Mississippi
Booming British mill company’s pollution draws scrutiny in Mississippi. Less so in Louisiana
![Booming British mill company’s pollution draws scrutiny in Mississippi. Less so in Louisiana Booming British mill company’s pollution draws scrutiny in Mississippi. Less so in Louisiana](https://bloximages.newyork1.vip.townnews.com/nola.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/5/57/5571e9fc-4357-11ed-a74f-ab26067e6488/633b418d4c53e.image.jpg?crop=1765,927,0,124&resize=1200,630&order=crop,resize)
When Mississippi environmental regulators checked the emissions of a large wood pellet mill operating a few miles from the Louisiana line, they found pollution levels two times higher than the legal limit.
In Louisiana, two mills nearly identical to the Gloster, Miss. mill operate under the same British owner and produce the same product with the same equipment. But whether these Louisiana mills, located in Bastrop and Urania, are also tainting the air with large quantities of formaldehyde, methanol and other chemicals is a question Louisiana’s environmental regulators can’t answer.
“The Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality does not require testing for these pollutants,” said Patrick Anderson, an attorney for the Environmental Integrity Project advocacy organization. “But when Mississippi tested, they learned (the mill) was putting out 50 tons of hazardous air pollutants per year. That blows past the legal limit by almost two fold.”
Jamaria Warren, operations manager at the Amite BioEnergy facility of Drax Biomass, shows a handful of still-hot wood fiber formed into pellets for fueling power plants in the United Kingdom. He was giving a tour on May 17, 2016.
The three mills are owned by Drax, an England-based energy company that operates Britain’s largest power station. The former coal plant in rural Yorkshire produces power by burning wood pellets sourced from low-grade timber harvested in Louisiana and other parts of the South.
The EIP, made up of former U.S. Environmental Protection Agency officials, is urging LDEQ to conduct the same emissions review as Mississippi. The group stresses that Drax has a history of pollution violations in Louisiana. Last year, Drax agreed to pay LDEQ $3.2 million to settle air pollution claims against its Bastrop and Urania mills. The settlement was the largest paid to LDEQ in at least a decade.
LDEQ has not responded to the EIP, but an agency spokesperson said on Thursday that a review of Drax’s emissions and possibly LDEQ’s own permitting policies are now underway. LDEQ had no timeline for the review and indicated it was too early to tell if enforcement action would be taken.
In a statement, Drax said the “safety of our people and the communities in which we operate is our priority, and we take our environmental responsibilities seriously.” The company did not answer specific questions this week about its emissions levels, but acknowledged “some discrepancies” between its emissions estimates and its actual releases.
![DraxBiz.051916 1003.jpg](https://bloximages.newyork1.vip.townnews.com/nola.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/6/88/68845232-4357-11ed-b2ae-db3ba365904a/633b41ad4bbf9.image.jpg?resize=150%2C100 150w, https://bloximages.newyork1.vip.townnews.com/nola.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/6/88/68845232-4357-11ed-b2ae-db3ba365904a/633b41ad4bbf9.image.jpg?resize=200%2C133 200w, https://bloximages.newyork1.vip.townnews.com/nola.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/6/88/68845232-4357-11ed-b2ae-db3ba365904a/633b41ad4bbf9.image.jpg?resize=225%2C150 225w, https://bloximages.newyork1.vip.townnews.com/nola.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/6/88/68845232-4357-11ed-b2ae-db3ba365904a/633b41ad4bbf9.image.jpg?resize=300%2C200 300w, https://bloximages.newyork1.vip.townnews.com/nola.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/6/88/68845232-4357-11ed-b2ae-db3ba365904a/633b41ad4bbf9.image.jpg?resize=400%2C266 400w, https://bloximages.newyork1.vip.townnews.com/nola.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/6/88/68845232-4357-11ed-b2ae-db3ba365904a/633b41ad4bbf9.image.jpg?resize=540%2C359 540w, https://bloximages.newyork1.vip.townnews.com/nola.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/6/88/68845232-4357-11ed-b2ae-db3ba365904a/633b41ad4bbf9.image.jpg?resize=640%2C426 640w, https://bloximages.newyork1.vip.townnews.com/nola.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/6/88/68845232-4357-11ed-b2ae-db3ba365904a/633b41ad4bbf9.image.jpg?resize=750%2C499 750w, https://bloximages.newyork1.vip.townnews.com/nola.