Isn't there a weird thing in America where the Federal Government is buying up cheese and diary products to support the farmers? I guess it'd be a similar thing with rice. You wouldn't make it free exactly, a government would buy it off the farmers and ship it to where its needed, so the price of rice wouldn't go to zero, instead it would be a reliable crop with reliable demand.

I'm definitely in two minds about all this... on one hand, we have enough technology to help struggling areas with cheap, renewable power that could leapfrog the infrastructure debt of developed countries that would help them directly grow food in struggling areas... and on the other hand, should people be living in areas that can't sustain that population? Is it efficient to effectively fight against nature, especially considering we're only more likely to see more and more extreme weather events destroying our already underfunded infrastructure?