goingplacesmagazine.com
|
53
| August 2019
Rice
Bowl
Langit Collective sells
gourmet rice while supporting
indigenous communities and
sustainable agriculture.
Words Tan Lee Kuen
Photography courtesy of Langit CollectiveLangit Collective (^) | EXPLORE
Rice has always been a staple for Melisa
Lim and her friends, but it wasn't until they
tasted the heirloom rice on a group field trip to
the Long Semadoh Valley in Sarawak that they
understood how utterly delicious, varied and
special this humble grain can be.
Heirloom rice comprises special varieties of
rice that have been handed down through
generations, renowned for their exceptional
flavour, aroma and colour, while also being
highly nutritious. "We were eating really good
rice five times a day. It felt like a privilege,
having all this amazing rice," said Lim. So when
Lim and her friends, Chen Le Leng, Chan Zi
Xiang and Chia Yong Ling, discovered that the
farmers at the Lun Bawang community were
feeding their excess rice to their livestock, they
were appalled at the waste. At the same time, a
lightbulb went off.
The four were colleagues in another non-profit
based in Malaysia, working on infrastructure
projects in the rural parts of Sabah and
Sarawak. They were solving the immediate
problems of the indigenous communities that
they met, such as access to clean water and
_Aug 2019_Explore Langit Collective03.indd 53 18/07/2019 10:45 AM