Beyond the Fence Rows: How the USA Rice Leadership Program Builds Leaders

When I went through the USA Rice Leadership Program in the late 1990s, I certainly didn't know all the places agriculture would eventually take me. I didn't know there would be days when I would sit across the table from members of Congress and talk about farm policy. I didn't know I would testify on Capitol Hill, serve on industry boards, speak to groups across the country, or start a podcast where I would regularly sit down behind a microphone and interview people.

I was a farmer. And like a lot of farmers, I knew my farm and my little corner of the rice industry pretty well.

What the USA Rice Leadership Program helped me begin to understand was how much bigger our industry really is — and how important it is for farmers to be able to tell its story.

I recently sat down with my longtime friend Dr. Steve Linscombe, director of The Rice Foundation, to talk about the USA Rice Leadership Program. Steve and I actually met through the program all those years ago, which says something about one of its greatest benefits: the relationships can last long after graduation.

Our conversation also reminded me why I still believe so strongly in programs like this one.

Leadership Is More Than Knowing How to Farm

The USA Rice Leadership Program has been around since 1989 with a mission of developing the next generation of leaders for the U.S. rice industry. But I don't think leadership development means turning someone into something they're not. It means giving people the tools and experiences to become more confident in what they already know and more curious about what they don't.

You learn to communicate and to listen. You learn to walk into a room where you may not know anyone and start a conversation. Maybe most importantly, you learn to look beyond your own farm, company, state or segment of the industry.

That's something agriculture needs.

It is easy for all of us to become focused on what's happening inside our own fence rows. We have plenty to keep us busy there. But rice grown in Arkansas is part of a much larger industry. What happens at a mill, a port, USDA, on Capitol Hill or on a California rice farm can eventually matter to what happens on my farm in Arkansas. You understand that differently after you've actually been there.

Each USA Rice Leadership Program class typically includes seven people — five rice producers and two people from rice industry-related businesses. Getting one of those seven spots isn't easy. Steve told me that one recent class had 33 applicants. From those applications, 12 finalists were selected for in-person interviews at the USA Rice Outlook Conference.

For some farmers, that interview may be one of the first formal interviews they've ever had. Think about it. If you graduate from college and go home to the family farm, when exactly were you supposed to learn how to interview?

That's part of the experience, too.

Steve emphasized something during our conversation that I hope potential applicants hear: don't give up if you aren't selected the first time. There have been some very successful graduates who applied more than once. One future leader interviewed four times before finally being selected.

Sometimes "no" really does just mean "not yet."

Getting Outside Your Own Backyard

Once selected, participants spend two years traveling through the rice industry during four different sessions. This isn't the kind of leadership program where you spend two years sitting around a conference table. You're going to see rice. You're going to see the businesses and infrastructure that support it. And you're going to meet the people behind all of it.

The first session takes the USA Rice Leadership Program through Texas and Louisiana, where participants receive public speaking training, visit farms and mills, see the Port of Lake Charles and New Orleans export facilities, and even get a little hands-on experience harvesting crawfish.

Another session travels through Missouri, Mississippi and Arkansas before heading to John Deere in Moline, Illinois. Steve talked about watching a piece of metal move through the manufacturing process until it eventually becomes part of a combine. As farmers, we spend an awful lot of time sitting in those machines. We don't often stop to think about everything that had to happen before they arrived on our farms.

Then there is California. For a Southern rice farmer, seeing California rice production can completely change your perspective. The crop may be the same, but the production system, water issues and environment are very different. Seeing the Central Valley and its irrigation infrastructure from the air gives you an appreciation for both the similarities and the differences within American rice production.

That's the point. You start realizing there is more than one way to grow a crop and more than one set of challenges facing our industry.

The final session of the USA Rice Leadership Program takes participants to Washington, D.C., for government affairs and advocacy training. Today, I probably appreciate this part of the program even more than I did when I went through it.

Participants visit Capitol Hill and agencies including USDA and EPA, and they learn how to talk about rice with policymakers. That skill matters.

I've said many times that farmers have to be willing to tell our own story. We can't assume somebody else is going to do it for us. And telling our story doesn't mean walking into an office with a list of complaints. It means being able to explain what's happening on the farm, why it matters, and how a decision made hundreds of miles away can affect a family farm, a rural community and an entire industry.

Those conversations take practice.

Skills and Relationships That Last

One of the things I remember most from my own experience with the USA Rice Leadership Program was the communication training. Public speaking, interviews, learning how to organize your thoughts and get your point across — I have used those skills over and over again since then. They've helped me when speaking to groups, working with commodity organizations, testifying on Capitol Hill and even sitting behind the microphone for Field Good Life.

Steve and I also talked about a communication technique called "bridging." It's the ability to acknowledge the question you've been asked while moving the conversation toward the message you actually need to communicate. Anyone who has ever done a media interview — especially on a complicated or controversial issue — understands why that's a useful skill.

But there is something else from the USA Rice Leadership Program that may be even more valuable: the people.

Steve and I met through the program in the late 1990s. Here we are, decades later, still talking about rice. That's not unusual. Alumni stay connected. They call each other, compare what's happening in their fields and businesses, and share ideas and perspectives from different parts of the rice-growing region.

Over the course of a career, those relationships become an incredible resource for our operations. Most recently, I have discovered those friendships have helped hold each other up when struggles are tough. Peers who truly understand your struggles are priceless but the friendships must be developed first before that trust can be tested.

As I've gotten older, I've come to appreciate something else about them. Agriculture can feel like a very small world and a very big world at the same time. Having people outside your own operation who understand the pressures, opportunities and responsibility that come with this business is valuable.

Sometimes leadership is as much about knowing who you can call as it is knowing what to say.

We Still Need People Willing to Step Up

The rice industry today isn't the same industry I entered. Technology has changed. Markets have changed. Policy has changed. Farms have changed. And they're going to keep changing.

But our need for good leaders hasn't changed.

We need farmers and industry professionals who are willing to get outside their own fence rows. We need people who understand that Arkansas rice farmers may see an issue differently than California rice farmers — and who are willing to understand why. We need people who can sit across the table from a policymaker and explain what a decision means back home. We need people willing to speak up for agriculture, and we need to keep preparing the people who will come behind us.

The learning doesn't end when the two-year USA Rice Leadership Program ends, either. The Rice Foundation now provides opportunities for alumni to continue expanding their knowledge through international travel. Alumni groups have traveled to countries including Australia, Thailand, Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay, with Taiwan planned as a future destination.

Imagine what you learn about your own industry by seeing it through the eyes of farmers halfway around the world.

If you're involved in the rice industry and you've thought about applying for the USA Rice Leadership Program, my answer is pretty simple: do it.

Don't wait until you think you're a "leader," and don't assume you need to know everything about the rice industry first. If you apply and don't make the class the first time, apply again.

I certainly couldn't have predicted where my own path would lead when I went through the USA Rice Leadership Program all those years ago. But I can look back now and see the skills I learned, the confidence I gained, the parts of the industry I was exposed to and, most of all, the relationships that are still part of my life.

That's the real value of leadership development. It isn't about adding another line to your résumé. It's about preparing yourself to step up when your industry needs you.

Agriculture will always need people willing to tell its story, willing to listen to someone else's, and willing to lead when it's their turn.

And sometimes you don't realize you're becoming one of those people until years later.