Simple overview of world rice production, and issues it faces...fertilizer prices are an issue.
Record production in 2007/08--up less than 1
percent from a year earlier. Rice crops are up in China, Brazil,Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia, Japan, and Nigeria. Conversely, production is down in India, the Koreas, Taiwan, and Australia.
www.usarice.com
Population control is at the heart of the issue, its time to come up with solutions to this problem, or else nature will do it for us.
"Where is the drilling supposed to take place?"
From what I understand the closest the exploration drilling permit is 3 miles from the borders of the Grand Canyon National park. Not actually inside the park itself.
Although there are mines within the park, these were closed. www.grandcanyontreks.org
local.yahoo.com
I saw an article about the number of "claims" has increased dramatically in the last 15years.