Have you heard people say the rice from PDS (ration shop) is “plastic rice” or adulterated with floating grains? Recently, I heard Dinesh tell Esakki akka to sort out the plastic rice while washing it. Turns out, they were not joking… there’s a story behind it.
Okay, lets back up. What’s going on?
India eats a LOT of rice.
Like, breakfast-lunch-dinner and even for snacks in between. Not because we love it (okay, we do) — but also because of historical reasons
Colonial era famines plus Green Revolution = “Just grow paddy or wheat”
We solved calorie shortage. But we kind of forgot about nutrition in the process. So today, we’re full; but undernourished : Low iron, low zinc, low vitamin A.
We’re still eating for survival despite having solved that problem long ago, even though we should be prioritizing health. Consequence : Plate looks full, diversity of nutrients is poor.
Enter Fortified Rice
Take rice → grind it → add synthetic minerals & vitamins → press it back into rice shape.
Extrude. Process. Package.
Distribute through ration shops. (PDS system)
Is it actually plastic? No.
But is it your grandma’s rice? Also no.
It’s lab-engineered rice meant to fix vitamin & mineral deficiency… without changing how we eat.
But “how we eat” is where the problem really lies. Fortified rice is not really solving the problem – it is most likely exacerbating it.
Indian children and adults don’t suffer from malnutrition because rice is broken.We lack nutrients because our plates have too many carbs and too little of everything else. Rice is also broken because the green revolution prioritized for land yields and did not monitor the consequential impact on nutrition density. More about it in a later post
The fix isn’t “better rice”
It’s better plates.
Add: Mildly-polished heirloom rice, Millets, legumes, greens, nuts, seeds, fruits, veggies, fermented foods. Food diversity is a much better solution than fortified rice.
Picture this lunch plate :
- A red rice like Kothamalli samba
- Ragi or bajra roti with pumpkin seeds
- Dal + veggies + Leafy greens
- Curd + A seasonal fruit + Sesame podi
- Boom — iron, zinc, vitamin A rich meal!
Fortified rice might help address nutritional deficiency in the short term.
But if our long-term plan is:
“Just add a little bit of vitamins and minerals to carbs”, then we’re kinda missing the point.
Let us not fix rice alone.
Let us Fix habits. Let us Fix plates. Let us Fix food culture.
Because nutrition isn’t derived from rice alone – real nutrition is diverse food from organic farms run by people, not machines.