Rice requires an aquatic environment to grow and as an aquatic grass acts as a natural buffer strip leaving water cleaner when it exits a field than when it enters the field. We support regulations for safe water quality based on sound science that consider all contributing sources of pollution with the implementation of voluntary best management practices in situations where standards are exceeded. 

To conserve a resource crucial to the production of rice, the industry has worked to support the development and voluntary adoption of efficient irrigation techniques.

We support research and development programs and activities by USDA and the land grant university system to develop improved production and management practices to increase the resource use efficiency of rice production and the voluntary adoption of these practices by growers.

Recent News

  • EPA logo Final Worker Protection Standards Rule a Litany of Overreach

    Sep 29, 2015

    The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) posted a pre-publication version of the final Worker Protection Standards (WPS) yesterday and held a multi-agency press conference call to share details. On the call, EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy stated that the rule raised the age of non-family members applying agricultural pesticides from 16 to 18; moved training from every five years to annual; expanded training to include items such as how to not take pesticides home from work; required new recordkeeping to be held for two years; and required farms to follow OSHA standards for fit testing of masks and keeping of medical records. Full story
  • GA-Woe to US Today-150828 North Dakota Court on WOTUS: "Whoa" to EPA

    Aug 28, 2015

    The Clean Water Rule: Definition of 'Waters of the United States, better known as Waters of the U.S. or WOTUS, has been sidelined by a federal judge in theU.S. District Court of North Dakota who called the measure "exceptionally expansive." Full story
  • EPA logo EPA Sets New Threshold for SPCC Rule

    Jul 23, 2015

    Recently the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Office of Emergency Management released the findings of a study to determine the aggregate aboveground oil storage capacity threshold for farms subject to the Spill Prevention Control and Countermeasure (SPCC). Full story