The US State That Grows The Most Rice

[MULTIZ321]

The US State That Grows The Most Rice

The US State That Grows The Most Rice - Chowhound

The United States grows nearly 20 billion pounds of rice every year, and for over 50 years, one Southeastern state has produced the most of it.

www.chowhound.com

Richard

 

[TheHolleys87]

Arkansas! That was a surprise to this Louisiana girl.

 

[joestein]

Arkansas! That was a surprise to this Louisiana girl.

Would have through Carolinas. But Rice is a swampy crop and Arkansas is swampy (I think) so maybe that makes sense.

 

[DrQ]

Would have through Carolinas. But Rice is a swampy crop and Arkansas is swampy (I think) so maybe that makes sense.

The area that rice is grown in Arkansas is not swampy. They build up berms around the fields to flood during planting and drain them for harvesting. We drive through that part of the country when we drive to Charlotte NC and when we used to drive to Chicago.

 

[Bucky]

Arkansas comes as a real surprise to me. Growing up I used to spend two weeks every summer visiting my grandparents in Arkedelphia. Both parents were born and raised in Arkansas. My grandparents were farmers and the main crop (that I knew of) was cotton. I would have thought LA or MS maybe but, not Arkansas Would be big on rice.

 

[TheHolleys87]

The area that rice is grown in Arkansas is not swampy. They build up berms around the fields to flood during planting and drain them for harvesting. We drive through that part of the country when we drive to Charlotte NC and when we used to drive to Chicago.

I learn something new every day - very often right here on TUG! Who'd a'thought a timeshare forum would be so educational!

 

[DrQ]

I learn something new every day - very often right here on TUG! Who'd a'thought a timeshare forum would be so educational!

Here is another bit of knowledge:
Many of these fields were former cotton fields. The soil is contaminated with arsenic because they used it to control the boll weevil and to strip the leaves from the plant prior to harvesting. That is why brown rice, while supposedly being more healthy, contains more arsenic than white rice, where the hull is removed.

Living on Earth: Rice and... Arsenic?

A new study shows high levels of arsenic in rice grown in the American South. Rice is often grown in former cotton fields, where arsenic was long used as a pesticide. Living on Earth speaks with Professor Andrew Meharg of the University of Aberdeen, Scotland, who conducted the study.

www.loe.org

 

[jehb2]

Wow! I knew about California. I had no idea we grew rice here in Texas. I lived in Japan for a while and when taking any given train you could drive past a lot of rice fields. (Although Japan imports a lot of US rice.) But I just can’t imagine rice fields in Texas. In central Texas we often have watering restrictions. Fascinating.