Rice

Walmart Kicks in $1 Million for Rice Conservation

Sun, 15 Nov 2020 20:57:31 GMT

More than a decade ago, retail titan Walmart announced three long-term goals – it wanted to run on 100% renewable energy, create zero waste and sell products that sustain resources and the environment.

“As one of the largest companies in the world, with an expanding global presence, environmental problems are our problems,” admitted Walmart’s chief executive Lee Scott when he first rolled out the plan in 2005. Since that time, Walmart has launched or funded programs aimed at more sustainable palm oil, beef, seafood and more.

The latest potential benefactors? U.S. rice producers. Earlier in August, the Walmart Foundation announced a $1 million grant for rice stewardship efforts in the Mississippi Alluvial Valley and along the Gulf Coast. It supports work conducted by the USA Rice and Ducks Unlimited Rice Stewardship Partnership.

“The Stewardship Partnership is the delivery mechanism to provide in-person conservation technical assistance to the tremendous number of rice farmers interested in participating in the programs,” says Josh Hankins, USA Rice stewardship partnership coordinator. “Only a small percentage of the RCPP [Regional Conservation Partnership Program] is dedicated to fund staffing for this role, so we’re continuing to seek additional, outside funding to better provide the support needed on the ground to rice growers interested in implementing suites of conservation practices on their farms.”

The funding will be used primarily to assist and train farm owners, operators and workers, Hankins says. Conservation projects will also primarily use locally sourced contractors and supplies, which could have a positive effect on rural economies, he says.

“The challenge here is to conserve three critical natural resources in North America: working ricelands, water and wetland wildlife,” Hankins says. “The support of groups like the Walmart Foundation is critical to our ability to make this level of change happen.”

For more information on the RCPP’s various conservation and sustainability efforts, visit www.usarice.com/public-policy/conservation .

Heart of Delta Hides Visionary Farmer

Wed, 27 Jan 2021 20:09:52 GMT

Mike Wagner poured a glass of bourbon, dropped in a lone ice cube, and sat down to soak in the Mississippi Delta, maybe the most southern spot in the South. On a long front porch rubbing against sleepy Cassidy Bayou, a pounding Tallahatchie County spring rain danced on the surface of the winding stretch of water and the blanket of noise enveloped the extended veranda. Wagner, burdened by frustration and futility, emerged with a transformative vision as a remarkable farming blueprint was born beside the bayou.

In the late 1990s, Wagner steered full-sail into a storm of tillage issues, labor problems and burdensome input costs, singing his version of the Delta Blues. “What the hell was I doing? I wasn’t getting anywhere, but I kept on trying the same old things,” he says. “Diesel, irrigation, tillage, aquifer depletion, manpower issues and environment: The whole deal was in need of reversal.”

When Wagner spliced a vertical business approach with ultra-conservation, the resulting cords bound together a formula for long-term, sustainable success. He pulled the handbrake, financed his own research and turned his farm toward crop quality, conservation, market awareness and varietal segregation. The result is one of the most unique agriculture operations in the U.S.: Two Brooks Farm , in Sumner, Miss.

It’s difficult to find a more erudite producer than Wagner, a man equally adept checking his crops knee-deep in the muck of a rice paddy or as a dinner guest discussing science and literature. The consummate gentleman farmer is a humble man, but can’t conceal an exceptionally keen mind. Lanky frame and easy drawl, once he begins talking, out pours a remarkable tale spanning much of U.S. history.

If farming is truly in the blood, then Wagner is agricultural royalty. As a 10^th generation producer (276 straight crops), his Scots forebears hit the shores of Massachusetts in 1650 and began farming in Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley in 1742. They wore out the ground and shifted to the Carolinas to farm, subsequently moving to large tracts of land straddling the Alabama and Tennessee border. After several more generations, the family moved west into the Missouri Bootheel , and Wagner was born in 1962.

After college graduation in 1985, he took a farm manager position in the Delta with famed cotton grower Bill Pearson before leasing farmland and starting on his own in 1988. When land prices hit extreme lows, Wagner began buying acreage in 1993, purchasing enough ground to eventually trade for the present Two Brooks property.

