2.1 - Conversation with the California Rice Commission with Tim Johnson (Pt. 1)

Feedback Form

Together, the UCCE Farm Advisors seek to provide relevant, topical research-backed information relating to CA rice production.

Sarah Marsh Janish sat down with Tim Johnson, the President & CEO of the California Rice Commission, also known as the CRC. The CRC makes it their mission to support the family farmers and mills who have excelled for more than a century. This support looks like engaging in a number of comprehensive regulatory programs such as managing water quality programs, maintaining an active industry communications program, and coordinating wildlife habitat conservation programs.

Sarah and Tim discussed the role and mission of the California Rice Commission, its history, and its efforts to manage water quality, habitat conservation, and industry communications. They also explored the environmental impact of rice farming, the importance of rice fields for waterfowl habitat and shorebirds, and the potential for rice fields to contribute to the recovery of salmon runs. The conversation ended with a discussion on the California Rice Commission's role in promoting rice farming, its partnerships with organizations, and its focus on collaboration and resource efficiency.

Upcoming Rice Events
Rice Winter Grower Meetings - February 10-13th, 2025

California Rice Commission Website

Other Resources

UC Rice Blog

UC Agronomy - Rice

Rice Briefs (Colusa/Yolo)

Rice Notes (Yuba-Sutter)

Rice Leaf (Butte/Glenn)

Rice in the Delta

UC ANR is an equal opportunity provider and employer

Transcript

2.1 CRC.Part1.mp3

Transcript

Sarah Marsh Janish

Hello and welcome to thoughts on Rice, a podcast hosted by the University of California Cooperative Extension Race Advisors. I'm one of your hosts, Sarah Marsh Janish, and I'm a rice farm advisor for Colusa and Yolo counties.

Whitney Brim Deforest

I'm Whitney BrimDeforest. I'm the Cooperative Extension rice advisor for Sutter, Yuba, Placer, and Sacramento counties.

Luis Espino

My name is Luis Espino. I'm the rice farming systems advisor for Butte and Glenn counties.

Michelle Leinfelder Miles

I’m Michelle Leinfelder Miles, I'm a farm advisor in the Delta region. I work on all sorts of field crops, grains and forages. But one of those is rice, and the county's that I cover are san Joaquin, Sacramento, Yolo, Solano and Contra Costa counties.

Sarah Marsh Janish

Together, the UCC Rice farm advisors seek to provide relevant topical research backed information relating to California rice production. Today I have the privilege of sitting down with Tim Johnson, the President and CEO of the California Rice Commission, also known as the. The CRC makes it their mission to support the family, farmers and mills who have excelled for more than a century. This support looks like engaging in a number of comprehensive regulatory programs, such as managing water quality. Maintaining an active industry communications program and coordinating wildlife habitat conservation programs. Tim, thank you for speaking with me today.

Tim Johnson

Well, thanks for having me, Sarah.

Sarah Marsh Janish

Well, Tim, let's start off with a relatively easy question. Let's talk about your background and how you got to be a part of this role.

Tim Johnson

Sure. Well, I have been in this role for such a long time. Going to go on the way back machine. I actually came out of the food sector, so after college I worked at Frito Lay and then at producers. And then I started my rice time if you would working for the California Rice Promotion Board. In the mid 1990s, and then eventually Rice promotion Board really changed into the California Rice Committee. Yeah, I've had the privilege of. Its CEO since its inception.

Sarah Marsh Janish

Wow, that's. And that actually kind of leads me into my next question, which is what is the rule that the California Rice Commission play in today's California rice markets?

Tim Johnson

Right. So really I think you captured it quite well, the primary focuses of the Commission. But overall, the objective is to do the things right for the industry. That the farmers. Don't have time to too much, you know, just take too much resources and energy on an individual level to to execute things like water quality policy. And program implementation also on the policy side for mills and handlers. To make. That we're actively engaged in international trade policy, development of things like Farm bill policy, so. Our overall objective is to. We do that interface between the. Growers and handling. And some of the bigger things that we all have to navigate as agriculture in California, those four primary areas, right? Have regulatory. Water quality is a huge one. Policy, both state and federal, as well as conservation programs and AMOLED sign up for the other thing that we've had a long history of doing is really being that communications interface between the farm and the mill and the people of California who really might not know about our. Even if you're someplace close. And certainly in some of the lower group, you know, urban centers like San Francisco, Los Angeles. But you're not going to bounce into a rice farmer right in a Costco or somebody in the airport coming into the Sacramento. And so we provide opportunity for the industry to connect with those very important people in California, have the end of the day a lot of interest in agriculture, but also a lot of impact on on what life farming looks like.

