Hazard or hysteria?
When a Tennessee farming family decided to build a small rice mill and provide a local food source, they ran headlong into suburban uproar. Social media posts portrayed the farmers as “evil, cruel, and environmentally destructive,” and broadcast media’s Fox 13 Memphis piled on, covering the proposed rice mill as part of its “Contaminated Community” television series.
And the facts? Buried by emotion. And reasonable questions? Replaced with slurs. “I understand genuine concerns from anyone,” says grower John Schultz, “but this has been a wildfire of disinformation. The vocal minority in the crowd values noise over truth.”
The gulf between food and consumer has never been greater, he adds: “People love farming—as long as they don’t have to see it up close.”
Best Laid Plans
Schultz grows corn and soybeans in west Tennessee’s Dyer County, a stone’s throw from the Mississippi River, alongside his father, Carl, and two cousins, Joseph and William.
In spring 2024, Schultz Family Farms will plant rice for the first time. Presently, marketing options are limited for area rice producers, with growers forced to haul grain across the river to Missouri or Arkansas, or south to Memphis. Solution? A local rice mill.
“We saw a chance to diversify our farm, help our county, and provide food security,” Schultz explains. “Rice is a basic commodity and when times get tough, it’s a staple for everyone.”
In July 2023, the Schultz quartet bought 13 acres of additional ground in the Finley community of Dyer County, intent on constructing a rice facility. Roughly 6 miles from the county seat, Dyersburg, the 13 acres sit across the road from a subdivision. “It’s 83 houses, but we’re still very much in the country surrounded by farm fields,” Schultz says. “There’s a crop duster landing strip across the road, and there are grain trucks and tractors running the roads and fields. Agricultural commerce is everywhere.”
“Due to lack of infrastructure in our county, we were limited location-wise for the rice mill by the need for three-phase power, access to natural gas, and a consolidated water district, and constrained by FEMA floodplain areas,” he continues. “At auction, we bought 13 acres that was zoned agricultural because it fit with all the requirements.”
The Schultzes tore down several dilapidated sheds and cut down hackberries and scrub trees on the newly acquired land, in preparation for a 50’-wide by 160’-long rice mill that would occupy 1.3% of the total 13 acres. The mill would have zero environmental waste: All hulls and bran contained and sold for cattle feed.
“We went to our county zoning representative with everything,” Schultz adds. “Aboveboard. By the book. He told us though we needed to request rezoning to commercial. Ok, no problem.”
Best laid plans.
Truth Matters
The rezoning request triggered a wave of online hyperbole, with subdivision opponents claiming the Schultz family were driven by “malicious intent,” and would usher in noise, air pollution, foul odors, dust clouds, medical dangers, and environmental hazards.
“Nobody asked us a single thing. Instead, a few people in the neighborhood dreamed up what they thought a rice mill was, and started spreading the worst misinformation about agriculture you could find. They said we were going to change the landscape of the community,” Schultz explains. “Facts and reason got jumped by feelings and emotions.”
An online petition, “Stop the Rice Mill and Rezoning in Finley, Tennessee,” kicked off Sept. 9. “They told everyone we were a group of developers from an LLC going to build a commercial rice mill beside Finley, and the future was dust, smoke, trash, vermin, and hazardous waste,” Schultz notes.
The vilification of the rice mill is preposterous to Jarrod Hardke, a highly respected voice in the U.S. rice industry. “I can’t imagine how people would justify such vitriol or where they get that level of extreme information from. We’re talking here about a small, family mill with required USDA inspection standards and waste management procedures. I suppose the trucks unloading rice would kick up dust, but the same thing happens in those fields with tractors, trailers, and combines—regular farming.”
Threats to quality of life from the proposed rice mill are untrue, emphasizes Hardke, rice agronomist for the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture Cooperative Extension Service. “The overall impact and cleanliness of rice mills in the U.S., and their close proximity to and within our communities, display the safety of these facilities—particularly from a mill this small. American rice mills have extremely high standards in producing food, and saying they are environmentally detrimental is baseless.”
The irony of a subdivision amidst rural agriculture is not lost on Schultz. “What’s the environmental impact of a neighborhood sitting where farmland used to be? And people are spreading untruths that our environmental impact on the neighborhood will be foul smells, dust, and waste hazards? That’s outrageously false,” Schultz says.
“This is a very, very small building—50’ by 160’—insulated with heating and air conditioning with two dust collectors operating inside, and we also recycle the air back inside,” Schultz continues. “The truth matters.”
From the Cape
One-hundred miles north of Dyer County, across the Mississippi River in Scott City, Mo., second-generation producer Sam Schneider operates a family-run rice mill built in 2021—Inland Cape Rice Company. The facility holds a stellar reputation for sanitation and health, with all rice slated for human consumption. “We take pride in making sure we do the right thing inside and out,” Schneider says. “A U.S. rice mill is not like any other grain mill in agriculture. Over 60% of the rice we produce here in the U.S. stays here for human consumption.”
The Inland Cape mill recycles its emissions. “We collect and filter our dust, then recycle it back into our mill. We don’t blow dust into the atmosphere,” Schneider explains. “Our air is so clean and filtered that we direct it back into our building to breathe.”
He stresses the benefits of family-run rice mills: “It’s not just that they’re not a disturbance to the community; they’re also a major benefit to any rural location. They bring major value to communities—food, jobs, and taxes.”
Inland Cape Rice donates grain to Hope For Kidz, a philanthropic effort mirrored across the rice mill industry. “So many mills try to help provide hunger relief,” Schneider says. “Our success starts with a clean, safe, and healthy rice supply. I can only speak from my experience, but I can sure say family-run mills I encounter are extremely clean, and when operated correctly, are not a source of pollutants or contaminants.”
Gap to a Gulf
On Sept. 10, Schultz Family Farms withdrew its rezoning request. “The state told us after reviewing things didn’t need commercial zoning to mill our own rice as it was incidental to our agricultural enterprise,” Schultz says. “Again, we just wanted to do things aboveboard.”
Schultz aims to open construction to local bids and begin laying concrete before the end of the year. Ideally, he hopes to have the mill constructed by February 2024 and begin operation in April. His goal is to build the first farmer-owned rice mill in Tennessee with field-level traceability from rows to plate: paddy to bin to mill and out the door to consumers.
Over generations, Americans have experienced steadily diminishing contact with agriculture—and the results are telltale, describes Lee Maddox, director of communications for Tennessee Farm Bureau. “There are a lot of public misperceptions of what agriculture is about in Tennessee, despite it being the No. 1 industry in the entire state. The Schultz family is looking to diversify and they should be able to do so,” Maddox notes. “There is growing opportunity for rice production and what they’re trying to do could be a model for others to consider.”
Schultz is determined to present plain facts. “When the public hears the real details about our rice mill, their attitudes change. My family has a strong passion to impact our community for the good,” he says.
“We have to accurately tell people about all aspects of farming, because if we don’t, they’ll be sold on the first source that comes along.”
For more from Chris Bennett (cbennett@farmjournal.com or 662-592-1106), see:
While America Slept, China Stole the Farm
Priceless Pistol Found After Decades Lost in Farmhouse Attic
Cottonmouth Farmer: The Insane Tale of a Buck-Wild Scheme to Corner the Snake Venom Market
Tractorcade: How an Epic Convoy and Legendary Farmer Army Shook Washington, D.C.
