Illinois farmer turns flooded bottomlands into state’s first rice farm

In southern Illinois, where corn and soybeans dominate the landscape, farmer Blake Gerard has turned the flood-prone bottomlands of Alexander County into the state’s only commercial rice farm. His operation, now covering about 2,500 acres, is an unusual response to climate change in a region where federal farm policy, infrastructure, and tradition overwhelmingly favor corn and soy production.

Gerard, 55, grew up farming the family’s land near the confluence of the Ohio and Mississippi rivers. By the early 1990s, increasingly frequent floods were making corn and soybean production more precarious. “I could grow something that would grow in water,” Gerard recalled. “Or quit.” Inspired by rice farmers in Arkansas and Missouri, he began experimenting in 1999 with 40 acres. Today, his farm produces rice in fields managed by levees, pumps and cascading water systems.

His decision has been costly. Grading land for water management alone ran about $1,000 per acre, requiring millions of dollars in investment. Equipment such as turbines, pipes and fuel tanks added to the expense. “Rice farming is way more work. Double, triple the work that corn and beans are,” Gerard said. But after 25 years, his operation is now stable, and 2024 was his most successful season yet.

Climate data underscores why Gerard’s bet may prove prescient. The latest National Climate Assessment shows Midwest annual precipitation has risen by up to 15% since the 1990s, while extreme rainfall days have increased by 45% over 50 years, intensifying flooding and erosion risks. Rice, which thrives in waterlogged soil, has gradually extended north from the southern U.S., with Gerard’s farm representing a new frontier.

Yet Gerard’s path illustrates the structural barriers to diversification. U.S. farm subsidies and insurance are designed for corn and soybeans, while infrastructure from grain elevators to export networks serves those crops. Even cultural factors — what farmers’ parents grew, what local experts know best — reinforce existing systems. “Everything’s stacked against it,” said Jonathan Coppess, a University of Illinois farm policy expert.

Federal policy offers little to address climate-driven crop shifts. The 1996 “Freedom to Farm Act” gave producers flexibility in crop choice, but later farm bills and insurance programs entrenched support for corn and soybeans. Recent funding for climate-smart initiatives, including a grant Gerard briefly secured, has been inconsistent, with programs suspended and renamed amid political shifts.

Gerard’s success shows that alternatives are possible, but also how improbable large-scale change is without stronger policy support. Researchers warn that reliance on a narrow corn-soy rotation contributes to soil degradation and erosion, exemplified by a dust storm that reached Chicago in May 2025 — the city’s first such warning since the 1930s.

“Climate change is coming anyway, so we have to be positive and respond to it appropriately,” said Herry Utomo, a Louisiana State University researcher who developed the rice strain Gerard grows. But Coppess, the former USDA official, noted that current farm policy is “at best neutral and at worst counterproductive” for climate adaptation.

For Gerard, the risk has paid off. His rice now grows in fields where floods once ruined corn. He no longer fears the Mississippi washing away his crop. “People said you can’t grow rice here,” he said. “That was a quarter-century ago.”

Source: Pro Publica