Climate Change Will Make Rice Toxic, Say Researchers (arstechnica.com)
- Reference: 0177059523
- News link: https://news.slashdot.org/story/25/04/18/1115204/climate-change-will-make-rice-toxic-say-researchers
- Source link: https://arstechnica.com/science/2025/04/climate-change-will-make-rice-toxic-say-researchers/
> Eaten every day by billions of people and grown across the globe, rice is arguably the planet's most important staple crop, with half the world's population relying on it for the majority of its food needs, especially in developing countries.
>
> But the way rice is grown -- mostly submerged in paddies -- and its highly porous texture mean it can absorb unusually high levels of arsenic, a potent carcinogenic toxin that is especially dangerous for babies.
After growing rice in controlled fields for six years, researchers from Columbia University and international partners found that when both temperature and CO2 increased in line with climate projections, arsenic levels in rice grains rose significantly. "When we put both of them together, then wow, that was really something we were not expecting," said Lewis Ziska, a plant physiologist at Columbia University who led the study. "You're looking at a crop staple that's consumed by a billion people every day, and any effect on toxicity is going to have a pretty damn large effect."
Inorganic arsenic exposure has been linked to cancers, heart disease, and neurological problems in infants. Disease risk rose across all seven top rice-consuming Asian countries analyzed. "This is one more reason to intervene -- to control people's exposure," said co-author Keeve Nachman of Johns Hopkins University. "The No. 1 thing we can do is everything in our power to slow climate change."
[1] https://arstechnica.com/science/2025/04/climate-change-will-make-rice-toxic-say-researchers/
[2] https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanplh/article/PIIS2542-5196(25)00055-5/fulltext
Dosis sola facit venenum [Re:By and far the FU...] (Score:5, Informative)
> Life dies without enough CO2
Yes, and you will die without enough water, too. That doesn't mean that you can submerge yourself in water for an hour and keep breathing because water is healthy.
There are a lot of things for which you need some amount, but too much is bad. If you think there's no such thing as too much carbon dioxide, move to Venus.
Re: (Score:1)
> That doesn't mean that you can submerge yourself in water for an hour and keep breathing because water is healthy.
Let's test that theory on anti-climate conspiracists. In fact, test ALL their claims on themselves.
Re: (Score:2)
Idiotic take.
Countries are arbitrary lines drawn between populations.
The only reasonable way to look at CO2 emissions is on a per-capita basis.
China is up there, but far from the worst.
Re: (Score:2)
Per-capita still uses the same arbitrary lines between populations.
Re:FUCKING DUMBEST THING! - Anonymous Coward (Score:3)
> Life dies without enough CO2 and the Earth become a frozen hellscape
Brainless remark. Life also dies when there is too much CO2 in the atmosphere and the oceans.
> we are STILL coming out of an ice-age
Nope, we aren't. We are in an interglacial period that started about 11,000 years ago. The recent rapid warming started when we began burning fossil fuels into the atmosphere.
Re: (Score:2)
Feel free to write a paper and get it peer reviewed. Good luck. I am skeptical you have the chops to pull it off.
Re: By and far the FUCKING DUMBEST THING! (Score:2)
"The Earth is greener now than it has been in decades"
You clowns keep thinking that coverage is more important than mass, and you're wrong every time.
Re: (Score:2)
Luckily for the Earth, the United States government isn't the only government.
INB4 (Score:2)
It's clearly a conspiracy to kill off all the Asians
Re: (Score:1)
The sky needs DEI training.
What is the mechanism? (Score:2)
Is it higher water temperatures, more acidic water, or something else that is causing it, and is it leaching more arsenic from the rock and soil, or is it just higher concentrations due to water re-use and evaporation?
Re:What is the mechanism? (Score:5, Interesting)
Arsenic is pretty common in most rocks and soils. But cooler temps keeps it "locked" away so its a very slow leeching poison.. but as you heat it up, that process speeds up and dumps a LOT more into the surrounding water where rice paddies are growing.
Think of it this way.
Get some rock salt (like big crystal salts).
get cold water and drop some in there.. It will dissolve slowly
then
get warm water and drop some in there, it will dissolve quicker and more diffuse in the water (if you taste the water, it will taste saltier quicker).
And that's basically what;s going on..
And its the same for just about all toxic chemicals (toxic to humans) in rocks and soil.. as the ambient temp rises, it speeds up the erosion of those rocks and chemicals contained in soils..
You dont need Asia for rice ... (Score:2)
The US is perfectly capable of growing rice. Im asian, ive tried MO grown jasmine rice, its not grown in the tropics, and it taste dam good. See tariff dispute on US grown rice.
Re: (Score:2)
If you think growing your own rice will make America great (again?) who am I to argue.
Re: (Score:2)
And you think there's no arsenic present in the rocks and soil in the US?
Why would rice grown in the US be any less susceptible to the mechanics of what is happening here?
Re: You dont need Asia for rice ... (Score:3)
No climate change gonna make MO as hot as Thailand or Vietnam buddy.
Re: (Score:2)
And most Asian countries can grow rice without using flooded paddies. It may be the cheapest/easiest method, but certainly not the only method.
Re: (Score:1)
Some of us Americans care about suffering even among people who aren't American, even the billions of non-Americans who are living in developing countries whose children may grow up shy of their intellectual potential.
Cake, anyone? (Score:2)
Anyone?
