More than a year ago, members of the rice community began working with Sen. John Boozman, ranking member of the U.S. Senate Committee on Agriculture, and his staff for an assistance program to alleviate skyrocketing fertilizer, fuel, and input costs. Now this funding has finally come to fruition with a $250 million Rice Production Program which was included in the Consolidated Appropriations Act that passed last winter. 

As the southwest Louisiana rice crop begins to gain momentum, growers and industry reps in the region joined researchers from the Louisiana State University AgCenter H. Rouse Caffey (HRC) Rice Research Station on Wednesday to hear early reports on the field variety trials in their perspective areas.

Thursday, the Supreme Court of the United States issued its long-awaited opinion in the case Sackett v. EPA, ruling in favor of the Sacketts – a significant victory for the agriculture and broader business industries. All nine Justices affirmed the decision through various concurring opinions.

The future is here and what sounds like the fevered dreams of science fiction writers is actually happening at leading rice research facilities today.  All U.S. rice is GMO-free, however, the use of non-GMO DNA marker technologies has greatly improved the rice breeding process in recent years.  USA Rice’s Dr. Steve Linscombe invited some of the leading minds in this work to discuss the technology on Episode 69 of The Rice Stuff, available now.

Rice is in trouble as the Earth heats up, threatening the food and livelihood of billions of people. Sometimes there’s not enough rain when seedlings need water, or too much when the plants need to keep their heads above water. As the sea intrudes, salt ruins the crop. As nights warm, yields go down.

New research suggests that gene-edited rice would likely survive in Martian soil, providing a staple crop to hungry colonizers.

In August of 2005, a group of U.S. rice producers and millers traveled to Havana, Cuba, to visit with officials from ALIMPORT, the Cuban Government’s primary grain-buying agency, about purchases of U.S. rice.

After passage of the Trade Sanctions Reform and Export Enhancement Act of 2000, Cuba had begun buying U.S. rice for the first time since the U.S. imposed a trade embargo on the island after Fidel Castro rose to power in 1960.

This past weekend, at the 51st Rayne Frog Festival here, the theme was “Living off the Land.” Among the presentations on a variety of agricultural products and industries, was one on the history of rice production given by Paul Zaunbrecher, a fifth-generation rice farmer from here who farms with his brothers at GF&P Zaunbrecher Farms.

The opening of the Jubilee Justice Specialty Foods and Rice Mill is the culmination of a successful rice experiment benefitting a collective of Black farmers from across the South. The project involved growing rice using the System of Rice Intensification (SRI) method. 

A recent decision by a Louisiana appellate court to uphold the state's “Truth in Labeling of Food Products Act” has been hailed as a victory for consumers and the agriculture industry. The 3-0 ruling by the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans was made in response to a constitutional challenge by plant-based meat substitute company Tofurky, which argued that the law violated its First Amendment rights to free speech.