Green kernels in the rice are completely natural. Each grain on the rice plant does not mature at exactly the same time. Some rice mills remove these with a color sorter, but we found this adds an unnecessary cost. Green kernels are not nutritionally inferior. After harvest, about three tons of straw per acre is left in the field.
Most farmers eliminate the straw by burning it.
The result is a parched, scorched earth and a smoky, hazy Sacramento Valley during the months this burning is going on. The Lundbergs do not burn the straw and stubble left on our fields. We have spent years experimenting with ways to incorporate it into the soil. In 1971, we modified a harvester to chop the straw left in the field. We also tried chopping the straw with a piece of equipment pulled by a tractor.