Rice requires an aquatic environment to grow and as an aquatic grass acts as a natural buffer strip leaving water cleaner when it exits a field than when it enters the field. We support regulations for safe water quality based on sound science that consider all contributing sources of pollution with the implementation of voluntary best management practices in situations where standards are exceeded. 

To conserve a resource crucial to the production of rice, the industry has worked to support the development and voluntary adoption of efficient irrigation techniques.

We support research and development programs and activities by USDA and the land grant university system to develop improved production and management practices to increase the resource use efficiency of rice production and the voluntary adoption of these practices by growers.

Recent News

  • Louisiana Miller Named to USDA Grain Inspection Advisory Committee

    Jul 23, 2018

    John L. Morgan, a vice president of Supreme Rice Mill in Crowley, Louisiana, was named today by U.S. Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue to serve a two-year term on the Federal Grain Inspection Service’s (FGIS) Grain Inspection Advisory Committee beginning July 1, 2018. Full story
  • FDA Decision to Begin Enforcing Milk Definition Could Benefit Rice

    Jul 23, 2018

    U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Commissioner Scott Gottlieb announced on Tuesday that his agency will be reconsidering the way it enforces the standard of identity (SOI) for milk when it comes to non-dairy beverages. The development has significant implications for other foods engaged in identity battles, notably rice, which has been crying foul on what it calls “rice pretenders” such as riced cauliflower for more than one year. Full story
  • EPA scientists get a lesson in rice production irrigation from California farmer Mike DeWitt EPA Staff Explores California Rice Country

    Jun 19, 2018

    Last week USA Rice and the California Rice Commission (CRC) hosted five staff from across the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Office of Pesticide Programs to experience rice growing and milling in California firsthand. Full story