Purple Rice and the Limits of Globalization

Chinese black rice (Photo credit)

Also known as Chinese black rice, or "forbidden rice", this grain is not only very healthy, but has a history of delineating social status.  In ancient China, the grain was only to be eaten by the Emperor.  In today's world, globalization is the norm, and anyone who can afford it can get Chinese black rice on the Internet.  But being available to more of a global audience is not the same as being available to more people.  Purple rice is a prime example of this.

It has been said that with the Internet and social media, we live in a "flattened" world.  This is not true.  Instead, we just built a whole bunch of drawbridges crisscrossing our world, with toll booths.  If you can't afford to pay the "toll", or the cost needed to access social media and to make use of it, then you still are isolated.


1. By Anna Frodesiak (Own work) [Public domain or Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons.