USA RICE FEDERATION SPONSORS $10,000 IN SCHOLARSHIP PRIZES

ARLINGTON, VA, May 6, 2008 — The USA Rice Federation is sponsoring a National Rice Month (NRM) scholarship contest this September for high school juniors and seniors whose families are directly involved in the rice industry in the six major rice-growing states of Arkansas, California, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, and Texas.

To qualify for a USA Rice NRM Scholarship, students must run a promotional campaigns in their local communities during September with U.S.-grown rice as the central theme.

Nine scholarship prizes totaling $10,000 are available. The grand prize is a $3,500 scholarship. The winner and a chaperone will also receive an expense-paid trip to the 2008 USA Rice Outlook Conference, December 7-9, in Little Rock, Arkansas for the scholarship presentation. Additional prizes are: second place, $2,000; third place, $1,500; fourth place, $1,000; fifth place, $750; and sixth place, $500. Three honorable mention prizes of $250 each also are available.

Initiated by an act of Congress in 1991, September marks the 18th annual NRM celebration. For more information and a scholarship contest entry form, see the Industry Affairs page, or call Randy Jemison at (337) 738-7009 or Chuck Wilson at (870) 673-7541.

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USA Rice Federation is the global advocate for all segments of the U.S. rice industry with a mission to promote and protect the interests of producers, millers, merchants and allied businesses.