Louisianians may not refer to rice as “gold” as they do in the South Carolina’s Lowcountry, but rice has been a fixture in the state’s cuisine and it’s agriculture. On Thursday’s edition of WWL First News with Tommy Tucker, Mike Strain, Commissioner for the Department of Agriculture and Forestry in Louisiana, explained his latest trip to Crowley, Louisiana. It’s an area that has had a long history of rice growing. Strain told Tucker that rice is a $500-million industry in Louisiana that continues to be an important part of the state economy.
“We’ve been producing rice in the Crowley area since the Civil War. Before the Civil War, it was focused in South Carolina. During the war, all the infrastructure got destroyed. Dr. Dalrymple from LSU went to Iowa to bring down German farmers to raise wheat. They brought them all down and wheat didn’t grow so well. Well, let’s try this other thing called rice. So, they brought in some rice out of the Carolinas and hence a whole new industry began and it’s huge,” said Commissioner Strain.