

Farmers began experimenting with growing rice during the Gold Rush more than 160 years ago, according to the California Rice Commission. It had long been grown in the southeastern United States but was introduced in California by Chinese gold miners, who later built the state's railroads and river levees.



All told, California annually ships almost 5 billion pounds of rice as far away as Europe and the Middle East.




California's half-million acres of rice fields serve a second purpose during the winters, attracting almost 10 million migratory waterfowl that traverse the Pacific Flyway and land in the Central Valley wetlands to rest, eat and breed.

"Rice growing mimics the natural cycle of the valley," said Sean Doherty, a third-generation rice farmer near Arbuckle (Colusa County) whose grandfather began growing the crop in the 1920s. "It's a very close proximity to the way the valley was before it was settled."

While California is the national leader in producing short- and medium-grain rice, it trails Arkansas as the nation's rice bowl. But Arkansas and other Southern states mainly produce long-grain rice, also known as fluffy rice. Arkansas produces about 40 percent of the nation's overall rice crop; California, about 20 percent.

The state produced almost $800 million worth of rice last year.

It was the state's 14th largest commodity last year, but California's fifth-largest agricultural export behind almonds, dairy products, wine and walnuts in 2010, the most recent year available. California accounted for a third of the nation's rice exports.