Located between the Tallahatchie and Quiver rivers, Two Brooks is surrounded by a sportsman’s paradise of bayous, canebrakes, cypress woods and an abundance of wildlife. Twenty years in development, the entire farm is precision land formed and half the acreage is on a zero grade. Picture a labyrinth of interconnected fields: The borders follow natural contours, and from high above, the patchwork looks almost natural (two-thirds rice split between five varieties and one-third Group 3 soybeans). The soil is a heavy blue gumbo, 13’ to 15’ deep, filled with angels, devils and a history of broken farmers. Wagner’s name was next on the list … until the blueprint.

“We’re the stepping stones for our children,” Wagner says. Fronted by his daughter, Abbey; faithful farm companion, Deputy; and son, Lawrence, Wagner’s family farming trail dates back to 1742 and started in Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley.

© Chris Benentt

Years before the operation’s overhaul, Wagner shared the dream of raising, milling and marketing his own rice with fellow Tallahatchie County producer Mike Swindoll. “He’s an American story of entrepreneurship, savvy, grit and innovation,” Swindoll says. “He’s brought the dream to reality.”

Duck Till System

With Two Brooks in the heart of the Mississippi Flyway, Wagner harnessed his operation to avian power and used waterfowl as the ultimate tillage ally. Ducks and geese arrive by the thousands after harvest, demolishing stubble, depositing fertilizer and saving tremendous amounts of input costs.

The flocks arrive in pockets, moving from acre to acre, stamping down rice straw and leaving behind loads of nitrogen. With stubble mashed level thanks to an avian army, Wagner broadcasts seed during spring planting, adds minimal fertilizer (60 units of nitrogen provided by waterfowl) and harvests with Claas tracked combines. In addition, Wagner doesn’t put out insecticides or fungicides on his rice: “I have pretty damn good luck without ’em.”

All of his efforts are aimed at keeping machinery out of the fields. “That’s the recipe: We don’t till and we don’t burn our carbon,” Wagner explains. “Fuel, equipment, labor and fertilizer savings are incredible over the long haul.”

Five years after going no till and relying on waterfowl, the system was solidly in place, and yields were consistent with conventionally grown rice. “Expenses kill farms, and I’m not afraid to be cheap. I’m not a top yielder, but I cut my expenses to the bone. When times are good, nobody asks me about the input reductions. When times are rough, people ask questions,” he says.

“I say this with complete respect: Mike is cheap,” Swindoll echoes. “If it doesn’t make ROI at Two Brooks, not a single penny will be spent.”

Wagner took piecemeal ground and connected the parts to form an integrated, conservation-focused productive farm, says Tallahatchie County producer Garner Falls: “I know how rough the farm was before Mike bought it. He leveled the dirt, designed his own water system and turned the whole thing into a show place.”

“Mike had an idea and stuck to it from vision to execution,” Falls describes. “He figured out how to farm buckshot on ground where nobody else had ever done it in a productive, cost-effective manner.”

Difference is Dollars

A typical Delta rice field can easily suck in 2 acre feet or more of water. Wagner uses a matter of inches and the difference is dollars. Simply, what he pumps, he keeps. His zero grade fields use 6” of aquifer water (8.9” average across the entire farm). The rest of Two Brooks’ water use comes from green sources. Wagner pumps water in and stair-steps it through pipes across several miles of the operation.

When a paddy needs to be drained, the water is channeled into another field in a musical chairs approach that requires minimal electricity and diesel. If a timely July rain hits, Wagner doesn’t lose a drop of water from his zero grade fields. (In 2016, he cut off well pumping on July 10 for the entire season.) “The amount I save on diesel is stupendous. That’s how to save money and I’d be broke if I didn’t take these measures,” he says.

Inside the belly of an immaculate mill: Mississippi Blue Rice, Two Brooks’ value-added rice company, is run by Lawrence and Abbey Wagner.

