“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines, sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.”

I eat rice everyday, and in India, often three times a day. Even so, I had absolutely no idea where it came from before staying with the Sikh family on their rice farm.

-First they cut the fields of rice. Then, after they have a gigantic pile, they shove the cuttings into the “rice machine.” This machine violently mixes everything up and shakes out the rice into buckets while spitting the remaining hay (without any rice left in it) into another huge pile on the other side.

-The rice is then thrown into giant trucks for transport. Here is a small pile (leftovers) the servant was scoping up into very large sacks in order to sell.

-The leftover hay that was spit out is then transported as well for cow food.

-Back at the house, before giving the cows their food, it was run through yet another machine (which looked at least a hundred years old) that chopped if up into smaller pieces.

There you go! Next time you eat a spoonful (or fistful if you are in India) of rice you know exactly where it came from.