New leadership was elected to two-year terms for USA Rice during its annual membership meetings last week.
The new leadership includes: John Owen, a Louisiana rice farmer, USA Rice chair; Colin Holtzhaur, Arkansas merchant, USA Rice Merchants’ Association chair; Todd Burich, ADM, USA Rice Millers’ Association chair; and John Frederick Denison, Louisiana farmer, The Rice Foundation chair.
All board changes take effect on Aug. 1.
During the two-day event, 10 committees, seven boards of directors, one working group and all six major rice producing state delegations met to set the industry’s course ahead.
“It’s a tumultuous time for US rice farmers who are facing a variety of economic headwinds because of unsustainably high input costs, low market prices, and global trade distortion, resulting in the lowest rice acreage planted since the 1970s,” USA Rice said.
Discussion topics at the meetings reflected growing concerns about high input costs, supply chain interruptions, rising labor expenses, elevated interest rates, and market uncertainty.
The US industry efforts to address grain quality also were covered in multiple meetings in the wake of the first Aromatic Rice Quality Symposium held prior to the beginning of the business session.
“The 2026 crop in the United States will include close to 50,000 acres of aromatic rice, which is by far the largest acreage ever devoted to these specialty types,” said USA Rice’s Dr. Steve Linscombe, who helped coordinate the event. “Newly released aromatic varieties and experimental lines were displayed and cooked for sampling by rice breeders.”
USA Rice is the global advocate for all segments of the US rice industry. Its mission is to ensure the health and vitality of a unified US rice industry by advocating on behalf of farmers, millers, merchants and allied businesses.
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