A propos of rice and linguistics, my friend Luigi Guarino points me to a blog entry that we are certain would have pleased N.I. Vavilov. Chad Nilep discusses Rice as rice and rice as discourse, where he points out that
Many Japanese people regard Japanese rice as superior to rice grown elsewhere, so called gaimai or outside rice. The thought that occurred to me at Meiji Jingu is this: even though, in my experience, it is impossible to tell by taste alone where rice was grown, people who regard Japanese grown rice (naichimai) as richer than gaimai may have a point.
How so? You’ll have to read the whole post to find out.
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Or you could read Robert’s take on the subject over at the Agricultural Biodiversity Weblog: http://agro.biodiver.se/2008/11/discourse-for-dinner/.
I wonder what Vavilov would have made of this http://ip-pbx.tmcnet.com/news/2008/11/21/3805417.htm recent news.