An open letter to the American farmer

The old saying is that you never talk about farmers with your mouth full. Honestly, I would normally tend to agree with that statement. They certainly grow a lot of the food we eat and cotton goes to make many of our clothing products. However, there is a situation that I would like to call attention to.

For the last 4 years (this will be the 5th), we have had rice planted by our house. For those unfamiliar with the growing of rice, a levie is built up around the field and the field is flooded. I think common sense dictates that you should not flood a field that is close to someone's house but they do anyway!

To make matters more "interesting," with the exception of the first year, the rice has never been harvested but instead has been cut down. Why would you want to continue to grow a crop that is seeing such a consistent failure rate? For 3 years, the crop has apparently not been worth harvesting. Last year the crop became infested with wild (red) rice and I was told by my step father-in-law, who is a farmer, that if the crop had became infested with that, they shouldn't be planting it again this year.

I am not intending to level any accusations against anyone here, but come on, common sense should dictate that you don't plant a failing crop and you certainly don't plant it right by someone's house. It causes the foundation of the house to settle when you pull all of that water out of the ground, the weeds from the rice levies spread over onto someone else's property and you also cause an increase of snakes around the levies.