Rice growing in the U.S. is today mostly associated with Arkansas or California and historically, the Lowcountry and Mississippi Delta. But this summer, Cornell Cooperative Extension launched what it hopes will be a long-term project to develop a regional rice growing system in the Northeast.
"We wanted to identify possible flood-tolerant crops for our farmers," said Cornell professor Jenny Kao-Kniffin, who is overseeing the project. Over the past decade, intense precipitation events have caused disastrous consequences for farmers around the region. Rice is flood-tolerant but doesn't require flooding conditions and the grain is just as profitable on the East Coast as other high-value crops that don't fare as well in the event of an extreme downpour. The Cornell initiative brings agronomy, education and infrastructure for scalability under one umbrella to support small-scale growers — joining a small group of farmers and academics in the region who are studying this cereal to optimize land affected by climate change, support farmers and foster local, resilient crops, crop diversity and a healthy, flavorful food supply.
