I have been hearing some buz about rice growing in northren america, mainly in Vermont,
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/840980225/growing-rice-in-vermont. After watching the video and poking around their website i got quite excited and started doing some basic research on rice and rice breeding in Hokkiado , one of Japans northern most islands at a similar latitude to north america.
http://d-arch.ide.go.jp/je_archive/english/society/wp_je_unu22.html.
Shortly after the last Japanese civil(1863) war the population of this northern island grew considerably and a demand for local grain did as well. A horizontal farmer driven breeding program ensued and rice was cultivated in local fields that had tons/hectare that were on par with southerly parts of Japan.
The images below compare Sapporo and Portland climate(but sadly not average humidity), which means rice production could be possible. It would be great to find some rice from Hokkaido and make some paddies! I am will be in Cascadia for some time and this is where my interest and biases are. I am envisioning rice paddies with large rocks for heating up the water in the early spring, some what like Sepp ponds, and perhaps at the edge of theses paddies could be wapato with camas plantings and various nut trees for stabilizing the terraces. Hopefully these winter dreams can come true!
I will no post some further information that i have collected in the past 24 hours.
http://www.jstor.org/pss/3743016 an artical on rice growing in colonial usa
http://books.google.com/books?id=-9EBuQK-NRQC&pg=PA220&lpg=PA220&dq=rice+from+hokkaido+varieties&source=bl&ots=GG_PyXxywg&sig=NQbhd7q1Xyf0C0woUzVWuErHZ-E&hl=en&ei=Lv7eTpbAFYmTgwe14bDbBQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=6&ved=0CDcQ6AEwBQ#v=onepage&q=rice%20from%20hokkaido%20varieties&f=false More info on Hokkaido and effects of rice.
http://www.hinoma.com/maps/meshmap/vegemap.gif land use in present day Hokkaido
http://d-arch.ide.go.jp/je_archive/english/society/wp_je_unu22.html history of rice in Hokkaido
