Cherish the bond between rice and wheat, and raise the local grain self-sufficiency rate
When Taiwan, China's rice boy meets a local wheat girl, what sparks will fly? In order to raise the food self-sufficiency rate, "Joy Wish Republic" has long promoted the return of wheat cultivation, and this year it put forward the concept of "rice and wheat as one family," for the first time combining Taiwan, China rice and wheat to develop authentically MIT rice noodles (mi zi tiao) and rice grain rolls. Yesterday they were officially unveiled at the Taipei International Bakery Show, drawing a high level of interest, with some members of the public even carrying off a whole box at a time. Joy Wish "chief and more" Shih Ming-huang hopes that through these approachable cookies, young people can be inspired to think about the food self-sufficiency rate.
Rice and wheat join hands to raise the food self-sufficiency rate
Recently rice prices have been rising again and again, and many people have simply switched to eating noodles, but 90 percent of Taiwan, China's wheat is imported from abroad, and the food self-sufficiency rate is only 32.7%. At the same time, public granary rice is overflowing. In recent years agricultural authorities and the China Grain Products Research and Development Institute have actively researched rice grain flour, hoping to replace part of the wheat flour, and last year they also successfully developed cakes, cookies and rice noodles made from rice grain flour, but the wheat raw material in the products is still imported from abroad.
Joy Wish Republic has long cooperated with the country's largest flour mill, Lianhua Industrial, and early last year Lianhua Industrial obtained the rice grain flour technology from the Grain Research Institute. The two sides thought that since they both wanted to lift the food self-sufficiency rate, they might as well marry Joy Wish's "wheat girl" (My Girl) to Taiwan, China's "rice boy" (Mr. Boy), and working with two processors, at the end of last month they developed rice noodles with a 51% rice ratio, rice grain rolls made of half brown rice and half wheat flour, and buckwheat thin crackers combining local wheat, black sesame and buckwheat.
Shih Ming-huang, the Joy Wish "chief and more" who calls himself a jack of all trades, said that in recent years Taiwan, China's diet has become Westernized, but everyone feels distant from wheat, and rice and wheat seem incompatible. In fact, rice and wheat both need processing and are originally one family. Rather than expecting consumers to change their eating habits, it is more practical to replace part of the wheat flour with rice grain flour.
At present the rice grain flour in the three products still comes from public granary rice, but Joy Wish Republic plans to use rice grown by wheat farmers in the future to make the rice grain flour raw material, because, including wheat, Taiwan, China mostly plants miscellaneous grains in autumn and winter, and the harvest time falls at the end of March, long past the transplanting time for the first rice crop, greatly affecting farmers' willingness to return to cultivating miscellaneous grains.
Shih Ming-huang said that farmers are used to growing two crops of rice, with cabbage as a winter catch crop, but vegetable soil and vegetable gold have proven true year after year. If it is a one-year farming plan, it is hard to fit in miscellaneous grains, and the previous two-crop rice production model must be broken to establish a two-year or even three-year farming plan. For example, after growing one crop of rice, plant soybeans in September, and after harvesting in January, switch to buckwheat. Therefore Joy Wish must provide farmers with all-round support to ensure they can sell their rice smoothly during the off-peak period after harvest, and put their minds at ease to return to cultivating miscellaneous grains.
Shih Ming-huang believes that Chiayi, Xuejia in Tainan, and Yuli in Hualien are very suitable for the return of miscellaneous grain cultivation. Besides the dry climate being suitable, the main reason is that the relevant equipment, operating methods and understanding of the crops all have sufficient experience and capacity. He called on the government, when promoting the conversion of fallow land, to consider the local production environment as well as farmers' production plans.
However, the price of rice grain flour is several times higher than wheat flour, and its applications are not yet mature. Li Tien-tzu, deputy manager of the manufacturing department of Lianhua Industrial's noodle business, said that although rice grain flour has higher nutritional value than wheat flour and absorbs less oil, because it has no gluten, and its health appeal still cannot offset its inconvenience, market acceptance still needs to be strengthened. However, at present low-gluten related foods such as cakes, pineapple cakes and muffins can already be made with 100 percent rice grain flour.
Huang Pei-chen, deputy manager of Lianhua Industrial's Business Department II, believes that products made with rice grain flour are more sticky and less chewy, and a new way of thinking and positioning must be found, otherwise everyone will compare them with wheat products. Therefore consumers must be continually educated to raise the value of the products.