If you’re not a rice farmer, chances are you give little thought to how the grains accompanying your curry, gumbo, or stir fry ended up on your plate. But humans have been growing rice for thousands of years on mountaintops, hillsides, and plains across the globe. Perhaps it’s no surprise, then, that there’s no scientific consensus on where the crop was first domesticated, with competing claims coming from India, China, and Southeast Asia.

Wherever it came from, rice is one of the planet’s most important staple foods, along with corn and wheat. Billions of people eat rice at least once a day, either as whole grains or as noodles, formed into dumplings, or as the basis for buns or sweets—not to