Sarah Marsh Janish

I think that's incredibly vital or the size of the state. California, there's such a. And not only people, but landscapes I remember. Were during my time at UC Davis, I'd run across some people who, despite Davis having rice fields relatively close by, were unaware of how large a rice producing state California was. So having that kind of output outreach from your organization is incredibly important.

Tim Johnson

Really something where, along with the others that you know focused effort, we can make those connections really I think and our numbers think really benefit our industry. I've got a story that I tell frequently of standing in line at a Starbuck. Right in downtown Sacramento and start a conversation as you're waiting in line. Know what do you do and. Industry and and they were absolutely stunned, did not know we had a rice industry and you know, this was somebody who, you know, worked in and around the state capital. And it was two things. Was an opportunity to make that connection and. And just also, I think the realization of just a gap between people's everyday lives. Whether you're working in the state, capital or everyday lives of of a rice farmer or a rice Miller, we. People may not know about rice, and I almost guarantee you we may not know about the things that people in urban areas think about every day and are important to them. We find the environmental programs that rice do that we undertake on our fields and in the in the workplace. Farmers do support the flyway, which I'm I'm sure. Are some of those really? Kind of beginning conversations and then say they understand that we grow all this rice in the state half a million acres. And we grow America's sushi rice. Exciting. They we the conversation. You always goes to. Well, the Ducks and the geese that we're starting to see this time of year. Right. The shore birds and a lot of the other environmental programs that come so naturally. Right to to race in in the Sacramento Valley and is really argued back to the state. So it's great. Be able to make that connection.

Sarah Marsh Janish

So with that, I guess we mentioned this a little bit in your background about the previous organization of the Rice promotional board. But can you tell me a bit more about the history and background of the CRC?

Tim Johnson

True and came as an organization out of a time where there was some some pretty good tension. There was tension between rice farmers and and the people Sacramento for doing things like burning their rice fields, which common practice around the world certainly was a very common practice in. Sacramento Valley 20 years ago. So and there was a lot of regulation that was coming after the industry, in fact, not only regulation, but also laws, right? That would stop price drop. Really were able to get through that process, phase down rice, strawberry instead of stopping immediately be able to work with UCU Cooperative Extension to develop alternate practices on our fields. But at the same time, I think it really Fr. The industry is a whole from a fairly small leadership group of of handlers to growers realizing they also needed to be engaged on the policy side.

Speaker

Ball.

Tim Johnson

Many commodity groups have a promotion board. Go eat more stuff, right? Go eat. More rice in our case and that's where we were focused. But as people realize that that we needed a broader level of participation on the policy on the regulatory. Side. A promotion board is not really the place to do that. You really are about trying to drive consumption domestically or internationally, both not really focused, but if you form the Commission that we could also actively engage in policy. Communications activities. And so we changed from a promotion board to a Commission which gives us wider authority, but also gave us the ability. Change. A board was was constructed. Rice Commission is half growers, half handers.

Speaker

So what?

Tim Johnson

It allowed us to do was to really. Line the industry up so that everybody had an opportunity to have a seat. The table. The handlers were paying for the promotion. We we would get growers appointed through that process. Industry members appointed, but there's no way to. Very important out in front country, important in agriculture as a whole and we're actually really the few commissions even today that represents you know the entirety of the industry. We've got the milling and sales side. We also have the growers side. So I think out of that time of tension. People wanting to make sure that they had a voice. We were. To play with a structure that has served. Extremely well. Everybody has an opportunity to educate themselves on the issues have played part in the discussion and and the decision making on what we ought to do and then help us execute. What our programs are against the against the objectives that we've all decided and so that was very transformational. Happened in the mid 1990s, early 2000s. The Commission was formed and really has been kind of. An important part. For the industry and it's our ability to come together and address the issues that are outside of. Industry.

