Day One Of The USA Rice Outlook Conference Looked Into the Future
USA Rice
NEW ORLEANS, LA – The 2025 USA Rice Outlook Conference General Session started local and expanded into the distant future. It began with greetings from the 88th International Rice Festival Queen Ansley Dawson and Louisiana Farm Bureau Federation President Richard Fontentot who both spoke about the importance of the rice industry, thanked attendees for joining them, and, of course, invited everyone back to the 89th International Rice Festival in Crowley, Louisiana, next October.
USDA Foreign Agriculture Service Administrator Daniel Whitley, originally hailing from Baton Rouge, discussed his agency’s commitment to promoting U.S. ag products – especially rice – around the world. He said the Administration is well aware of the pressures facing agriculture and that expanded existing markets and opening new ones is his priority.
The first keynote of the day was from Innovation Evangelist Steve Lerch who provided compelling, inspiring, and often humorous stories encouraging people to embrace change and innovation and reminding everyone that inspiration can come from the most unexpected places.
“In the early days of Amazon, when they just sold books and DVDs, Jeff Bezos sent an email to 1,000 random customers asking them what other things they wished Amazon sold. Someone replied, ‘windshield wipers because I need them now,’” Lerch said. “Bezos said that was the most important email he every received, and as we all know, you can now buy anything and everything on Amazon.”
The second keynote speaker was Futurist Nikolas Badminton who took attendees on a deep dive into the future, exploring questions not just of how to integrate technology such as artificial intelligence and self-driving vehicles, but also what role can rice play in the future of a world with a growing population that is still undergoing climate change with an adverse effect on agriculture.
“A key question for us all is, ‘do we allow technology to lead us, or do we lead how we use technology,” Badminton posed.
Later in the day, the Exhibit Hall opened with three education stages – the Anheuser-Busch Stage, the FMC Stage, and the Nutrien Ag Solutions Stage – that hosted 17 concurrent sessions with more than 30 speakers covering the current political and regulatory landscape, gene editing, hydrology, the 2026 ag economy, rural mental health, crop residue management, and research and crop outlook analysis from eight rice producing states.
“Day one was a great success,” USA Rice President & CEO Peter Bachmann said. “We have more great programming for day two and again, we have to thank not just the attendees and presenters, but the exhibitors and sponsors who make this all possible.”