California rice industry shares emissions reduction grant

The California rice industry will get a boost with its share of a grant to help reduce greenhouse gas emissions from rice production.

The Environmental Defense Fund, in conjunction with Winrock International, the California Rice Commission and Arkansas rice industry associations and producers, will share a $1.1 million conservation innovation grant from the USDA, according to the EDF. California, which produces the second largest amount of rice in the country, planted more than 550,000 acres in 2010, according to the EDF. Arkansas grows the most amount of rice, at 1.8 million acres.

“This groundbreaking project is a great economic opportunity for rice farmers who already help feed the world,” David Festa, EDF vice president of West Coast operations and the Land, Water and Wildlife programs, said in a statement. “It will enable rice farmers to diversify their portfolio, so they can get paid — as they should be — for helping stabilize the world’s climate.”

EDF, the California Rice Commission, Applied Geosolutions LLC and TerraGlobal Capital LLC developed a way to quantify greenhouse gas emissions reductions without reducing yields. Growers would then be able to sell emissions offsets, according to a statement from the EDF.

Read more in the Sacramento Business Journal.