When it comes to rice, we know Uncle Ben's as the San Fransisco treat, and we the even more well informed, recognize Jasmine rice as the sweetened exotic import from Thailand. However, somewhere in between the Kraft Macaroni 'n Cheese and the Campell's soup, American supermarkets are selling deception.
The American agricultural corporation RiceTec markets their Jasmati Rice as "American Jasmine Rice" with the "uniqueness of Asian Jasmine Rice" printed over an alluring design of stereotypically Asian images intended to give us the total rice experience. In fact this Jasmati rice contains nothing from Thailand or India (the basmati part). It is a mediocre mix of American and Italian rice that taste like crap.
On the other end of the world in Thailand, Jasmine rice farmers are seeing their exports drop in favor of companies that chose cheaper domestic products and sell to consumers lied to about the taste of Jasmine rice. Average incomes of $5 per month were not much to begin with, but with so much of the Isaan region of Thailand's economy dependent on the precious rice, farmers are falling even further into poverty.
The Federal Trade Commission has done little to support trade equity, imposing strict patent regulations, allowing only genetically modified plants to be patented. Despite having cultivated Jasmine rice for centuries, Thai farmers are unable to receive these patents as they have never needed to genetically alter their product. "It's a very special rice of special characteristics of this area. It's fragrant, it's tender, and it's good to eat," a Thai rice farmer said in the political journal Perspectives. The rice may be tasty and rooted in deep cultural tradition, but in America it is what the package claims it is and nothing more.
Over the past summer junior Isabel Daniels '04 spent several weeks in Thailand exploring these global issues through the Council on International Educational Exchange (CIEE). "It was one of those 'Do you want to work for change?' type programs," says Daniels. "At Pomona it's too easy to sit around and take this lifestyle we have for granted. We can easily forget about the global community."
Her program took her from the government offices of Bangkok to the rice paddies of Isaan. Through several interviews with politicians and farmers alike, the sentiment was the same: the United Sates and the FTC are giving Thai farmers the royal screw job. While there, Daniels designed a three-step program directed at informing American consumers to realize and invoking change in this global market breakdown. The first step consisted of designing and printing thousands of pamphlets describing the situation, which are intended to eventually be distributed throughout the United States.
As this massive education of an oblivious populace requires a large degree of organization, Daniels was appointed National Coordinator for the Campaign for Jasmine Rice by CIEE. She continues here at Pomona to foster relations with human rights organizations in the constant quest for funds, while also ensuring the effective distribution of her pamphlets.
The second and third steps are being passed on to future CIEE students in Thailand. Next will be a letter writing campaign to the FTC and a possible organized protest at FTC headquarters. Finally, she hopes to organize American consumer groups to establish direct relationships with Jasmine rice farmers and leave out the vexing middlemen.
The project is far from over and Daniels work will continue long past her time here as a student. "Every person helps. It sounds cliche, I know, but it's true. Every person moving in one direction is one more added to the group. There's power in that," says Daniels.
There is also power involved in looking at a rice package to examine whether it is actually made in Thailand. Be it a fervored sense of nationalism that tells us to buy American, or merely apathy, we as consumers are letting this power dwindle. Read the label, dammit, and help somebody's life, not just somebody's profit margin.
