(I) “The staff of life" normally refers to bread, or specifically to wheat, in Europe and North America. (II) From a distance, rice in a field resembles wheat, but on closer inspection the loose, drooping heads of rice look more like oats. (III) For fully half the population of the world, however, it is rice. (IV) In East Asia, Central Asia, the islands of the western Pacific and much of Latin America rice is the basic component of most meals. (V) People in these areas depend on rice for fundamental, daily nutrition.