New rice varieties give hope that farmers can overcome the climate emergency and a warmer future that threatens harvests When schoolchildren in Shiroishi were enlisted to plant rice seedlings in June, Shinto priests blessed the land and asked the deities for a bountiful crop. Judging by the fiel...
Source: [Guardian International](https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/sep/23/japan-rice-new-strains-rising-heat-climate)