Sarah Marsh Janish

You mentioned that you're able to kind of communicate amongst yourselves on the board to figure out the issues that you're going to focus your energy on. Is there a certain way that those issues are decided or brought? To you all.

Tim Johnson

You know we have, I think. Just a really good functioning. So what we do is we really kind of go back to A5 year strategic plan. Very religiously. Always make sure that we have a really good, solid set of objectives, resources aligned around those objectives based on the challenges that we see coming at us. And so out of that strategic plan. When we do our activities, the activities. Of the Commissioner, really driven not by the board but by the committees that we have. So for each of our core strategic areas, we have committees populated by growers and handlers. They do the work of the Commission. And the board sets policy, right? Which is what a board should. Make sure that we have the resources. Provides an opportunity for the board as a whole. Answer questions from the committee's or redirect activities as appropriate, so we have a highly functioning board, very focused on on the policy and the strategic objectives of the industry and committees that roll up our sleeves. The work done. And work with staff directly to accomplish those objectives. Yes.

Sarah Marsh Janish

In all these committees, is that also made-up of grower and handlers in combination?

Tim Johnson

Yes, we don't have any communities except for executive committee that requires that we have half growers, half handlers, growers tend to gravitate from the committees, rather deal with things like water quality regulation on farm. Pesticide issues handlers tend to gravitate toward things like international trade policy international promotion. And we have also committees made-up of people that aren't necessarily on the board when the Technology Committee we bring in Rice experiment station, we have UC Cooperative Extension representation there. So really it's a. It's a form that the industry as a whole. To identify what's important and then be able to actualize the work that we need to get that. And in agriculture, we have this benefit of performing commissions and promotion bloons and research boards where we can improve all of our resources to be able to achieve any objective. So we don't have to go. And. You know capital campaigns every quarter like. Public radio or something like that. We just go out and get the work done, which is the end of the day is is the most important part.

Sarah Marsh Janish

I think that's one of my. Favorite slash most. The thing. One of the things I'm most impressed by in terms of just agriculture across the world is the capacity and inclination of people to form cooperatives, to really pool knowledge, pool resources in order to accomplish a goal. That's something I find. That I've seen across the world in terms of the ag industry.

Tim Johnson

And farmers don't sit. And wait for a problem to overwhelm. Jump in, get stuff done. I'm always amazed at what everybody's able to accomplish, what rice has been able to accomplish in the last 30 or 40 years. Really, to the benefit not only of of of the rice farmers, obviously, but also the benefited people of California. Well, that would take on issues that are bigger than ourselves by taking that same sort of collective and collaborative effort. Work with, you know, people in the conservation community. To really attack the hardest problems right that we all have as a, as a state and and be able to offer solutions like you know, can we grow baby salmon in rice fields? Let's go and see about. What can we do for the Pacific Flyway? Well, we think we can do something there and then we lean in. And not wait for the big kind of problems like we had on restaurant burning and try to solve those a little bit late if you will after. That will significant tension, but to dress those ahead of time. It looks really I. Where? Where Rice has excelled, agriculture has excelled in its ability to look forward and and really be practical in the work that it does to address those real problems. The things you and I see every day in farm country. But quite frankly, is pretty unique and remarkable when you look at government agencies and you know others that try to solve problems, it's really a bottom up kind of an approach.

Sarah Marsh Janish

I agree. Well, you mentioned the rice straw a couple of times and I do want to kind of explain that for people who might not be as necessarily familiar with it as we are out here. So would you mind just giving a background on? Why the CRC got so involved with the issue of rice, straw burning and kind of what the status of rice straw burning allocation is today?

