Flood, Pumps & Rice: The Midwest's Wettest Crop Experiment
Blake Gerard, 55, is the improbable pioneer turning Southern Illinois, yes, Illinois, into Americaās northern rice frontier ā the only rice farm in a state where rice once feared to set foot. Around July mornings, armed with a USA Rice shirt, rubber boots, and a drone spying on water depth, he manages 2,500 soggy acres along the flood-happy Mississippi. Between 1943 floods and climate chaos, Blakeās folly took 25 years, millions of dollars, and a national farm bureaucracy obsessed with corn and soy subsidizing corn and soy more corn and soy. Meanwhile, the USDA delays answers like itās waiting on a flood of logic. Taste the future: muddy gumbo fields pumped dry one inch at a time.
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Only in Illinois could a guy channel his inner Aquaman to grow rice, defying floods, farm subsidies glued to corn, and bureaucratic 'we donāt do that here' USDA vibes. Change takes 25 years and a droneāclimate crisis, meet Midwestern stubbornness.
Midwest farmers betting on rice now need drones, pumps, and a prayer because apparently, climate change isnāt scored by Congressional farm bills. Farmingās getting wetterāand government supportās stuck in the dry season.
Rice in Illinois? Blake Gerardās got more grit than the Mississippi has mud, managing floods, neglectful policies, and a corn-soy cartel thatās as flexible as a steel beam. America, innovate or drown.
Source: Propublica | Published: 9/5/2025 | Author: by Julia Rendleman for ProPublica, Molly Parker, Capitol News Illinois, and Lylee Gibbs, Saluki Local Reporting Lab
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