And as demand for rice continues...
...unavailable for Africa - or for the NGOs that feed the world's most vulnerable populations. "A lot of people don't realize that Africa's rice depends on Asia's surpluses," says the Rice Institute's Zeigler. In other words, Asia's grain is Africa's loss. With Asian nations scrambling to protect their own supplies, that could mean a much hungrier world...
...good measure, I went and checked out the knock-off blogs Stuff Educated Black People Like (#9 Town Homes; #16 Moving to Atlanta) and Stuff Asian People Like (#30 Cash; #46 Cutting in Line). I was alarmed to see that while I get those lists and they're kind of funny, I don't like most of that stuff. I especially hate Atlanta...