Tim Johnson

Sure. So. Residues and waste are burned around the world, right? Get rid of the. You often improve your test profile. You got diseases, you've got weeds that are, you know, are are partially controlled by that practice. And rice in California has no different weed. Fields have a year but. Of the acres. It's the exception of a few 10s of thousands of acres. And really, what we found, of course in an urban state is that that smoke, which not not much of A concern. The world. Certainly a huge concern in our urban areas. And so there was a lot of public pressure to stop that practice. And even before the Commission, right, industry leaders said. Engaged at the legislative level, engaged at the regulatory level to come up with a program. That would work on the phone, but also yielded significant. Air quality benefits. We face that rice, strawberry over 10 year period. The idea would be is that we thought we had enough disease and pest loading to burn about 25% of our rice far every single year and that was kind of the objective. What we found is that when we got to the end of that 10 years that you know really the. The air. The air basins in the Sacramento Valley couldn't really handle even 25% because we approached it from a science based perspective. The regulators, the Air Board, as well as rice. Now we put out all that 10 year period, a significant monitoring a system to be able to know when the atmosphere could handle smoke and. Right, one of days like this where it's cold, we have an inversion layer smoke right from your chimney. Doesn't go up or smoke from the rice fields. Didn't go up either, right? It lays down close on the ground, really more impactful than if there's a little bit of a breeze, right? And so today we bring probably to about 7 to 9% of our field and only when it's a good a a good day in the atmosphere to be able to disperse that smoke and not impact. Impact our? So that's the status of the program today. It is really a a program that we continue to look at and maintain, but probably more important than that really. Took that energy. And started focusing on what we could do with rice. What can we do in that field rather than burn to both getting, you know, manage that biomass? Because there's really no place to put the straw right. Nothing is really eating it. Yeah, it could be like. Burning in the bio mass facility. It was there, and so this idea of. The decomposing that rice straw recycling it, if you will, and composting it in a field in the winter time really became really focused on energy. If you can't burn well, then you need to be able to do these other practices and those other practices. Really meshed up nicely and really launched our industry. Into changing its thought and and realizing that you know there are 5 to 7 million. Sacramento valley. Every winter, any place to be, and what better than a rice field? The decomposing rice straw, all that leftover grain, weed, seeds, insects, and it looks an awful lot like the wetlands. That were historically in California, but Don right, 95% were gone. That's we went from. Early to really being able to focus on not only decomposing that straw, but what about those environmental benefits that Reusalters could provide at that same time. So there's a launch. There's a pivot point for us as an industry that we're. Really trying to expand even even well beyond waterfowl and the Pacific Trailway.

Sarah Marsh Janish

Well, that was a great explanation of one of the past and ongoing projects of the. I think we're going to shift a little bit towards the future a bit and talk about the ongoing projects as well as some of the really interesting projects that you've already mentioned that I hope we get into today. So with that, would you care to, I guess, outline some of the ongoing projects up, the CRC is really excited about moving forward.

Tim Johnson

Start with some of the things that people might not think about are interesting, but we spend so much of activity. It's managing surface and groundwater falling from growers in the state. Something that we've been doing for 30 years. But really are affecting our approaches, really refining what we know about rice systems? If you open up a. And we're in California, especially AG papers. A couple of things that are really always talked about, right, impact of farming on surface water pollution.

Speaker

Right, there's.

Tim Johnson

Right. Mostly nitrates, maybe pesticides. Rices or agriculture's impact on groundwater. Not just how much they pump, but what happens to those that water that leaves that field and goes back down into the ground again, nitrate salts. And So what we really spend. Frankly, is our biggest area of. We spend about $1,000,000 a year to. Monitor. What water we use both on the surface, which is where? Rice, mostly water mostly goes is into canals and back into the rivers. What water maybe goes down into the aquifers?

Speaker

What's?

