News Release: RICE FARMERS ENCOURAGED TO ATTEND UPCOMING MEETINGS

California Rice Commission Annual Grower Meetings are scheduled for January

The latest news on issues affecting California rice farmers will be presented during the upcoming Annual Grower Meetings held by the California Rice Commission, scheduled for January 12, 2012.

 Download News Release for more information

Guest blog: Snow Goose Festival celebrates Sacramento Valley Wildlife

This year marks the 13th Annual Snow Goose Festival, and we have an exciting, action-packed four days to honor this jewel of the Sacramento Valley.

Thousands will flock to the Chico area for this celebration of local and migratory waterfowl in the Northern Sacramento Valley. We have planned more than 70 field trips that cover six counties, reaching out into the rice fields, wildlife refuges and river walks where mild winter weather, abundant food and lots of water draw our avian visitors. In addition, there will be workshops and activities for birding and nature enthusiasts of all ages.

Greg Miller is joining our festival this year and causing some BIG excitement for everyone! Greg is one of the famed birders featured in the 2004 book, The Big Year, by Mark Obmascik and portrayed by Jack Black in the 2011 movie. Greg will lead several field trips and as Keynote Speaker, will be the highlight of our Gathering of Wings Banquet on Saturday night, January 28.

Be sure to see the inspiring Uptown/Downtown Pacific Flyway Art Exhibit at two of our local galleries: Avenue 9 Gallery and Chico Art Center. Although the exhibit is open Jan. 20 through Feb 12, you won’t want to miss our special Welcome Reception on Friday, Jan. 27. This is a special night for Festival attendees to mix and mingle, admire art, meet the artists, and enjoy live music and refreshments. Bring a friend!

We have also partnered with The Chico Museum, whose exhibit, "Amazing Grains: The Story of Rice and Beyond," beautifully tells the story of the relationship between rice farming and migratory waterfowl along the Pacific Flyway. Museum admission will be free to registered Festival attendees with name badge.

In addition to numerous bird-watching field trips, you might choose to join an owl radio-tracking team on the local ecological reserve, or try birding by ear, a snowshoe hike in Lassen Park, a BIG day of birding, or hike the scenic Sutter Buttes in search of lofty views and resident wildlife.

Our workshops offer something for everyone. You can learn nature photography, sketching in nature, bird carving, how to record nature sounds, designing a garden for wildlife, and much more. Free nature activities are offered for children, as well as armchair adventures for the less hardy.

We must not lose sight of the reason for this celebration. Our region is blessed to be within the Pacific Flyway, and millions of migrating waterfowl consider those rice fields and wetlands home during the winter. We encourage you to see this annual phenomenon firsthand. To find out more about the Snow Goose Festival, go to www.snowgoosefestival.org.

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Jennifer Patten is Event Coordinator for the Snow Goose Festival.

Video from Brian McKenzie- Inside a Grain Bin

Family farmer Brian McKenzie provides a tour inside a bin used to store newly harvested California medium grain rice.

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Brian McKenzie proudly represents the fourth generation of rice farmers in his family. Following his graduation in 2005 from The University of Nevada Reno where he earned bachelors degrees in Economics and Marketing, Brian returned to the family farm in South Sutter County to farm full-time alongside his father, Chris. Brian and his wife, Ashley, grow several varieties of conventional and organic rice. Brian enjoys the challenges that farming brings and takes pride in producing food for the world.

Mochi making tradition in Sacramento

View the Buddhist Church of Sacramento's 50 plus year tradition of making mochi during the holidays. The mochi is sold while supplies last at Oto's Marketplace and Osaka Ya in Sacramento.

Click here to view photo album

New Christmas Family Farmer blogs

Dennis Lindberg- Joyful Season

Debra DeWit- Christmas means Family

New guest blog- Rice is nice for Tournament of Roses Float

My name is Paulina Trujillo, a second year Biomedical Engineering student at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, and this year’s Decoration Chair for the SLO team. I got hooked onto Rose Float after my first year as a volunteer. I was attracted to the inner workings of this program, especially the decorations department, because of the creative use of materials used to beautifully decorate the float.


