Louisiana
Soil steward: Louisiana farmer Hilery Gobert teaches climate-friendly farming methods to veterans
Hilery Gobert is the seventh generation Gobert farmer to cultivate southwest Louisiana land. A native of St. Landry parish, Gobert left his father’s farm as a young man, served in the first Brigade of the 101st Airborne Division in Vietnam, pursued a career in Atlanta, and then taught small-scale agriculture at a Georgia community college.
After retirement, Gobert bought 65 acres of land and began his own farm with a vision to be climate friendly. His mission has evolved into working with the Natural Resources Conservation Service. He hosts “field days” with Farm Journal and their foundation, America’s Conservation Ag Movement, in which he instructs farmers on how to use conservation-smart and climate-friendly techniques.
How long have you been farming?
It’s been an off-and-on journey for me. I am the son of a sharecropper. However, when I finished high school, I went straight into college, into the military and then into private business.
When COVID came, I reevaluated. I lost my wife the year before that as well, after 51 years. I considered where I was, what I wanted to do, and I decided I really wanted to come back home, buy a farm and build it up on a regenerative scale, where I can teach other people how to care for the soil and try to convince more people to grow their own food.
Hilery Gobert’s Driftwood Farm.
What drew you to teaching others about climate-smart agriculture?
I worked with the Department of Agriculture and their division (Natural Resources Conservation Service) in Georgia helping people. What I try to do is introduce people to the new technology that’s available in farming.
People really need to educate themselves before they start growing.
I remember as a child growing up and asking my father, who was a great farmer, why we did things a certain way. He said, “Because it works,” but he never understood the science behind it. After I got educated in agriculture, I began realizing what the science behind each of these methods was.
If you can learn the science behind it, it allows you to understand why you’re doing it, and you can improve on what was being done previously.
Military veterans attend a Field Day at Hilery Gobert’s Driftwood Farms to learn about climate-friendly farming.
How did that lead you to working with conservation efforts?
Farm Journal has a foundation which is called the American Agriculture Conservation Movement. They seek out two people in every state to sponsor and help them put on field days to teach others how to become smart on conservation.
I started working with them, and I realized how much more people I could reach. It just makes sense.
I’m trying to contact as many organizations as I can to talk about my farm. But it’s not so much my farm, it can be any farm that is using organic conservation methods. We need to get this word out to more people.
What are some aspects of conservation in farming?
We’re looking to make efficient use of all of the tools we have in order to negate the changes that are taking place in our climate. Regardless of how or why you believe that the climate is changing, we have to realize that the climate is in fact, changing. We have to address that right now.
One of the thoughts behind the science of why the climate is changing is because of the amount of carbon that has been released into the atmosphere. So, in climate smart farming, one of the key things we try to do is capture carbon and place it in the soil, which is where it came from in the first place.
Hilery Gobert’s animals out to pasture at Driftwood Farms.
I’m an organic farmer, which means I don’t use any pesticides or chemicals whatsoever on the farm. I also try to reduce tillage because that keeps more carbon in the soil.
Conserving water is another problem. We see a lot of farms with big overhead sprinkles that are shooting water up into the air. Almost 20% of that water evaporates before it hits the ground. I use drip irrigation where I’m releasing the water at ground level right at the roots of the plant, underneath a canopy of mulch, to conserve that water.
With the drip irrigation method, I’m growing rice with less than 20% of the amount of water that the average farmer in Louisiana uses to grow rice.
Cover cropping is growing an entire crop that you’re not going to harvest, but that you till back into the soil to restore the organic matter.
In what ways do you try to promote biodiversity and soil health?
The Field Days with Farm Journal. One group we worked with is the Veteran Farmers Coalition, which is primarily aimed toward veterans who are considering starting a farm. At our last Field Day we had 39 veterans who learned about programs that are available to them from various government agencies.
Unfortunately, small farms have a large failure rate, and most times, I feel that it’s because they simply weren’t educated enough when they started to grow their produce. I push for more education prior to starting a farm.
The whole idea of regenerative and climate-smart agriculture is to produce high-quality food that is nutrient dense while improving the condition of the soil.
What do you want our readers to know about farming in Louisiana?
We need to support the farmers more than we do now, especially the small farmers who own less than a couple of 1,000 acres. They don’t get the amount of support as the larger corporate farms do. We need an opportunity for them to get educated on all of the current science that we have in production methods.
For more information, visit driftwoodfarminiowa.com and America’s Conservation Ag Movement for a short video.
ALEXANDRIA, La. (KALB) – The federal government is building a nationwide standard as the United States competes in a global A.I. race, much the same as the Space Race of the 20th century.
Last week, President Trump signed an executive order aimed at establishing a uniform federal regulatory framework for artificial intelligence in the United States.
The order emphasized a need for AI companies to be allowed to innovate without hinderance from excessive regulations, so that the system would not become fragmented.
Marva Bailer is the CEO and founder of Qualaix, which works to improve productivity and innovation with AI through conversations. She said this framework a step towards realizing an untapped potential in the United States for innovation and productivity through AI.
“We are leading the AI race,” said Bailer. “What is getting people’s attention is there are areas that we could be a lot stronger and lean in a lot faster.”
We spoke with KALB political analyst Greg LaRose to learn how this new framework might impact Louisiana’s development.
