According to Professor Apichart Vanavichit, he has worked with nothing but rice for the past 20 years.
Rice, he says, is life.
What the people in his home country, Thailand, get through every day.
Vanavichit can enumerate how the rice and its fruit are structured.
The panicles branch off from the stalk, on them sit up to 200 grains, each covered by a silver skin and a lemma, inside are endosperm and germ.
The rice professor has long been crossing rice varieties at Kasetsart University outside of Bangkok, which mainly teaches agricultural sciences.
For example, when he talks about rice, he says:
"Look at that color intensity."
"What a beauty!"
»In a successful crossbreed, it depends on the parents.«
He says, "Riceberry is my dream."
Riceberry is a type of rice invented by Professor Vanavichit.
A cross between the Jao Hom Nin and Hom Mali strains.
Riceberry should secure Thailand's food supply in the future, should withstand climate changes on the farmers' fields better than previous varieties, heat, drought, pests.
And it is intended to free the Thai population from a disease that has become a widespread disease.
Type 2 diabetes. Quite a task for a rice.
But Vanavichit, breeder, former director of the Rice Science Center, a scrawny retired geneticist, never tires of fighting for his vision.
There's this one thing, you could say this one problem: Riceberry is purple
If Vanavichit has its way, Riceberry will be the new jasmine rice.
That's what the Thais eat up until now.
Morning, noon, evening, 140 kilograms per person per year.
Twice as many as people in China, 28 times more than the average German.
The sentence "You are what you eat" is not a gibberish for the professor, it has driven him ever since he became interested in nutritional science.
That was when he was young and an athlete and realized that if he ate healthy he would perform better.
The variety of rice from his laboratory has many advantages over jasmine rice.
Words fall out of the professor's mouth that are difficult to write down. He speaks of the "glycemic index," of "anthocyanin," "amylopectin," and "carbohydrates that are broken down quickly or less quickly."
Translated, one can say: With riceberries, the sugar level in the blood does not rise as much after eating as with regular rice.
What prevents diabetes and obesity.
Ten percent of Thais could develop diabetes by 2030.
This is due to too much sugar in drinks, bubble teas and desserts, but: "It also comes from the white jasmine rice.
We have to do something about that,” says Vanavichit.
Riceberry fills you up for longer and is more nutritious.
A kilo of rice can fill more stomachs.
It contains more vitamins, proteins, antioxidants.
a little bit like that
Riceberry tastes soft and slightly nutty, has bite, the grain is rounded and slightly sticky.
The variety has long been available in supermarkets.
But so far the Thais have not really wanted to bite the riceberry.
Because there is this one thing, you could also say this one problem: Riceberry is purple.
People don't like that.
»Criminals in Thai prisons used to be given red rice.
Since then, the prejudice has persisted in society: colored rice is bad rice, white rice is clean, valuable, beautiful rice,” says Vanavichit.
When the professor talks about it, he screws up his face.
It pains him that he has good arguments, but these are not fruitful.
He's trying to spread the word about the benefits of his rice variety.
Cooperates with the government, talks to the big food manufacturers.
But eating is a habit.
Taste is memory.
Professor Apichart Vanavichit fights against emotions.
In Thailand there is a goddess for rice.
There is a custom of sowing the seed on the birthday of the old Queen Sirikit and reaping the grain on the birthday of the late King Bhumibol.
The first few tufts by hand, with a scythe, because that brings good luck, and only then with the big combine harvesters.
White rice is more than a carbohydrate to fill you up.
He is connected to society.
Vanavichit leads through the rice fields next to the university building in Nakhon Pathom province, an hour and a half outside the big city of Bangkok.
A farming area.
A few rows of rice have been grown with grasses standing in cohorts in the water.
They are inscribed, black permanent marker on white plastic labels: »JHM-M-28-2022«.
Here, new varieties from the university laboratory are tested and their suitability checked in reality.
"This crossbreed, for example, has brown spot disease, not good," says the professor, pointing to a faded stalk.
Then he turns back to his real problem.
How do you convince the Thais to buy purple rice?
Thailand is one of the world's leading rice exporting countries.
Millions of people live as farmers and millers by selling rice.
The large fields are mainly in the north and north-east of the country, in the rainy lowlands.
More than 20 million tons are harvested each year.
According to the Thailand Rice Exporters Association, 7.7 million tons of rice were sold abroad in 2022.
Rice feeds half the world's population.
Since the war in Ukraine, when wheat became scarce, rice has become even more important in the fight against world hunger.
And so do countries like Thailand that sell it.
At the same time, when it comes to rice cultivation, there is a growing concern that it might no longer be enough for everyone in the future.
The world population is growing.
In 2050, ten billion people could live on earth and want to be fed every day.
At the same time, the areas on which rice grows are decreasing.
Because more people need more space.
Because the climate crisis will make many agricultural areas uncultivable.
There are calculations according to which an average temperature increase of one degree Celsius in Thailand could result in half of the rice fields yielding less.
The rainy and dry seasons in the Southeast Asia region are shifting.
But rice needs a lot of water.
Pests would have an easier time, farmers would have to use even more pesticides than is already the case.
The professor explains that riceberry is more resilient than jasmine rice when it comes to all these future challenges.
Its seed is more pest-resistant, it is suitable for organic cultivation, without chemical fertilizers and sprays, and offers an alternative to the seeds of agricultural giants.
Riceberry stalks are darker in color and not as susceptible to heat.
Again: so many good arguments.
Professor Vanavichit, meanwhile, has a new hope for the Riceberry.
It's called Europe and USA.
There is a plan to sell the seeds to farmers in Spain.
In Spain, quite a lot of rice is eaten compared to other European countries.
Sales are increasing in the USA and Canada.
Vanavichit believes that the wholegrain riceberry could really become a trend there.
There is an understanding of »superfood« there.
For organic stuff.
Purple rice could be something for Instagram.
Vanavichit hopes that as his purple rice becomes fashionable in Europe and the US, it will finally be accepted in Thailand as well.
That his rice, via a detour, finally ends up at its destination, on the plates at home.
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