Boy was I surprised to find all the hard work and dedication that goes into creating an award-winning float! All of the different types of materials, in addition to flowers, used to decorate a float also amazed me.


Our float this year will feature three superheroes saving the day, each having its own individual power. This float will adorned with several unique materials, including: wheat-based kitty litter, potatoes, an abundance fresh floral, seeds, beans, moving water, and two-hundred pounds of rice. You heard right - two hundred pounds of California rice! This rice will be used on our city hall building located in the middle of the float. It will also be featured in Cal Poly’s first ever murals!


These murals will depict a story of the superheroes working together to save the day. The rice will be used whole and also blended, and mixed with other materials to create the effect desired.

We thank the California rice farmers for this donation and contributing to our decorating efforts, and we look forward to working with them in the future! If you have any interest in our float and would like to help decorate please visit our website.

Be sure to watch our float drive down the parade route on January 2. See you there!

-Paulina Trujillo
Cal Poly Rose Float - SLO, Decoration Chair

New blog from Nicole Van Vleck: Honoring an Environmental Champion

I just returned from Austin, Texas where the USA Rice Federation held its annual Rice Outlook Conference. Hundreds of rice producers from throughout the nation attended. The first day of the convention celebrates the achievements of rice industry’s best with an awards luncheon. This year as a member of the USA Rice Conservation Committee, I had the honor of presenting the USA Rice Federation’s Conservation Achievement Award to Ducks Unlimited, Inc (DU).

Nicole with DU’s George Dunklin,
Paul Bonderson, Jr. and Dan Wrinn

Rice producers have a natural affinity with the organization that was founded in 1937 and has conserved more than 12 million acres. After harvest, farmers flood their rice fields which provide an abundance of food as well as habitat for migratory waterfowl. DU has partnered with the rice industry on various conservation issues. Recently the Migratory Bird Initiative, which was a partnership with DU, NRCS and rice producers, provided flooded rice fields to temporarily replace desperately needed habitat in the Gulf Region after the BP oil spill affected habitat in that region.

My family has worked with DU on the ground in California for decades, and my father now serves DU at the National level on their Conservation Committee. We were the first rice producers in California to enter into a farmland/waterfowl conservation easement with DU that not only protected our home ranch from ever being developed, but also committed water for the wintering birds that stop here as they travel South on the Pacific Flyway.

I see the partnership that the rice and ducks and geese share each and every winter as I look across the ranch and see thousands of them enjoying their stay. Ducks Unlimited continues to grow this special partnership with rice producers throughout the nation, which is why it was so appropriate they received this very distinguished award.

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Nicole Montna Van Vleck is a third generation rice farmer who farms with her parents and sister in Sutter County. Nicole is Managing Partner of Montna Farms which grows, dries and stores super premium short grain rice. Montna Farms partners with many waterfowl organizations to protect and enhance waterfowl habitat primarily on its working rice lands.

Nicole is a graduate of UCLA and The California Agricultural Leadership Program. Nicole and her husband Stan have two school-aged children.

Blog from Jessica Lundberg- Snow Geese at home in California Rice Fields

We had visitors to our office from the press yesterday to learn about upcoming tours through the Snow Goose Festival to local rice farms. The reporters and staff were from the New York Times and the local KIXE office and they were keen to learn more about how rice production for food was a helpful partner in providing habitat for waterfowl in California. This state has the largest percentage loss of historic wetlands in the nation and our rice fields now serve as ‘surrogate wetlands,’ helping millions of wildlife.

This media tour was designed to give the reporters a broad history of the landscape in Northern California which is now rice production, how the land uses have changed over the years and to talk about agricultural water policies. The farms selected were around the city of Chico – home of the Snow Goose Festival – and included Llano Seco (highlighting conservation easements), Rancho Esquon (featuring habitat restoration) and Lundberg Family Farms (pioneers of organic rice farming). The group was very pleased about their day, having seen impressive fields of geese, swans and other waterfowl.