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/6/88/68845232-4357-11ed-b2ae-db3ba365904a/633b41ad4bbf9.image.jpg?resize=990%2C659 990w, https://bloximages.newyork1.vip.townnews.com/nola.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/6/88/68845232-4357-11ed-b2ae-db3ba365904a/633b41ad4bbf9.image.jpg?resize=1035%2C689 1035w, https://bloximages.newyork1.vip.townnews.com/nola.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/6/88/68845232-4357-11ed-b2ae-db3ba365904a/633b41ad4bbf9.image.jpg?resize=1200%2C799 1200w, https://bloximages.newyork1.vip.townnews.com/nola.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/6/88/68845232-4357-11ed-b2ae-db3ba365904a/633b41ad4bbf9.image.jpg?resize=1333%2C887 1333w, https://bloximages.newyork1.vip.townnews.com/nola.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/6/88/68845232-4357-11ed-b2ae-db3ba365904a/633b41ad4bbf9.image.jpg?resize=1476%2C983 1476w, https://bloximages.newyork1.vip.townnews.com/nola.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/6/88/68845232-4357-11ed-b2ae-db3ba365904a/633b41ad4bbf9.image.jpg 2008w)
Bark from the wood yard, destined for use as fuel in the drying process in creating wood pellets, seen May 17, 2016 at the Amite BioEnergy facility of Drax Biomass in Gloster, Miss. The pellets are stored at the Port of Baton Rouge, on their way help fuel power plants in the United Kingdom.
In March, the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality determined that Drax’s Amite BioEnergy mill in Gloster, about 12 miles from the Louisiana line, had far exceeded the allowable limit of what regulators call “hazardous air pollutants,” or HAPs. This wide-ranging classification includes about 180 pollutants, including arsenic, lead and mercury, that are toxic to humans. While the mill was permitted as a “minor source” for HAPs, its actual emissions made it a “major” source, according to MDEQ.
LDEQ confirmed that it does not require Drax to test for HAPs or a similar group of chemicals LDEQ refers to as “toxic air pollutants.” The Louisiana agency does not conduct its own testing for these chemicals at Drax’s mills.
Drax indicated its own inexperience with wood pellet production caused it to underestimate emissions.
“The pellet production industry is a relatively young industry,” Drax said in a letter to MDEQ in March. “Several wood pellet facilities, not only Amite BioEnergy, LLC, initially underestimated emissions in connection with the permitting of these facilities.”
The Mississippi mill is allowed to release 24 tons of HAPs per year. MDEQ records indicate the mill was releasing HAPs at a rate of 37 tons per year since 2021, but Drax’s own emissions estimates from 2022 put that rate at about 49 tons per year, according to a letter the company sent to MDEQ.
![DraxBiz.051916 182.jpg](https://bloximages.newyork1.vip.townnews.com/nola.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/5/ca/5cac1454-4357-11ed-bdd4-3f251b877670/633b41996ad82.image.jpg?resize=150%2C83 150w, https://bloximages.newyork1.vip.townnews.com/nola.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/5/ca/5cac1454-4357-11ed-bdd4-3f251b877670/633b41996ad82.image.jpg?resize=200%2C111 200w, https://bloximages.newyork1.vip.townnews.com/nola.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/5/ca/5cac1454-4357-11ed-bdd4-3f251b877670/633b41996ad82.image.jpg?resize=225%2C125 225w, https://bloximages.newyork1.vip.townnews.com/nola.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/5/ca/5cac1454-4357-11ed-bdd4-3f251b877670/633b41996ad82.image.jpg?resize=300%2C166 300w, https://bloximages.newyork1.vip.townnews.com/nola.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/5/ca/5cac1454-4357-11ed-bdd4-3f251b877670/633b41996ad82.image.jpg?resize=400%2C222 400w, https://bloximages.newyork1.vip.townnews.com/nola.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/5/ca/5cac1454-4357-11ed-bdd4-3f251b877670/633b41996ad82.image.jpg?resize=540%2C299 540w, https://bloximages.newyork1.vip.townnews.com/nola.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/5/ca/5cac1454-4357-11ed-bdd4-3f251b877670/633b41996ad82.image.jpg?resize=640%2C355 640w, https://bloximages.newyork1.vip.townnews.com/nola.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/5/ca/5cac1454-4357-11ed-bdd4-3f251b877670/633b41996ad82.image.jpg?resize=750%2C416 750w, https://bloximages.newyork1.vip.townnews.com/nola.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/5/ca/5cac1454-4357-11ed-bdd4-3f251b877670/633b41996ad82.image.jpg?resize=990%2C548 990w, https://bloximages.newyork1.vip.townnews.com/nola.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/5/ca/5cac1454-4357-11ed-bdd4-3f251b877670/633b41996ad82.image.jpg?resize=1035%2C573 1035w, https://bloximages.newyork1.vip.townnews.com/nola.