The ‘Diplomatic Crop' or How the US Provided Critical Leadership in Ending the Rice Crisis

Rice is aptly characterized as the ‘diplomatic crop’ in Dan Morgan's Merchants of Grain (1979). International politics have often played a key role in the modern world rice market and in the decade after the first world rice crisis in 1972–1974, G-to-G contracts were increasingly important. ¹ Politics were paramount, as well, in the most recent world rice crisis.