Riceland’s Carbon Ready Program wins USA Rice Sustainability Award

The Riceland Sustainability Team and its Carbon Ready Program received the 2024 USA Rice Sustainability Award on Tuesday (Dec. 10) at the USA Rice Outlook Conference in Little Rock. Adam Shea, vice president of government affairs and sustainability, accepted the award with the sustainability team members.

“What an honor it is for our program to receive this recognition from our peers in the rice industry,” said Shea. “This award represents a decade of work in carving out a place for farmers to make a meaningful impact using sustainable rice growing practices and receive a premium from the marketplace for those efforts on the farm.”

Riceland Foods distributed over $4 million to its farmer-members enrolled in the 2023 Riceland Carbon Ready Program. The program allows Riceland farmer-members to provide climate-smart solutions for customers. T

“The Riceland Carbon Ready Program has been successful because it keeps farmers at the forefront while creating added value opportunities throughout the supply chain for our program partners,” said Kevin McGilton, Riceland’s chief executive officer. “This award is a testament to the team’s dedication in bringing our farmer-members to the table with our CPG and retail partners to work together to create a more sustainable future.”

Launched in June 2022, the program, in partnership with Arva Intelligence, was created to help farmer-members capture and utilize the farm-level data generated within their operations. The cooperative’s farmer-members in the program tracked key data points, such as tillage method, irrigation, and nutrient management, to showcase how climate-smart practices impact sustainable metrics.