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On the Lundburg family's rice farm

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But it wasn’t easy figuring out how to grow rice on a large scale without herbicides to control weeds. Weeds are a particular problem in rice farming not only because they can choke a crop but also because when left in the field, weed seeds can end up in the harvest along with rice seeds. And no one wants bitter weed seeds in their pot of rice.

So eventually the Lundbergs developed a risky game of letting water control the weeds. Yes, rice flourishes in a wet environment. But it must also dry out to create healthy grains. That’s where the Lundbergs’ game lies. After planting, they flood the fields for about three weeks so the grass weeds die off. Problem is, the rice plants will die if submerged over 25 days. In other words, it’s a matter of timing—release the water too soon and the weeds won’t die; release it too late and the rice will die. And to complicate matters, they only get one harvest a year in the northern Sacramento Valley.

Once they mastered the complicated rhythm of letting the water take care of the weeds there still was the issue of distribution networks: the Lundbergs, like all rice farmers, sold their crop to big cooperatives, which mixed it with all the other rice from the region. There was no point in growing organic if the rice was to be mixed with conventional rice. And so the brothers took the unthinkable step of cutting themselves off from the distribution networks and stepping out on their own.

It worked beautifully. Years later, the Lundbergs have gone whole hog into organic farming. There are about 11,000 acres in organic production and another 6,000 that are “eco-farmed”: treated to a combination of organic and conventional methods. There are now solar panels in the fields near the storage facilities to produce energy. And the family has invested in wind energy, enough to offset their own electrical use on the farm.

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