The company's headquarters are expanding into more of the old cotton broker space on Front Street, matching the exponential growth of Viking's work force to 575. Today, just one cotton broker remains in a city block otherwise occupied by existing and planned Viking offices. Viking's story, from homegrown startup in 1986 to a leader in fine kitchen appliances, symbolizes the Delta's diversifying economy. And Viking is an uncommon example of industrial growth in the Delta. It's taken many communities, including ours, a number of years to gear up for it.
Agriculture still buttresses most communities.
Nearly every roadside still is sprinkled with cotton lint during the fall harvest. The acrid residue of insecticides hangs in the air some days. Smoke from the burning of rice fields can make the whole place seem ablaze. By some accounts, the Delta's efforts to stimulate more manufacturing and other non-farming employment still are hobbled by the region's agrarian history. There needs to be a longer-term view about what you can do with workers than they had in the past.