Rice Industry Recognizes Leaders
By Vicky Boyd
Rice Farming Magazine
NEW ORLEANS, LA – Every year at the Annual Rice Awards Luncheon Rice Farming bestows three awards: Rice Farmer of the Year, the Rice Industry Award, and the Rice Lifetime Achievement Award. These annual recognitions, co-sponsored by Horizon Ag and USA Rice, highlight some of the most positive achievements associated with the U.S. rice industry.
The 2021 Rice Farmer of the Year is Nicole Montna Van Vleck, president and CEO of Montna Farms in Sutter County, California. In 2000, Van Vleck and her sister, Michell, took over the operation where their main crop is super high-premium, Japonica-style short grain varieties. Nicole has held leadership positions for USA Rice and the California Rice Commission where she is a tireless advocate for the U.S. rice industry.
“My passion is trying to solve difficult policy issues by bringing industry people together constructively and collaboratively,” says Nicole. “I believe it’s incumbent on all of us to serve in areas where we have expertise so our industry will continue to thrive for generations to come.”
Rice Industry Award winner Dr. Qiming “Doc” Shao is a lifelong member of the global rice community having grown up on his family’s farm in southern China. He studied rice breeding and genetics at Nanjing Agricultural University before relocating to the United States to further his education at Louisiana State University. He is currently the senior rice breeder for Nutrien Crop Solutions in El Campo, Texas, and is dedicated to breeding better rice varieties for farmers and consumers so everyone can enjoy high quality rice at an economic price.
Doc credits his success to the teamwork aspect of rice breeding and says, “I would not be receiving this award without the help of all the incredible colleagues I work with daily.”
Dr. Kent McKenzie is the recipient of the 2021 Rice Lifetime Achievement Award after a career that began in California, traversed Arkansas and Louisiana, and ultimately landed back in California, his home state. He took over as director of the California Rice Experiment Station (RES) in 2000, and during his twenty-year tenure there transformed RES into a modern- state-of-the-art rice breeding and research facility that is well known nationally and internationally. Colusa County rice grower Leo LaGrande says, “the modern varieties grown in California today are attributable to Kent’s hard work and dedication to an ever-changing rice industry.”
Kent says, “at RES I joined a mature, productive program with experienced breeders and staff who benefited from working with board members and growers who committed their time, talent, and dollars to support rice research.”
To learn more about the three award recipients, check out the special section included in the December issue of Rice Farming magazine.