My cousin, Bryce, and I were pleased to have the chance to talk with the group and talk about our farm. They were especially interested in changes that we might have seen in the industry in the last 30 years and how these changes have affected the efficiency, sustainability and biodiversity of the California rice industry; techniques of field leveling, variety development and management of straw through incorporation into the soil have affected many of these changes. We always enjoy the opportunity to dialog about farming of food and the amazing ecosystem we work in every day.

The 13th Annual Snow Goose Festival is January 26-29, 2012 and will feature over 70 fieldtrips, workshops and presentations along with many free activities and events. Check out their website for more information: www.snowgoosefestival.org.

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Jessica Lundberg chairs the Board of Directors of Lundberg Family Farms, the United States’ leading producer of organic rice and rice products. A member of the Lundberg family’s third generation, she also manages the seed nursery, overseeing the maintenance, purity and development of their proprietary rice varieties.


The Lundbergs have practiced sustainable farming techniques since 1937 and today the company leads the eco-positive agricultural movement with a commitment to organic production and renewable energy.


Jessica manages Lundberg Family Farms as a true family business, collaborating with her father, uncles, cousins, and siblings to reach consensus on key business decisions. A pre-med student in college, Jessica’s interest in business, ecology and agriculture inevitably drew her back to the farm, where, in addition to organic and eco-farmed rice, she cultivates the bedrock values of respecting the land, honoring tradition, and producing the highest quality products. Jessica holds a degree in Biological Sciences from California State University at Chico and a certificate in Plant Breeding from University of California at Davis. She makes her home in Chico near the family farm.

Artist Boyd Gavin completes his California Rice painting

Sacramento artist Boyd Gavin provides comments upon completion of his painting entitled Rice Harvest, Colusa County.

New blog from Brian McKenzie: Work continues in California Rice Fields

Family farmer Brian McKenzie describes ongoing work to prepare rice fields for the 2012 season.

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Brian McKenzie proudly represents the fourth generation of rice farmers in his family. Following his graduation in 2005 from The University of Nevada Reno where he earned bachelors degrees in Economics and Marketing, Brian returned to the family farm in South Sutter County to farm full-time alongside his father, Chris. Brian and his wife, Ashley, grow several varieties of conventional and organic rice. Brian enjoys the challenges that farming brings and takes pride in producing food for the world.

Guest blog- How rice fields help our environment and inspire children

Over the last 30 years I’ve enjoyed working in Agriculture, Graphic Design and Publishing in the Sacramento Valley. It is an area of California with an abundance to see and enjoy, especially here in the Butte County area.

Working for Lundberg Family Farms has brought some of the most remarkable images of rice, wildlife, weather and water. It has also brought a realization of the need to educate and inform young people about the world of rice farming and the life in the fields and waterways that so often goes unseen.

The most enlightening moment came from a consumer who wanted to know why in the world would we ‘let’ the birds into our rice fields; the idea of animal and plant mixed was quite bothersome. In my opinion, surely that is the best indication we are losing touch with our food sources and the importance of protecting them.

It seems the taller we get and the further from the ground we move, our thoughts are becoming preoccupied with living life and not sustaining life.

If you slow down and take time to remember some of the really fun moments, like playing and swimming in a rice check and squeezing adobe mud between your toes, it really puts life into perspective. How can you ever forget catching a crawdad or pollywog? Or, when you first saw the tiny legs growing on the side of a pollywog or feeling minnows nipping at your toes.

It’s time to go back to the soil and waterways to take a closer look! You will be amazed discovering the abundance of life found in the water, mud, and weeds.

That’s what motivated me to write the Paddy Cakes Farming Adventure Series, which is dedicated to educational farm-related stories and facts.

I hope this series helps strength the bond our young ones have with their surroundings, enhancing their understanding that there is so much more in the rice fields than grain. Those rice fields are also a valuable part of our ecosystem.

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Robin Smith is Sales Coordinator at Lundberg Family Farms and author of Paddy Cakes, Farming Adventures In The Rice Field. You can inquire about or purchase Paddy Cakes, Farming Adventures in the Rice Fields, by emailing Robin Smith, or by mail to PO Box 1188, Biggs, CA 95917.