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/5/ca/5cac1454-4357-11ed-bdd4-3f251b877670/633b41996ad82.image.jpg?resize=1200%2C665 1200w, https://bloximages.newyork1.vip.townnews.com/nola.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/5/ca/5cac1454-4357-11ed-bdd4-3f251b877670/633b41996ad82.image.jpg?resize=1333%2C738 1333w, https://bloximages.newyork1.vip.townnews.com/nola.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/5/ca/5cac1454-4357-11ed-bdd4-3f251b877670/633b41996ad82.image.jpg?resize=1476%2C818 1476w, https://bloximages.newyork1.vip.townnews.com/nola.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/5/ca/5cac1454-4357-11ed-bdd4-3f251b877670/633b41996ad82.image.jpg 2008w)
Wood fiber formed into pellets for shipping to the United Kingdom, where they will help fuel power plants. They’re seen May 17, 2016, just after being made at the Amite BioEnergy facility of Drax Biomass in Gloster, Miss.
A Drax spokesperson on Thursday said it cooperated with MDEQ and “took swift corrective action” this year.
It was the second time Drax ran afoul of MDEQ over the past two years. In 2021, MDEQ fined Drax $2.5 million for emitting hundreds of tons of volatile organic compounds, known as VOCs, per year in violation of the company’s Clean Air Act permits. VOCs are a collection of chemicals that can be harmful to breathe, especially for elderly people, children and sufferers of asthma and other lung conditions. The chemicals are released at the mills when trees are dried in kilns and then processed into pellets.
Drax’s $3.2 million payment to LDEQ a year later was also over alleged VOC emissions violations.
This pattern of violations should show that “a new round of enforcement actions against Drax is plainly warranted,” the EIP told LDEQ in May.
![Drax domes](https://bloximages.newyork1.vip.townnews.com/nola.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/7/06/70604f60-4357-11ed-ab56-139a25150a49/633b41ba79ccf.image.jpg?resize=150%2C100 150w, https://bloximages.newyork1.vip.townnews.com/nola.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/7/06/70604f60-4357-11ed-ab56-139a25150a49/633b41ba79ccf.image.jpg?resize=200%2C133 200w, https://bloximages.newyork1.vip.townnews.com/nola.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/7/06/70604f60-4357-11ed-ab56-139a25150a49/633b41ba79ccf.image.jpg?resize=225%2C150 225w, https://bloximages.newyork1.vip.townnews.com/nola.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/7/06/70604f60-4357-11ed-ab56-139a25150a49/633b41ba79ccf.image.jpg?resize=300%2C200 300w, https://bloximages.newyork1.vip.townnews.com/nola.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/7/06/70604f60-4357-11ed-ab56-139a25150a49/633b41ba79ccf.image.jpg?resize=400%2C267 400w, https://bloximages.newyork1.vip.townnews.com/nola.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/7/06/70604f60-4357-11ed-ab56-139a25150a49/633b41ba79ccf.image.jpg?resize=540%2C360 540w, https://bloximages.newyork1.vip.townnews.com/nola.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/7/06/70604f60-4357-11ed-ab56-139a25150a49/633b41ba79ccf.image.jpg?resize=640%2C427 640w, https://bloximages.newyork1.vip.townnews.com/nola.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/7/06/70604f60-4357-11ed-ab56-139a25150a49/633b41ba79ccf.image.jpg?resize=750%2C500 750w, https://bloximages.newyork1.vip.townnews.com/nola.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/7/06/70604f60-4357-11ed-ab56-139a25150a49/633b41ba79ccf.image.jpg?resize=990%2C660 990w, https://bloximages.newyork1.vip.townnews.com/nola.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/7/06/70604f60-4357-11ed-ab56-139a25150a49/633b41ba79ccf.image.jpg?resize=1035%2C690 1035w, https://bloximages.newyork1.vip.townnews.com/nola.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/7/06/70604f60-4357-11ed-ab56-139a25150a49/633b41ba79ccf.image.jpg?resize=1200%2C800 1200w, https://bloximages.newyork1.vip.townnews.com/nola.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/7/06/70604f60-4357-11ed-ab56-139a25150a49/633b41ba79ccf.image.jpg?resize=1333%2C888 1333w, https://bloximages.newyork1.vip.townnews.com/nola.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/7/06/70604f60-4357-11ed-ab56-139a25150a49/633b41ba79ccf.image.jpg?resize=1476%2C984 1476w, https://bloximages.newyork1.vip.townnews.com/nola.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/7/06/70604f60-4357-11ed-ab56-139a25150a49/633b41ba79ccf.image.jpg?resize=1763%2C1175 2008w)
Drax spent $30 million on two domes and other equipment and facilities to ship wood pellets out of the Port of Greater Baton Rouge.