Tim Johnson

The quality of that rod. How can we improve? The quality of the water that comes off of the rice field no needed to make sure we're not doing things like impacting nitrates. In groundwater in rice country. Huge challenge in crops that are not rice because you grow them on soils that are more porous. Rice fields are growing on heavy clay soils, but to make sure that we knew those impacts, make sure we can monitor those impacts so that over time. We haven't missed something, right? And suddenly water is becoming not drinkable for our neighbors. Got a well, right and want to use that water? Of course they have that right to do. Pesticide commercial. We control pests and diseases. Couple of times a year with with crop protection materials, what we call what we call them in making sure that those aren't getting into the canals and ditches and backing into the rivers and then taking all of that data reporting it. On behalf of our growers. Rice has two programs that are unique to rice. That are managed by the Commission on behalf of the grower, so the grower doesn't have to. That is the rice pesticide program looks at a specific one specific material called fire bencar, making sure that we don't discharge that into the canals and the rivers where it impacts other people. We've been doing that for 30 years for the last 15 years, we've been managing what we call the rice waste discharge requirement, which is everything else that happens on the farm nitrates salts. Other pesticides, other fertilizers. And making sure that those are not impacting the environment, make sure you're not impacting our neighbors. We do comprehensive science. We do comprehensive monitoring and then we report back along to see that the goal or what otherwise pay. We pay that seed to the state of California. We are the only commodity that has a waste discharge requirement just for one crop. And two things really happen. One is we have this 30 user history of the rice pesticide program. That one pesticide now used to be 5. And managing the industry to a successful conclusion over 98% of the pesticides that were monitored under the Rice pesticide program were removed and eliminated from the sacrament. So we. That same success and said OK. Do this for everything else. And so Rice Commission's really been able to expand upon our knowledge, be able to expand upon our regulatory.

Speaker

Call.

Tim Johnson

Coverage, if you will, and compliance for our rice growers pay that fee on their behalf. Makes a job of selling rice easy at the same time, really taking and making sure that our environmental profile are performance. So the things that we are farmed are in line with what state regulations require and quite frankly, what our neighbors would expect of us.

Sarah Marsh Janish

Absolutely. It's a standardized program from what the sound of it and you're doing it on behalf of the rice growers rather than each grower individually reporting.

Tim Johnson

And trying to throw yourself in with a bunch of other commodities like you might think, well, is wheat and rice the same? Or maybe I'd grow multiple crops on my farm. And so it really has allowed us to to. Profit that.

Speaker

And so that's.

Tim Johnson

Actually kind of our biggest ongoing program. In terms of staffing budget? The next one that we talk a lot about and there's really an ongoing program in support of the Pacific Flyway. We will flood every year about 300,000 acres of rice. After we harvest in the fall. And and the fields have been dried down to get those big combines in there and get started. We collect up all that rice and send it to our rice mills. And now you've got the straw that we talked about. But you also have an opportunity to flood that field for habitat. So you chop the straw. Add water back into. Field and all these ducks and geese start coming. You get these big giant they call them. But it's really like a goose or duck tornado. So many bucks and geese circling in the air above a flooded rice field. It looks like a tornado that literally go in a circle and then eventually get themselves. Down and land in that rice field. And so we focus a lot of energy and effort to make sure that we know. That rice habitat is available. To those ducks in yeast, again 5 to 7 million ducks in yeast are gonna be in. Sacramento valley. Do we have enough flooded rice?

Speaker

Do.

Tim Johnson

We know where that flooded rice is in relation to things like the refuges. What about when the rice fields are? Do we have flooded rice fields when the birds come early? Maybe right after we've harvested, do we have enough flooded acres of rice? After we would normally start drying up our fields and getting ready to plant in the springtime incentives for growers. You can't sell a rice field for free water staffing. Can't go out and check your book. Got check your boards. You got to make sure that. If you're, if you're pumping water, may be out of the ditch that everything's running. So it costs. Significant dollars to be able to achieve those. Benefits and so. For our growers to be able to go out and flood as many acres every year as we can to really support that flyway. Ducks Unlimited estimates that about 60% of all of the food that the duck is going to eat in this entire state of California during that this winter season, when the Flyway comes down. Are provided by Rexius. Wow.

Speaker

That's.

Tim Johnson

Benefit it's also kind of a huge responsibility, right?

Sarah Marsh Janish

Absolutely.

Tim Johnson

Stop the race and really run focus on waterfowl habitat. And it's. There's nothing better that I like than to go out and this time of year, especially on. Nice sunny day after a storm when you see the snow. Geez, you see the pintail? You see also shore birds which will which we will talk about here in a minute just right down the rice field. Things you'd never really quite frankly expect to see. If you're that person I was talking to at a Starbucks right in Sacramento, and we knew, right, just right there.

Sarah Marsh Janish

It's a it's truly a privilege to get to hear those giant lifts lifting up off a field and just the sound of the air below the wings. It's amazing.

