Op-Ed: Communication key to rice prosperity

A short drive from some of the most familiar sites in the Yuba-Sutter region is something not as well understood, yet no less vital – some of the world's most productive rice fields.

This part of the Sacramento Valley is the dominant area of the California rice industry. Family rice farms produced grain with a combined farm gate value of nearly $175 million in Yuba and Sutter counties last year, providing jobs, wildlife habitat, much-needed revenue and locally grown food.

Even though rice is a major part of the Sacramento Valley and California economies, our issues of concern often go largely unnoticed just down the road from the farm.

The irony is that we all face similar challenges.

Your fuel bills and cost of living have soared. The same holds true for area growers. Just as the nation's financial crisis created upheaval for those in cities, farmers are concerned about how this unfolding scenario will affect their future financing.

Just like you, rice farmers send their kids to the same schools and Little League games.

Still, a lack of understanding remains about what our rice means to you in the city.

The challenge is clear — how do you maintain a key industry when few people understand it?

To this end, the California Rice Commission launched "Little Water, Big Results." a public education effort that brought the message of water efficiency in rice farming to hundreds of thousands of urban residents.

"Little Water, Big Results" included an image of a glass filled with 5 inches of water sitting in a Sacramento Valley rice field. It provided a dramatic visual illustration that while area rice fields may resemble lakes, in reality they only have a water depth of 5 inches.

It also provided facts about how drought-conscious California rice growers have reduced water consumption by nearly 40 percent during the last 30 years.

This message was delivered in a full-page ad in a major Sacramento newspaper and a copy was hand-delivered to every member of the California Senate and Assembly.

It's the start of a series of educational programs the commission has in the works to get our messages out to decision makers and opinion leaders.

Our next effort, "Where the Wild Things Are," involves additional information to urban California about the important habitat ricelands provide to hundreds of wildlife species, including millions of birds along the Pacific Flyway. Without adequate water available in rice fields, this $1 billion benefit to our environment that is essentially free to all Californians would be severely compromised.

In this age of buying local, thinking green and a quest for sustainable practices, it seems an especially fitting time for a rediscovery or greater appreciation of those in our communities filling those needs.

California's 2007 rice crop was valued at a record $583 million. This year's rice crop is expected to tip the scales at more than four billion pounds. All of this was achieved with the toughest environmental standards in the world, and is only the beginning of the benefits that come from our fields.

The more all Californians understand each other, the better equipped we all are to ensure prosperity for generations to come.

Tim Johnson is President & CEO of the California Rice Commission, which represents the 2,500 growers and handlers who annually farm and process rice produced on approximately 500,000 acres.