Pre-Boiling Removes Some Toxins (Score:5, Informative)
If you pre-boil any rice in water first, then drain and cook normally, you can remove a significant amount of toxins in the grain: [1]New way of cooking rice removes arsenic and retains mineral nutrients, study show [sheffield.ac.uk]
[1] https://www.sheffield.ac.uk/sustainable-food/news/new-way-cooking-rice-removes-arsenic-and-retains-mineral-nutrients-study-shows
Re: (Score:2)
Edit: "...then drain, RINSE, and cook..."
Re: (Score:2)
I expect that Japanese rice cookers will soon have water and drain lines, kind of like an RO system, to handle the draining, rinsing, and refilling as part of the new cooking process.
Got it, global warming bad. (Score:2)
Has the threat of global warming got to a point we can have more nuclear power plants to lower CO2 emissions from energy production? No? Okay, wake me up when you are serious enough about the threat of CO2 induced global warming that you'll allow nuclear power plants to be built. I'm done with any discussion on the problem, I'd like to move to discussing solutions. We know nuclear fission to be a source of low cost, low CO2 emission, safe, and reliable energy. You tell me that cannot be allowed as part
Re: Got it, global warming bad. (Score:2)
Never mind wind and solar have been cheap and viable at scale for a decade now.
Re: (Score:2)
If that's true then why keep bringing up the problem of global warming? Saying wind and solar have been viable at scale for a decade tells me we solved the problem. If the problem isn't solved yet then maybe we need solutions not yet tried.
Re: (Score:2)
> Never mind wind and solar have been cheap and viable at scale for a decade now.
So you're saying that global warming is a solved problem? If so, great, but I'm not convinced. I think even with wind, solar, AND nuclear, we're still going to be suffering the consequences of 50+ years of anti-nuclear propaganda.
I'd love to hear some environmentalists announce that wind and solar are now cheap enough that climate change is a solved problem because market forces will take over and price all the fossil fuels out of the market. I certainly see a lot of solar around where I live, but not much
Re: (Score:3)
I live in Colorado, and I think that more of us should adopt our method of dealing with AGW: "All of the above." That's right: don't cherry pick one or two methods, use all of them and let them work together to bring things back to where we want them. If there are known workable methods to bring the CO2 levels down that you're not willing to accept, you aren't really serious about solving the problem.
Re: Got it, global warming bad. (Score:2)
No, I'm saying cheap green energy is a solved problem in the US, and it scales both up and down, with none of that "this is not a place of honor" problem. Ever been to middle America? Especially tornado country? Get out of city limits and most homes have solar and possibly wind on site for domestic use and possibly sale back to the grid. It's got the ability to take the pressure out of transmission as well, and nuclear can't do that. Neither can coal or natural gas.
Re: (Score:2)
> Has the threat of global warming got to a point we can have more nuclear power plants to lower CO2 emissions from energy production?
Yes, nuclear power is indeed now being advocated as a response to global warming.
> No? Okay, wake me up when you are serious enough about the threat of CO2 induced global warming
OK: time to wake up.
It's not 1990 any more.
Mechanism? (Score:1)
(Quotes from Google Gemini)
> Higher temperatures can increase arsenic levels in rice primarily due to changes in soil chemistry and increased arsenic availability. Warmer temperatures can boost arsenic mobilization from the soil into the water, which is then taken up by the rice plants, leading to higher arsenic concentrations in the grain. Additionally, warmer temperatures can affect the soil microbiome, potentially favoring arsenic-loving bacteria that increase the availability of arsenic in the soil.
This is interesting... maybe genetic engineering can help?
> While warmer temperatures can increase arsenic uptake, rice plants also have a mechanism to protect themselves. Increased arsenic exposure can trigger the expression of a gene called OsABCC1, which helps the plant move arsenic out of the grain, potentially reducing the amount in the edible part of the rice.
Some rice sources have less arsenic than others (Score:3)
Lundberg conducts regular arsenic testing and publish results. Whole Foods' 365 brown rice has higher levels than other brands. Rice from California, India, and Pakistan mostly has lower levels than from southern US states like Arkansas, Louisiana, and Texas. I assume this means that you can mitigate the arsenic. It seems like there are various approaches, some better and more thoughtful than others.
[1]https://nutritionfacts.org/vid... [nutritionfacts.org]
[1] https://nutritionfacts.org/video/which-brands-and-sources-of-rice-have-the-least-arsenic/
GMO time (Score:2)
We should look into genetically engineering strains of rice to absorb less arsenic.
Obviously we should also stop emitting CO2, but even if we were net zero today, CO2 levels would take a long time to decrease, and temperatures would continue rising for a while. And obviously it's going to take some time to get to net zero, so we need to think about mitigating the damage, not focus solely on emissions reduction.
No brown rice (Score:2)
Rice bran contains six times the amount of arsenic as the rice. It's not a "solution," but not regularly eating brown rice or using rice bran in nutritional supplements is going alleviate the larger part of the problem.
Re: (Score:1)
Too bad because rice bran has a lot of nutritional value.
Re: (Score:2)
It's more complicated than that. The arsenic in the bran apparently isn't as bioavailable as the arsenic in the endosperm, and so while brown rice does have more arsenic it's not as much of a difference as you'd think. Also there's just a lot less bran than endosperm. I read a thing which claimed that brown rice has anywhere from 30-70% more arsenic in practice, compared to white rice. The variety of rice and location where it was grown also matter a lot. [1]Here. [consumerreports.org]
[1] https://www.consumerreports.org/cro/magazine/2015/01/how-much-arsenic-is-in-your-rice/index.htm