The Louisiana Rice Research Board decides how farmers’ check-off funds will be spent on research

aimed at helping rice farmers. Board members are, left to right, bottom row, Brian Wild, Chairman

Jackie Loewer, Vice Chairman Clarence Berken, Secretary-Treasurer Richard Fontenot, Jason Waller,

Damian Bollich, Jude Doise; top row, left to right, Phillip Lamartiniere, Benjamin Rayburn for

Louisiana Agriculture Commissioner Mike Strain, Ronald Sonnier, Fred Zaunbrecher, Sammy Noel,

Donald Berken, Michael Fruge and Dane Hebert.

In her poem “Driving West,” Linda Pastan wrote, “We are the pioneers of our own histories.” What we do today determines what kind of rice industry exists tomorrow, just as how those who came before determined how our industry thrives today.

An example of that was the recent name change of the Rice Research Station in Crowley to the H. Rouse Caffey Rice Research Station. This is a fitting tribute to Dr. Caffey who was station director from 1962 to 1970 and chancellor of the LSU AgCenter from 1984 to 1997. Dr. Caffey was a model of all the station directors before and after him who built the station into the world-class status that it enjoys today.

How well we take care of our land today determines its productivity in the future. How well we take care of our tractors today determines how long they will last. How well we take care of our children will determine how well they take care of theirs. And so it goes.

The mandate of your Rice Research Board is to be caretakers of your research checkoff funds. Your board continues to fund the research projects explained in this report. Our industry burns research like a tractor burns diesel. It is the power and energy that drives our industry. We will always need it. The need is never met. There is always more out there to know, just like a tractor that always needs fuel.

In addition to the checkoff funds, the Research Board is trustee for Louisiana’s share of Col-Rice funds generated by the free trade agreement with Colombia. To date the board has used those funds to purchase necessary equipment and an irrigation well for the Rice Station and to create a $1 million endowed chair to help fund rice research within the AgCenter, all long-term investments that secure the future of rice research.

Our state rice industry is blessed in that 96 percent of all the checkoff funds collected by the Department of Agriculture and Forestry are distributed to your board. Some choose not to participate, and they request a refund. The next time you contemplate asking for a refund, ask yourself if you want to be a part of ensuring the rice industry’s future or simply choosing to ride the coat tails of those who do.

Let the future say of us that we were their pioneers, that we did the hard work and hard thinking, that we made the hard decisions to ensure that rice will continue to feed our people, and that we used our resources well.

Jackie Loewer, Chairman

Louisiana Rice Research Board