© Chris Benentt

Nutrient runoff isn’t an issue due to recycling. (Wagner also uses drainage and irrigation canals as a settling basin to hold potential runoff.) “I don’t want to lose any soil or fertilizer because it costs me too much,” he says. “I also see the hypoxia in the Gulf of Mexico and I don’t want to add to the problem.”

“Mike is a resourceful visionary and recognized Two Brooks’ land was put here to grow rice, just as he was,” Swindoll says. “He transformed a notoriously raw piece of God’s good Earth and it has become a model conservation farm where maximum efficiency rules.”

Mississippi Blue Rice

After Wagner tackled his soil and water issues, marketing came next. He was growing common Delta varieties and tossing high quality rice onto barges loaded with the entire spectrum of grain condition. It was a mixing disaster that pushed him toward distinction of product. Grow, mill and market all within the confines of Two Brooks? In 2013, Wagner made a move into vertical integration, buying a mill and placing it directly beside his rice fields and elevator. Transportation costs are measured in feet, not miles.

Two Brooks’ rice is stem ripened, left in the field an extra week to bring moisture down to 14% to 15%, instead of the typical 18% to 19%. Wagner runs a slightly bigger risk of a hurricane strike or major weather event, but that’s the gamble of farming.

The mill is the source of Mississippi Blue Rice , Two Brooks’ value-added rice company run by Wagner’s son, Lawrence, 24, and daughter, Abbey, 23, who handles retail marketing. “I work the business and work the field,” Lawrence says. “Doing both is intimidating but I love it. There aren’t too many people in the world who are fortunate enough to experience farming in this way.”

One step inside the mill reveals a repository of the senses, and the sweet aroma of Two Brooks’ unique Missimati fragrant rice is unmistakable. The building is immaculately clean and ordered; a testament to Two Brooks’ extreme high-quality grain. Rice comes in from the elevator (200’ away) and goes through a sheller, polisher and color sorter. (In case of a bug bite, the color sorter eliminates the bad kernels.) After funneling through a length separator, the finished rice goes into bulk bags and boxes for the food industry or small bags for retail. ( Two Brooks also produces flour and grits, all kosher-certified by a rabbi flown in from New York City.)

Bound by Service

Far beyond conservation and profit, Wagner is bound to civic duty and humanitarian service. Two Brooks donates thousands of pounds of rice to kitchens and care stations. “If there is a tornado or natural disaster, Mike will be first in line hauling rice to help somebody,” Swindoll says. “He does it in a biblical manner with action and no words because he wants as little attention as possible.”

In addition to a chain of positions on agriculture boards during his career, Wagner also serves on the Emmett Till Memorial Commission . Till’s 1955 murder became emblematic of the Civil Rights Movement and the consequent trial was held in the Tallahatchie County courthouse located on the Sumner square. (The courthouse now houses the Emmett Till Museum .)

Dwight Roberts, president and CEO of the U.S. Rice Producers Association , says Wagner is highly esteemed in the U.S. and foreign rice industries: “Whenever he worked with us in promotions, he did it as if there were 1,000 growers sitting over his shoulder because he always has his fellow farmers in mind.”

“Mike is highly intriguing and very interesting because he doesn’t mind trying something different,” Roberts adds. “He doesn’t see his crop as a commodity, but rather a product.”

Stepping Stones

From left: Abbey, Deputy, Mike, and Lawrence walk a labyrinth of interconnected fields surrounded by a sportsman’s paradise of bayous, cypress woods and an abundance of wildlife.

© Chris Bennett

Wagner’s long family history marks a trail of travel across the frontiers of the U.S. in a search of better ground and richer soil. The frontiers are gone, but a pursuit remains in place. “My family journey is over and ends in the Delta, but the next challenge is technology,” he explains. “We’ve got to recognize our limited resource stream and find farming systems that will work both now and in the future. We’re the stepping stones for our children.”

Sitting on the bayou porch once again, Wagner takes a last sip of bourbon and stares out at an endless chain of massive, water-bound cypress trees standing like history’s sentinels. “Every farm is different, and my recipe won’t work everywhere,” he says, “but I do believe every farm can use part of some natural system to get land back to the way God made it.”

