Out in the Rice Paddy

A few weeks ago, I joined a group of other ex-pats for a field trip out to the Hanoi University of Agriculture campus for a lesson in all things related to rice in Vietnam. We started with a great presentation (complemented with samples of rice plants at various stages of growth) by a professor. And then, our geeky hunger for Wikipedia-like lists of facts and anecdotes satisfied, we were led out under blazing sun and in thick humidity to the fields to plant, transplant, harvest, thresh, and separate rice. Click here to see about 20 photos of us pretending to work like the millions of Vietnamese farm workers--a significant fraction of whom are women--who work mostly by hand to make their country a net exporter of rice.