Louisiana Agritourism: Yellow Rails and Rice Festival in Bird Watcher's Digest

Tuesday, September 11, 2012

Yellow Rails and Rice Festival in Bird Watcher's Digest

An excerpt from the article reads: “In late October, the fourth annual Yellow Rails and Rice Festival will take place in Louisiana’s southwestern prairie region. This modest event is unique insofar as it brings birders and farmers together to appreciate the value to birds of the state’s “working wetlands,”

the rice country of the area. Surely, participants will view elusive wintering yellow rails in rice fields, but more importantly, they will combine our pastime with the working lives of people engaged with what is certainly the most bird-friendly agricultural crop in North American: rice.

Visit tinyurl.com/yararf-home for more about the Yellow Rails and Rice Festival.” The entire article can be found at Bird Watcher’s Digest, September-October, 2012 edition online at www.birdwatchersdigest.com

The festival is scheduled for October 24-28, 2012 in Jennings.

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Agritourism Law Limits Liability

In 2008, the Louisiana Legislature expanded the limitation of liability found in La R.S. 9:2795 et seq to include certain agritourism activities. The legislation authored by Representative Andy Anders and Senators Francis Thompson and Mike Walsworth provides that the Louisiana Department of Agriculture and Foresty (LDAF) will develop a set of rules and regulations and that the LSU AgCenter will define a “plan of operation” for an agritourism venture and review those plans.

More about this law can be found on the LSU AgCenter Web site: www.lsuagcenter.com/agritourism

2012 Agriculture Census Shows Increase in Farming

WASHINGTON, May 2, 2014 –There are now 3.2 million farmers operating 2.1 million farms on 914.5 million acres of farmland across the United States, according to the 2012 Census of Agriculture, released today by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

“Once every five years, farmers, ranchers and growers have the unique opportunity to let the world know how U.S. agriculture is changing, what is staying the same, what’s working and what we can do differently,” said Dr. Cynthia Clark, the retiring head of USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service, which administered the survey.

Eighty-seven percent of all U.S. farms are operated by families or individuals.
Principal operators were on average 58.3 years old and were predominantly male; second operators were slightly younger and most likely to be female; and third operators were younger still.
In Louisiana agritourism grew from 170 farms in 2007 to 361 farms in 2012.
In Louisiana onfarm agritourism sales jumped from $2,486 to $8,996 in 2012.
In Louisiana the definition of agritourism is broader than the definition in the census; meaning that numbers are greater.