Seeds of Hope
What is common to dinosaurs and the minuscule rice? Why do you feel on going to the Paddy Field National Park in the sunny city of Sanya in Hainan Province, south China, that you are actually entering Jurassic Park? And why are the green rice fields there not only dotted with tractors followed by swarms of herons but also giant statutes of various kinds of dinosaurs uttering menacing growls from time to time?
Our guide at the park told us that according to stories, the giant reptiles, after ruling the earth for nearly 165 million years, died out at the end of the Cretaceous Period, about 65 million years ago. As they were becoming extinct, a new form of life sprang up—rice. The tiny grain survived the behemoth, proving size is not
