--- title: Rice Farmers Are Putting Ducks to Work in Their Paddies description: 1. To use fewer pesticides, rice farmers are putting ducks to work in their paddies. By Coco Lui in National Geographic’s the Plate 2. Could... canonical: https://time.com/4519586/rice-farmers-are-putting-ducks-to-work-in-their-paddies/ author: TIME article:opinion: true article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-10-05T16:00:39.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-05-11T04:59:26.907Z article:section: Ideas og:title: Rice Farmers Are Putting Ducks to Work in Their Paddies og:description: These are today's best ideas og:url: https://time.com/4519586/rice-farmers-are-putting-ducks-to-work-in-their-paddies/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Rice Farmers Are Putting Ducks to Work in Their Paddies twitter:description: These are today's best ideas twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Rice Farmers Are Putting Ducks to Work in Their Paddies by [The Aspen Institute](https://time.com/author/the-aspen-institute/) ## The Aspen Institute Oct 5, 2016 4:00 PM UTC by [The Aspen Institute](https://time.com/author/the-aspen-institute/) ## The Aspen Institute Oct 5, 2016 4:00 PM UTC **1\.** [**To use fewer pesticides, rice farmers are putting ducks to work in their paddies.**](http://www.nationalgeographic.com/people-and-culture/food/the-plate/2016/09/want-cleaner-rice-paddies--consider-ducks/) By Coco Lui in National Geographic’s the Plate **2\.** [**Could childhood trauma speed aging?**](https://consumer.healthday.com/senior-citizen-information-31/misc-aging-news-10/childhood-traumas-may-speed-aging-study-finds-715457.html) By Dennis Thompson at HealthDay **3\.** [**Both presidential candidates oppose the TPP. But American farmers love it. Here’s why.**](http://www.pri.org/stories/2016-10-04/american-politicians-say-they-hate-tpp-farmers-love-it) By Jason Margolis at PRI’s the World **4\.** [**Talk to strangers.**](http://observer.com/2016/09/to-combat-xenophobia-do-talk-to-strangers/) By Kio Stark in the Observer **5\.** [**Make U.S. media more diverse. Fund internships for journalists of color.**](http://www.poynter.org/2016/want-more-journalists-of-color-help-pay-for-their-internships/433061/) By Meredith D. Clark at Poynter  [_The Aspen Institute_](http://www.aspeninstitute.org/) _is an educational and policy studies organization based in Washington, D.C._ ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"OpinionNewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4519586/rice-farmers-are-putting-ducks-to-work-in-their-paddies/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4519586/rice-farmers-are-putting-ducks-to-work-in-their-paddies/"},"headline":"Rice Farmers Are Putting Ducks to Work in Their Paddies","datePublished":"2016-10-05T16:00:39.000Z","dateModified":"2026-05-11T04:59:26.907Z","description":"1. To use fewer pesticides, rice farmers are putting ducks to work in their paddies. By Coco Lui in National Geographic’s the Plate 2. Could...","url":"https://time.com/4519586/rice-farmers-are-putting-ducks-to-work-in-their-paddies/","keywords":["Innovation","Pesticides","Journalism","communication","Trauma","TPP"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"The Aspen Institute","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/the-aspen-institute/"}],"articleSection":"Ideas","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/ideas/","name":"Ideas"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/innovation/","name":"Innovation"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4519586/rice-farmers-are-putting-ducks-to-work-in-their-paddies/","name":"Rice Farmers Are Putting Ducks to Work in Their Paddies"}}]}] ```