DALLAS, TX – More than 100 USA Rice volunteer leaders gathered here last week for annual membership meetings, budget and policy discussions, and program reviews. During the two packed days, ten committees, seven boards of directors, one working group, and all six major rice producing state delegations met to set the industry’s course ahead.
It’s a tumultuous time for U.S. rice farmers who are facing a variety of economic headwinds because of unsustainably high input costs, low market prices, and global trade distortion, resulting in the lowest rice acreage planted since the 1970s. Discussion topics at the meetings reflected growing concerns about high input costs, supply chain interruptions, rising labor expenses, elevated interest rates, and market uncertainty.
The U.S. industry efforts to address grain quality were also covered in multiple meetings in the wake of the first Aromatic Rice Quality Symposium held prior to the beginning of the business session.
“The 2026 crop in the United States will include close to 50,000 acres of aromatic rice which is by far the largest acreage ever devoted to these specialty types,” explained USA Rice’s Dr. Steve Linscombe, who helped coordinate the event. “Newly released aromatic varieties and experimental lines were displayed and cooked for sampling by rice breeders.”
New leadership for the organization was elected to two-year terms, including Louisiana rice farmer John Owen as USA Rice chair; Arkansas merchant Collin Holzhauer as USA Rice Merchants’ Association chair; ADM’s Todd Burich as USA Rice Millers’ Association chair and, Louisiana farmer John Frederick Denison as The Rice Foundation chair.
All board changes take effect on August 1, 2026.