Migratory Birds And Rice Farmers Are Helping Each Other Soar

Migratory Birds And Rice Farmers Are Helping Each Other Soar

Migratory Birds And Rice Farmers Are Helping Each Other Soar This story is one in a series about the confluence of capitalism, conservation and cultural identity in the Mississippi River Basin. It is part of Waterline and is sponsored by the Walton Family Foundation. About four inches of clear water pools around Mike Wagner’s rubber boots as he wades into one of his rice fields in northwestern Mississippi on a rainy late summer morning. Tufts of tall, dark green grasses grow dense across the flat landscape around him, stems arcing with the weight of nearly ripe kernels. But Wagner grabs a stalk off a slightly lighter green plant at the field’s edge. He shakes it, and a few grains fall into his hand. This, he explains, is weedy rice — a wild variety that intrudes on his cultivated crop. In his early years of running Two Brooks Farm here in the Mississippi Delta, Wagner tried to pull out this nuisance species so it didn’t mix with the likes of his basmati and jasmine. These days, he leaves …