Rice has been grown in Japan for more than 2,000 years – it is a revered crop which was once even used as currency. In 1993 some clever farmers in the town of Inakadate came up with the idea of using different varieties of rice plants, with different coloured leaves, to create pictures. Others have now joined in and fabulous images are now precision planted with the aid of computers. These huge murals are so fabulous you may think they are CGI (computer generated images) until you see the closeup photographs of the purple, bright green and pale yellow rice plants.
Visit the UK Daily Mail website to view some of the fabulous 2009 agricultural artworks that have become popular tourist attractions. What a clever way of drawing attention to food growing. I’d love to see these in person, and it must be fabulous seeing the images form as the plants gradually grow.