Tim Johnson

Right. You hear it and I feel it at the same time. Oh, absolutely. Fantastic. Another program that we have been doing is kind of an ongoing program is about 15 years ago, other biologists came to us and said, you know, shore birds really need rice fields also.

Sarah Marsh Janish

15 years.

Tim Johnson

They need them at a little different time of year and they need a little different water depth in the fields. Can we do? So through that work, working with folks like. Pearl Blue Conservation Sciences, Audubon, and others. Those what are the habitat needs and how can we modify? We eventually received a designation along with the refuges and wetlands are still in the Sacramento. Small number as habitat of of international significance here in the Sacramento Valley, rice fields and those remaining wetlands. And so. Of the programs that we do now. Are to provide early season water short birds tend to come through the Sacramento Valley, but we are the Ducks and. And then they leave a little bit later. So in the spring time when we normally be getting ready for tillage, drying down those fields will be shorter. Will need to make sure they still have some habitat and also get the. Depth is appropriate for for their shore birds and the food that they see mostly in the mud. Invertebrates that will grow in a rice field and so those programs are ongoing. Again, incentives for growers to put water on early, hold water on their fields late, modify the depths of the water on that field. So again, that really kind of fits nicely. You manage the Pacific Flyway, kind of in the big fat middle, but on the edges you're managing for these shore birds, about 750,000 of them birds you'd expect to see at Santa Cruz if you're hanging around. In the OR Monterey, right? Or actually in rice fields, doing that eating, gaining weight and getting ready to fly from, you know, Alaska to South America, many of them. Them, even as far up as as the the islands of Russia are right up in, right up close to Alaska, and they're here right in the rice field for all winter season. Just fantastic.

Sarah Marsh Janish

That is amazing. Just some of those birds have travelled farther in their lifetimes. Than I have in mind, which is amazing. So with these projects, there's also one that at least with the girls I've talked to, they are really excited about, which is the work that the CRC is doing called the right. Footprint work. Would you care to talk about? A little bit.

Tim Johnson

Yeah, it was an idea that came out of strategic planning the last time we did it, our growers in the room with NGO partners like Dex Unlimited actually and and and and Audubon and others, it said. We really understand and and and kind of live everyday. The value of rice production on the landscape. You know it's commonly referred to as working lands, but just how many acres of rice? Really. Do we need in the Sacramento Valley? Not only for, you know, this great environment and and these benefits that we've been talking about, but also for small communities we saw in 2022, right. For outsiders. And then our entire portions of the Sacramento Valley. Towns like Colusa, Willows, Maxwell, they didn't grow. They didn't grow rice because the drought was so severe. It normally impact price farmers. It impacted rice product. Impacted aviation companies and fly on our rice.

Speaker

Eat.

Tim Johnson

It impacted rice dryers. Dry. The rice is growing in the community and then of course the the jobs. It impacted, you know, things like local grocery stores and others, and they might kind of miss why that's important because there are a lot of people, there's a lot of jobs. Well, as you know, not in rural. California. Chop down all these plentiful and and then jobs go away. There's not an alternative. The lifeblood of the Sacramento Valley, and once you get out of the city centers, really, which is between Sacramento and Chico, right. And and then you the city. Will farm jobs.

Whitney Brim Deforest

This.

Sarah Marsh Janish

Absolutely.

