Excerpted from Rice Farming Magazine
LITTLE ROCK, AR – Every year at the Annual Rice Awards Luncheon
Rice Farming bestows three awards: Rice Farmer of the Year, the Rice Industry Award, and the Rice Lifetime Achievement Award. These annual recognitions, co-sponsored by Horizon Ag and USA Rice, highlight some of the most positive achievements associated with the U.S. rice industry.
The 2019 Rice Farmer of the Year is Jennifer James, who along with her husband, Greg, and her father, Marvin Hare, operate H&J Land Company in Jackson County, Arkansas. James is chair of the USA Rice Sustainability Committee and was recently elected to the Riceland Foods board of directors – the first woman in the co-op’s 90-year history. She has been described as an innovative rice grower, a tireless worker for the rice industry, and the ultimate conservationist.
“It is our obligation as farmers to speak loudly and often about the practices we employ on our farms to conserve our national resources and build habitat within our rice fields,” says James. “We are producing more with less and working hard every day to continue to improve.”
A love of agriculture and service to farmers come naturally to Rice Industry Award winner Jim F. Cook, and his attention to detail and conscientious approach to research and technology are hallmarks of his position with Colusa County Farm Supply (CCFS) in Williams, California.
“Jim’s two passions are research and helping people,” says rice producer Jared Gross and Jim’s co-worker at CCFS. “He is a tremendous resource, teammate, and an excellent mentor to young men and women starting their careers.”
Cook has an impressive list of accomplishments in his career, but he is quick to give credit to others. “I was adopted into the culture of the Northern California rice people, and many are my close friends to this day.”
Lifetime Achievement Award winner Dr. Ford Baldwin is a native Arkansan with a life-long connection to the state’s agriculture. He received his doctorate in agronomy and weed science from Oklahoma State University but returned to Arkansas to work as a rice weed scientist. Dr. Baldwin’s two noteworthy milestones in his rice research career are Command herbicide and the Clearfield Rice Production System.
According to rice producer Terry Gray, “Dr. Baldwin was instrumental in bringing new practices, chemicals, and technologies to the market for the everyday farmer. He has had the foresight to look ahead to see problems that were coming in the future and create plans to deal with them. That foresight has paid dividends to farmers in the Delta.”
To learn more about the three recipients, check out the
special section included in the December issue of Rice Farming magazine.