Analysis: Details of 2009-Crop Disaster Aid Set by USDA

Sun, 15 Nov 2020 20:54:50 GMT

Those waiting for disaster assistance promised by the Obama administration for 2009 crop losses at least have a definitive answer from USDA, but it falls far short of what has been talked about in recent weeks and months.

USDA will deliver up to $550 million in aid to producers of 2009 crops of rice, upland cotton, sweet potatoes and soybeans -- no other crops are cited in documents from USDA that were released this week by Senate Ag Committee Chair Blanche Lincoln (D-Ark.). And that dollar amount is not what Lincoln had sought -- her original request was for around $2 billion and her last legislative attempt was for a $1.5 billion package. The aid will be made to those growers who are in a county designated a primary disaster county due to high precipitation or moisture conditions in 2009. That translates in to 1,000 counties in 26 states.

While welcoming the aid, Lincoln said she was disappointed that the plan didn’t cover more. I am disappointed the Administration did not develop a program that was closer to my original legislation which provided adequate assistance to all crops, from all regions of the country,” Lincoln said. “Despite these hurdles, I was able to use my influence as Chairman to provide relief to farm families. In Arkansas, this program will ensure nearly 90% of all acres are eligible to receive assistance if they experienced a weather-related disaster. It will also help hundreds of poultry growers and fish farmers who are suffering due to circumstances beyond their control.”

According to USDA, producers who certify to at least a 5% loss in 2009 will receive a payment based on a pre-determined payment rate multiplied by the actual planted (or prevented planted) acres that they have on file with FSA. Further, FSA will work up regulations to implement this program that applies average adjusted gross income eligibility requirements and payment limitations consistent with other disaster programs. Payment rates per acre for eligible producers: Long Grain Rice:$31.93 Medium/Short Grain Rice $52.46 Soybeans $15.62 Sweet Potatoes $155.41 Upland Cotton $17.70 Besides the crop aid, the program will also provide up to $60 million in the form of a grant to states where poultry producers lost a contract due to the bankruptcy of an integrator in December of 2008. Poultry producers must have lost their contract with the bankrupt integrator between May 1, 2008, and July 1, 2010, and been unable to enter into a subsequent contract. A grant will be made to all States with impacted producers to help cover the needs of these producers. In addition, the package will included up to $20 million (also in the form of a grant to states) for farm-raised aquaculture producers who experienced high feed costs in 2009. That aid will be allocated to states on a pro-rata basis, based on total benefits earned by all eligible 2008 aquaculture producers in each state under the 2008 AGP, authorized by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. USDA said for both the aquaculture and poultry aid, average adjusted gross income and payment limitations consistent with other disaster programs will apply.

While Lincoln expressed disappointment at the aid package, others were more pointed in their reactions to the matter. House Ag Committee ranking Republican Frank Lucas (Okla.) said, “This disaster program clearly picks winners and losers with little justification. Rahm Emanuel and his Chicago-style politics have obviously overridden any common sense, legal precedent, or fiscal restraint at the Agriculture Department.” The justification for this to be limited to flood or excessive rain declarations and to certain commodities amounts to rewarding farmers who happen to live in certain states and grow certain commodities.” In addition, Lucas called for hearings to determine on the precedent this aid plan sets.

And Ken Cook of the Environmental Working Group was even more pointed, labeling it nothing more than a political help thrown to Sen. Lincoln. “They really ought to report this expenditure to the Federal Election Commission,” Cook stated.

But USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack denied any political favors were being done with the aid. He told reporters when announcing the aid that it was in the works “well before any conversation that may have taken place between [White House Chief of Staff] Rahm Emanuel and any member of Congress.”

The reason, Vilsack said, was to address concerns about the Supplemental Revenue Assistance Program (SURE) -- the disaster aid package included in the 2008 Farm Bill -- that had been expressed by growers in the Southeast United States. “The folks, particularly in the Southeast, felt that program (SURE) would not be particularly responsive to the needs of their producers,” Vilsack said.