Tim Johnson

How many? So? How many acres do we need to be able to provide? Backbone for our community. All this environmental and habitat benefit. And So what we've done is we posed this question. To. UC Davis, five different professors, folks that looked at economics folks. Look at waterfowl folks that look at giant Carters link, which is another species. Very dependent on rice. We also look at the agronomic side and we also look at salmon. Uh. And ask that question, OK from your perspectives. How many acres of rice need to be on the landscape to make sure that we can maintain and then even enhance those values? And first of the year, we're very excited and holding our breath holding our breath for that. Flip per. What's that footprint in Sacramento Valley that Rice needs to have? To be able to provide for our communities, be able to provide those those jobs that support our services. And also and importantly, be able to continue to provide and grow that environmental benefit not just for the species we know, but for some of those species that. Pretty interesting and very excited to think about Sam and think about things like Burger Snake. What's? Rice footprint and we're very, very just waiting, very excited to be able to see that report that will come out and it'll do. Couple of. It'll help, I think, solidify for ourselves and others. Just how critical race is in Second Valley, and we'll also be able to tell us in what we call the footprint 2.0, which is where should we have those leaded acres. So which species at what time of year so that we can? Put programs in place that make sure. We can. We can achieve those habitat objectives. It's a species. So we have on wetlands in this Sacramento Valley. So now we're relying on rice fields. Does that look like? I really think this will become a defining project for the industry for the next 20 years and really help us to be able to assign and enhance our our environmental programs on rice fields so that we can really. Be able to continue to tell that story at a policy level. Be able to tell that story in a regulatory. Well, well, rice is so critical and and here is what we need your help with to be able to make sure that we can maintain that.

Sarah Marsh Janish

It'll be great to have that extensively researched body of work to kind of just outline and like you said, this does seem to be a turning point in the industry. Be really interested to see read that rice footprint work.

Tim Johnson

So that we can think of a. Partner than UC Davis. And the heroes, you know, we they know rice. But also, UC Davis says. Think a well owned role. Is that that organization that provides big thinking and science around to help inform decision what we as a state need to be thinking about as we move through the tax climate? Impacts of policy to be able to make sure that we're weighing appropriate. Those trade-offs that we often times have to make. In an urban and increasingly arid state like California.

Sarah Marsh Janish

Hi. Sarah Marchionis here, just letting you know that we decided to split this episode into two parts as it was getting a bit long. Stay tuned for next week when we'll release the second-half of this conversation with Tim Johnson. Thanks. I. We have a few upcoming rice meetings in the new Year. As you know, we'll be having our rice winter grower meetings in February. So we have a series of meetings. Have the same. Don't go to every single meeting. You'll be awfully bored, but pick. Pick the one that's closest to you, or most convenient to you, and attend that one. So the first one will be the woodland meeting which will take place February 10th at 8:00 AM. The location for that will be the Yolo County. Farm Bureau office. The second. Will be the rich Vale meeting which will take place February 12th at 8:00 AM. The location of that is the rich Vale Evangelical church.

Sarah Marsh Janish

Willows meeting will be that same day, February 12th at 1:00 PM and that location will be the Glenn County Office of Education. The Colusa meeting will take place February 13th at 8:00 AM in the CIP conference room. In the Yuba City meeting will take place that same day again, February 13th. 100 M and that'll be in the Veterans Hall. For more information about meeting times and locations or addresses and agendas, please feel free to look at our resources online. That will include the UC Rice blog and the UC agronomy website. Or feel free to call your local extension office For more information. In terms of other resources that you might take advantage of, you can also look at our newsletters, which include rice briefs, which covers clues, Yolo rice notes, which covers Yuba, Sutter, Rice Leaf. Covers but and Glen and Field notes, which takes care of rice in the Delta region of California. The. Thanks for listening to thoughts on race, a University of California Cooperative Extension Podcast from the University of California, Agriculture and Natural Resources. You can find out more about this podcast on our website. Thoughts on rice.buzzsprout.com? We'd love to hear from you whether it's from using our text link in the show notes, a survey submission in our feedback form. Also in the show notes. Or in a comment or rating on your podcast streaming service of choice. We're also experimenting with polls on Spotify, so if you're listening on Spotify, you might have an option to answer some of those questions. We might be able to talk about that on the air.

Sarah Marsh Janish

You Can also e-mail us with any comments, questions or concerns at thoughts on rice at UC Davis dot. We're glad to have you here for season 2 of the thoughts on Rice podcast. And remember, like the growers like to say, have a rice life.

Sarah Marsh Janish

Mention of an agrochemical does not constitute a recommendation, merely the sharing of research findings always follow the label. The label is the law. Find out more at ipm.ucaandr.edu. Reviews, thoughts and opinions expressed are the speakers own and do not represent the views, thoughts and opinions of the University of California. The material and information presented here is for general purposes only. The University of California name in all forms and abbreviations are the. Of its. And its use does not imply endorsement of or opposition to any specific organization, product or service.