Since 2024, the construction of multiple AI data centers has been announced across the state, with each new center estimated to be worth billions of dollars and promising new jobs and growth for Louisiana.
According to LaRose, the executive order should not realistically confine any of the state’s major AI projects.
“Through the Louisiana lens at that executive order from President Trump, I’m not really seeing anything that really confines what’s going on in the state.”
The majority of the state’s laws are concerned with deep fakes.
In October, Louisiana governor Jeff Landry issued his own executive order which banned, “Communist Chinese AI platforms’ from systems within state government.”
While it is unclear how Louisiana will enforce Landry’s order, LaRose said the state does face other concerns.
“I think they’re more concerned about giving China access to the data that is used to create, say, a Louisiana-based deep fake or any type of issue,” said LaRose. “For example, like transcription software that people are increasingly using to make record-keeping a lot easier. I think the idea is that that type of information be kept out of hands that we don’t want it in.”
This, as the global AI race heats up heading into 2026.
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The last of two inmates who had been on the run since escaping from a jail in the southern Louisiana city of Opelousas earlier this month has been caught, officials said Friday. A third inmate who was also part of the escape died by suicide after being caught by police, authorities previously said.
Keith Anthony Eli II, 24, was taken into custody in Opelousas, St. Landry Parish Sheriff Bobby Guidroz said in a news release. Opelousas is located about 25 miles north of Lafayette.
Guidroz said Eli was captured by narcotics detectives and a SWAT team thanks to a tip.
At the time of his escape, Eli was held on an attempted second-degree murder charge.
The three men had escaped the St. Landry Parish Jail on Dec. 3 by removing concrete blocks from an upper wall area, Guidroz said at the time.
Authorities said the inmates then used sheets and other materials to scale the exterior wall, climb onto a first-floor roof and lower themselves to the ground, Guidroz said.
Escapee Jonathan Joseph, 24, was captured on Dec. 5. He is in custody on multiple charges, including first-degree rape.
Joseph Harrington, 26, faced several felony charges, including home invasion. On Dec. 4, one day after the escape, he was recognized by a tipster while pushing a black e-bike. Police found the e-bike at a neighboring home and heard a gunshot while trying to coax him to leave the building. He had shot himself with a hunting rifle, Port Barre Police Chief Deon Boudreaux said by telephone to The Associated Press.
The escape came more than seven months after 10 inmates broke out of a New Orleans jail. All ten of since been captured.
Victims speak on ‘Goon Squad’ sentencing
‘Goon Squad’ victims Michael Jenkins and Eddie Parker speak during a press conference after the sentencing at the Rankin County Circuit Court in Brandon, Miss., on Wednesday, April 10, 2024.
Eddie Terrell Parker, one of two men who settled a civil lawsuit against Rankin County and the Rankin County Sheriff’s Department in the “Goon Squad” case, was arrested Wednesday, Dec. 17, and is being held in a northeast Louisiana jail on multiple charges.
Louisiana State Police Senior Trooper Ryan Davis confirmed details of the incident to the Clarion Ledger via phone call on Friday, Dec. 19.
Davis said Parker was traveling east on Interstate 20 in Madison Parish, Louisiana, when a trooper observed Parker committing “multiple traffic violations.” Davis said the trooper conducted a traffic stop, identified themselves and explained the reason for the stop.
Parker was allegedly found in possession of multiple narcotics, along with at least one firearm.
Parker was booked around 8 p.m. Wednesday into the Madison Parish Detention Center in Tallulah, Louisiana, on the following charges, as stated by Davis:
- Possession of marijuana with intent to distribute
- Possession of ecstasy with intent to distribute
- Possession of methamphetamine with intent to distribute
- Possession of cocaine with intent to distribute
- Possession of drug paraphernalia
- Possession of a firearm in the presence of a controlled substance
- Possession of a firearm by a convicted felon
Details about the quantity of narcotics found in Parker’s possession were not immediately available.
Davis told the Clarion Ledger that Parker received a $205,250 bond after appearing before a judge.
Parker, along with another man named Michael Jenkins, was tortured and abused on Jan. 24, 2023, at a home in Braxton, at the hands of six former law enforcement officers who called themselves “The Goon Squad.” Parker and Jenkins filed a lawsuit in June 2023 against Rankin County and Rankin County Sheriff Bryan Bailey.
Each of the six former Mississippi law enforcement officers involved in the incident are serving prison time for state and federal charges. Those officers were identified as former Rankin County deputies Brett McAlpin, Hunter Elward, Christian Dedmon, Jeffrey Middleton and Daniel Opdyke, and former Richland police officer Joshua Hartfield.
Court documents show U.S. District Judge Daniel P. Jordan III issued an order on April 30 dismissing a $400 million lawsuit brought by Jenkins and Parker, saying that the two men had reached a settlement with the county and Bailey. Jenkins and Parker sought compensatory damages, punitive damages, interest and other costs.
According to court records, the case was dismissed with prejudice, meaning it cannot be refiled. However, the order stated that if any party fails to comply with settlement terms, any aggrieved party may reopen the matter for enforcement of the settlement.
Jason Dare, legal counsel for the Rankin County Sheriff’s Department, stated the settlement agreement totaled to $2.5 million. According to Dare, the settlement was not an admission of guilt on the county’s or the sheriff’s department’s part.
Pam Dankins is the breaking news reporter for the Clarion Ledger. Have a tip? Email her at pdankins@gannett.com.
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