8 hours ago
How One Family Farm Made American Sake Possible
The first thing one notices when driving through the plains of east-central Arkansas is how flat the land is. No hills, no slopes, no ridges. In fact, if it weren't for the sporadic patches of forest and a few manmade terraces and artificial levees, the horizon would be a straight line that seemingly goes on forever.
This level terrain, along with reliable rainfall and cheap irrigation, makes the farmland ideal for the water-intensive process of growing rice — Arkansas produces more than 40% of the total US rice output, according to the USA Rice Federation. Almost all of that is and has long been American table rice. 'The kind you put gravy on,' says Chris Isbell, a fourth-generation farmer. For decades the same was true of Isbell's low-lying fields, 3,500 remote acres about 30 miles southeast of Little Rock.