New blog from Don Bransford- Wonders of Nature

This fall during a lull in harvest, I was driving slowly along the field and I saw a white head peaking out of a squirrel hole. Not knowing what to expect I stopped the pickup and got out to investigate. Almost immediately a white owl flew from the hole across the ditch to a road on the other side where he landed. I grabbed my camera and looked through the telephoto lens to try to get a better look at my new friend.


I could tell that his white feathers appeared slightly marbled with brown color and his eyes were a bright yellow. At first I thought it might be a baby Barn Owl but was not sure. I took a couple of pictures and headed home to try and figure out what I had just observed. After looking in Bird Guide Books and online, I discovered that it was not a Barn Owl and still a mystery.

Fortunately, a few researchers from Audubon California and Point Reyes Bird Observatory came a few days later and I took them on a “nature” walk to rediscover my find and give me a definite identification. It did not take them long at all. They told me the owl was a leucistic Burrowing Owl. According to Wikepedia: “it is a condition characterized by reduced pigmentation in animals and humans. Unlike albinism, it is caused by a reduction in all types of skin pigment not just melanin.” I also did a slight amount of research online and discovered that a leucistic Burrowing Owl was described in a 1984 research paper so my discovery is not the first, but very exciting all the same.

I have included a few photos of the leucistic Burrowing Owl along with a few photos of what you would normally see in the field. Enjoy!

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Don Bransford: This fourth-generation family farmer has grown rice in Colusa County since 1980. Don has a long history of service to the community and agriculture, including nearly 30 years on the Board of Trustees and Governing Board for the Colusa Unified School District. He currently serves as President of the Glenn-Colusa Irrigation District. Don’s interests include photography, as he enjoys capturing the majestic wildlife often seen in his rice fields. Don and his wife Diane have four children.

New blog from Tom Butler- From Harvest to Hawaii

When our three combines came to rest at 9:14pm on November 11 for the last time this season (I may have been looking at the clock) it meant a quite a lot of things to myself and my family. Chiefly, it meant another rice harvest, my ninth, had finally come to a close after a late start, several delays, and the threat of rain constantly looming over each day.

It was a surprising one for me too; I had spent the second unseasonably mild summer in a row readying myself for what I was sure to be smaller yields, likely made worse by the inevitable October storm that was sure not to miss us two years in a row. Thankfully, I make a terrible weatherman.

The other accomplishment within our family was something else I wasn’t sure I was going to be able to deliver on. Earlier in the year, my Mother, two sisters, and wife all organized a family wide trip to Hawaii for Thanksgiving.

All year long, my Dad and I had to play the heavy,(“it’s going to be a tough fall guys” became our mantra) and I seriously doubted my prospects of going as the calendar turned to November and I counted the acreage remaining to finish.

So with a lot of luck, we were able to spend Thanksgiving together in Kailua, Oahu. Needless to say, it was a great holiday filled with trips to Pearl Harbor, Waikiki, Diamond Head, and horseback tour through one of the first cattle ranches on the island (wife’s idea).

Another nice view I got was the entire aisle of California rice on display in the local Safeway.

There really is no way for me to close this update out without sounding like a rejected TV episode special message,

so I’ll just simply state that when I sat back towards the end of the trip and reflected on the year this year, I truly had too many things to be thankful to count. I also had a mountain of things waiting for me when I got back Sunday, and as we continue to flood up our fields for the winter waterfowl, do the dormant fertilization in our almond orchard, and begin the process of shipping our rice out of dryer, it all begins again.

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More about Tom: Tom Butler farms rice with his father, Steve, in Sutter and Yolo Counties. Tom is the fourth generation of his family to farm.

When he’s not on the job, the University of Nebraska graduate enjoys swimming, water polo, hunting and spending time with his family.

New Blogger Grant Lundberg: CA Brown Rice gains popularity

Grant Lundberg of Lundberg Family Farms, describes the positive attributes of California Brown Rice.

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Grant Lundberg is Chief Executive Officer of Lundberg Family Farms in Richvale, Butte County.