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Rice in Korea is hallowed. I listened to a Rice Farmer attired in a rich fabric neck scarf with floral motifs. He wore the traditional Rice Farmer's smock dyed a deep indigo-ultramarine. To shade him from the manual toil beneath sun in a clear sky he had a traditional white woven hat which had served many harvests. The hat was woven in white natural fibre. Its workmanship was exquisite. Despite its many years of shading, the farmer had cared for it with respect. Respect and workmanship bequeathed a magical beauty to both farmer and sun shade.

The Rice Farmer in his eighth decade spoke with magical enthusiasm. He shut his eyes frequently as he recounted fortunes of past harvests. His face and hands bore the blemish of working in sun and in all weathers.

Behind the Rice Farmer the rice in a midday breeze swayed and flexed pregnant with its prolific crop ready to be cut and gathered by hand. Green and emerging gold kernels contrasted with the Rice Farmer's rich peony neck scarf, and emphasised his robust health.

Community Rice Festivals in Korea celebrate such mystery of the human hand in agriculture, making me yearn for intimation of this magic.

The Rice Farmer preached the perfect homily of Ecological Education and Spirituality mentioned by HH Pope Francis in his Encyclical Laudato sì.

And the place of Rice in Korean Nutrition in all probability explains why, despite the Nation's seventeen-fold increase in GDP in four decades, the total dietary fat intake is a thirtieth of the possible intake predicted by the pattern exhibited in Asia (Soowon,K et al 2000).

Rice is justly celebrated in Korean Music and Dance, a certain conduit of Ecological Education and Spirituality.