David Rai: A Farmer’s View on Food Shortage
By kamla bhatt • May 2nd, 2008Category: Diaspora, Featured, Life
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Higher food prices, global shortage of food, rationing of rice in the USA. The global food crisis dubbed as the silent tsunami has dominated headlines since the start of the year.
What is driving this food shortage that some analysts have pointed is the creation of a perfect storm stemming from famine, demand for biofuels, increase in demand for food from countries like India and China among other things.
I went up to Yuba City in Sutter County, California, to meet with Lal David Rai, a farmer. Tune it to find out what David has to say about the global food shortage, especially the perceived shortage of rice in the USA. What is driving this shortage of rice in the USA?
I also asked David about global warming and if there is any impact on his farming practice in Yuba City. It seems like there just might be a connection since David has observed a certain change in the length of the seasons.
David is a second generation farmer of Mexican-Punjabi-Indian origin. David’s grandfather migrated from Punjab to the USA as did his father, Bishen Rai. His father married Mary Rai, a first generation Punjabi-Mexican.
Technorati Tags: lal david rai,david rai,yuba city,mexican-punjabi,mexican=punjabi-american,world food shortage,rice shortage,diaspora,east indian,indian american,life
Kamla Bhatt is the host and producer of an Internet Radio show where listeners can find stories about the new and emerging India and the global Indian community. As a pioneer of 'internet radio' format in India Kamla started her first show News about India, followed by TalkNewsIndia in 2005. In 2006 she premiered her new show: The Kamla Bhatt Show: Life, People and Ideas. 
[...] a podcast interview Kamla Bhatt talks with Lal David Rai, a second generation farmer of Mexican-Punjabi-Indian origin on the [...]
where is Yuba City in Sutter County? What state?
Daniel:
Yuba City is in Sutter Couty in California. It is about a 30 minute drive from David and less than an hour’s drive from Sacramento.
Thanks for asking that question.
Cheers!
Kamla
[...] Kartar’s father Bakshish Singh is supposed to have been the first Indian of Punjabi origin to come to California in the 1890s. He is also the first Punjabi, who is supposed to have married and brought his wife to live with him in California. In the early 20th century most Punjabi men who came in search of a better life in the USA were either bachelors or left their wife and family behind in their villages in Punjab. But over the years quite of few of these Punjabi men ended up marrying Mexican women and settling down in California and their offspring’s were known as Punjabi-Mexicans. [...]
Will the world ever come together to resolve this food problem? I think that most problems have a solution if only people come together!