Excerpted from
Rice Farming Magazine
LITTLE ROCK, AR – Every year at the Annual Rice Awards Luncheon, Rice Farming Magazine 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 2024 Rice Farmer of the Year is Michael Fruge, a second-generation farmer who grows rice, soybeans, and crawfish on his family’s operation near Eunice, Louisiana. After graduating college, Fruge worked as a district sales manager with Horizon Ag but it wasn’t long before he was farming full-time and with a dream of creating his own rice brand.
“I wanted to tell the Louisiana rice story and put my own rice in a package,” says Michael. “Rice is a huge part of the culture in Louisiana, but I thought we could do a better job of marketing what we grow. When I came back to the farm, I felt like we could grow specific varieties for specific consumers to add more value to what we are doing.”
In 2021, Michael began packaging his new specialty variety, a higher-protein low-glycemic long grain variety under the Parish Rice brand and today, the product is available in several major supermarket chains, numerous other outlets, and online at parishrice.com.
“Michael is a ‘rice guy’ through and through,” said Horizon Ag CEO Tim Walker. “He is an outstanding advocate for all of us who are blessed to earn our livelihood from rice.”
Dr. Jason Norsworthy, recipient of the 2024 Rice Industry Award, is a professor of weed science at the University of Arkansas where he leads research efforts in rice weed control, training more than 60 graduate students and post-doctoral associates in the discipline. He is also the youngest weed scientist ever named a Fellow by the Weed Science Society of America.
Although Jason has an incredible number of professional accomplishments under his belt, he is the first to say he could never have done it alone. “I learned from Dr. Ford Baldwin to focus on the grower and ensure research gets to the end user,” says Jason. And Dr. Baldwin, retired University of Arkansas weed scientist, said, “Jason has the unique ability to command the respect of the International Weed Science community at the basic research level, while commanding equal respect from a group of farmers at a field day or grower meeting.”
Al Montna received the 2024 Rice Lifetime Achievement Award in recognition of his role as a renowned rice producer for more than five decades, his deep-rooted conservation ethic, and leadership and commitment to the rice industry. He serves as chair of Montna Farms, a fourth-generation, 5,000 acre operation in Sutter County, California, of mainly super high-premium, Japonica-style short grain rice. But he also spends time championing water conservation, establishing habitat for waterfowl, and advocating for the U.S. rice industry.
“His visionary leadership, innovative practices, and tireless advocacy have left an indelible mark on the industry,” said Bryce Lundberg, vice president of agriculture, Lundberg Family Farms.
To learn more about the three award recipients, check out the
special section included in the December issue of Rice Farming magazine.