ARLINGTON, VA – Every industry has core leaders who make countless sacrifices to advance their industry. Often unsung, these heroes give of themselves, push the envelope, and seek to leave their world better than it was when they arrived on the scene. Fortunately for those dedicated people in the rice industry, we sing their songs quite a bit.
We did so at the annual Rice Awards Luncheon at the USA Rice Outlook Conference and we’re doing it again on
Episode 35 of
The Rice Stuff podcast. Honorees from 2021 joined show hosts Michael Klein and Lesley Dixon to share their amazing stories of resilience and dedication.
2021 Rice Farmer of the Year Nicole Montna Van Vleck explained how she turned a love of public policy into the prestigious recognition, while 2021 Rice Industry Award recipient Dr. Qiming Shao shared differences he has observed in the Chinese rice research community where he began his career and the U.S. rice industry he has called home for many decades. Dr. Kent McKenzie, the recipient of the 2021 Rice Lifetime Achievement Award, also generously shared time-tested words of wisdom for anyone in the industry.
“This is the second time we’ve had the Rice Award winners on the podcast and once again we had to work hard to condense these impressive bios into just a few lines or else we’d spend the whole time just listing all the amazing things they’ve done,” said Klein. “It’s a great honor to have them on the show and to have them share their thoughts with us in the more relaxed atmosphere of the podcast.”
Also joining the podcast was the grand prize winner of the National Rice Month (NRM) Video Scholarship Contest, Josefine Sedler of Oxnard, California. Sedler will be profiled in the
USA Rice Daily later this week, and after hearing her talk about her unique video, you won’t want to miss that.
The Rice Awards are sponsored by
Rice Farming Magazine, Horizon Ag, and USA Rice. The NRM Scholarship contest is sponsored by American Commodity Company.
New episodes of
The Rice Stuff are published twice each month on Tuesdays and can be found on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, and Stitcher. All episodes and additional information can be found on the podcast’s dedicated website at
thericestuffpodcast.com. The site includes a “Podcast 101” section on the “About” page for people new to the medium and a means to reach out to the show hosts and guests via the “Talk to Us” button.