Riviana Foods Inc., America's leading rice company, is committed to a more sustainable future. The company announced Success® Rice will partner with a group of farmers in Arkansas who are committed to sustainable rice farming. Working with SAI Platform's Farm Sustainability Assessment (FSA), a toolset for farms and companies in agricultural value chains to help assess, improve, and verify on-farm sustainability performance, Riviana Foods can support the farmers' engagement in sustainable farming practices. The company has committed to purchasing rice from these farmers (using a mass balance approach) in an amount that is equal to the volume of its Success white and brown rice consumption. This is a first step on a journey to more sustainable rice sourcing.
In using the insights provided through the FSA partnership, Riviana Foods can advance sustainable agriculture through focused farm support. By working with a group of local Arkansas farmers known as a Farm Management Group, Riviana Foods manages this group as their Farm Management Group Coordinator. These farmers grow rice that will be sourced by Riviana Foods and implement FSA Silver level practices to create a sustainable operation that produces verified sustainably grown rice. The Farm Management Group can ensure their farming practices allow their farms to thrive through various means, like identifying clean and sustainable sources of renewable energy, soil management, water management, and air quality and emissions, to name a few. All of this is possible through the FSA acting as a governance mechanism, so that Riviana Foods has a third party verifying the Farm Management Group's commitment to sustainability.
Supporting sustainable farming efforts is part of the Success Rice's Growing for Tomorrow initiative. It's also part of Riviana Foods' five pillars of sustainability, which focus on reductions around: Waste, Energy, Emissions, Water and Packaging.
