... too tired to argue. Maybe tomorrow. But I'm fairly certain you're wrong about at least one thing.
The US does not produce more rice than China. That's just not true. These stats, just pulling up the first page that seems to offer the relevant information...
Rice, Paddy, Production (Mt)
Year 2001 United States of America 9,663,560
Year 2001 China 181,514,992
Rice, Paddy, Yield (Hg/Ha)
Year 2001 United States of America 72,055
Year 2001 China 63,496
Statistics courtesy of a cursory glance at
http://apps.fao.org/lim500/nph-wrap.pl?Production.Crops.Primary&Domain=SUA&servlet=1
which was linked to from...
http://www.fao.org/WAICENT/FAOINFO/AGRICULT/AGP/AGPC/doc/riceinfo/database.htm
So, using my basic arithmetic skills, your "fact" about how much more rice the US produces than china is not only wrong, but it's off by a factor of SIXTY. Sorry, I don't know where you pulled that statistic, but it doesn't seem to be within several thousand miles of right. Not only does that fall apart, though, it seems that the US isn't even much more than 13% more efficient PER HECTARE. A nice sum, but hardly the 6000% you were predicting. So, uh, no offense, but you've been horribly misinformed, by a truly staggering margin.
Or, if you don't like those statistics, try...
http://www.riceweb.org/Ricetabindex.htm , notably the pages
http://www.riceweb.org/riceprodleurope.htm and
http://www.riceweb.org/riceprodasia.htm
They say pretty much exactly the same thing.
Or, if a pie chart is more convincing, try this.
http://www.sagevfoods.com/MainPages/Rice101/Production.htm
If it's rice EXPORTS you're talking about, then the US kicks the crap out of china, but doesn't quite manage to do half what Thailand does...
"The leading producers of rice, are (in order) China, India, Indonesia, Bangladesh, Vietnam, Thailand, Burma, Japan, Philippines, Brazil, and the United States."
So, uh, you're wrong. I don't know exactly what this means for your beliefs about the free market and its operations; they probably will remain unshaken, since it is likely an article of faith rather than a reasoned belief. But you at least won't get rice wrong again.
Making the world safe for Chinese rice production,
Jester