While LDEQ hasn’t required HAPs testing on Drax’s two Louisiana mills, Anderson contends it’s reasonable to assume the similar facilities are releasing comparable levels of air pollutants. Drax told regulators that the Mississippi mill is a “nearly identical sister” to its facility in Bastrop, a small, mostly Black community in Morehouse Parish.
“The Morehouse facility was built at the same time and is very similar to (the Mississippi mill), such that it has the exact same process design, equipment, production rates…,” a Drax executive told MDEQ in 2017.
Like Bastrop, Gloster is a majority Black community with high rates of poverty. The promise of mill jobs has come with rising concerns about the health of residents and the environment, said Janice Lyons, president of the NAACP chapter for Amite County, where Gloster is located.
“Drax claims to be a good neighbor and to care about the environment,” she said. “But they have been dumping toxics on us and making us sick since day one.”
![Drax power station](https://bloximages.newyork1.vip.townnews.com/nola.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/e/4a/e4a84b6e-1cf7-11ee-ac43-135487e3e333/64a85fb7609cf.image.jpg?resize=150%2C100 150w, https://bloximages.newyork1.vip.townnews.com/nola.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/e/4a/e4a84b6e-1cf7-11ee-ac43-135487e3e333/64a85fb7609cf.image.jpg?resize=200%2C133 200w, https://bloximages.newyork1.vip.townnews.com/nola.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/e/4a/e4a84b6e-1cf7-11ee-ac43-135487e3e333/64a85fb7609cf.image.jpg?resize=225%2C150 225w, https://bloximages.newyork1.vip.townnews.com/nola.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/e/4a/e4a84b6e-1cf7-11ee-ac43-135487e3e333/64a85fb7609cf.image.jpg?resize=300%2C200 300w, https://bloximages.newyork1.vip.townnews.com/nola.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/e/4a/e4a84b6e-1cf7-11ee-ac43-135487e3e333/64a85fb7609cf.image.jpg?resize=400%2C267 400w, https://bloximages.newyork1.vip.townnews.com/nola.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/e/4a/e4a84b6e-1cf7-11ee-ac43-135487e3e333/64a85fb7609cf.image.jpg?resize=540%2C360 540w, https://bloximages.newyork1.vip.townnews.com/nola.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/e/4a/e4a84b6e-1cf7-11ee-ac43-135487e3e333/64a85fb7609cf.image.jpg?resize=640%2C427 640w, https://bloximages.newyork1.vip.townnews.com/nola.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/e/4a/e4a84b6e-1cf7-11ee-ac43-135487e3e333/64a85fb7609cf.image.jpg?resize=750%2C500 750w, https://bloximages.newyork1.vip.townnews.com/nola.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/e/4a/e4a84b6e-1cf7-11ee-ac43-135487e3e333/64a85fb7609cf.image.jpg?resize=990%2C660 990w, https://bloximages.newyork1.vip.townnews.com/nola.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/e/4a/e4a84b6e-1cf7-11ee-ac43-135487e3e333/64a85fb7609cf.image.jpg?resize=1035%2C690 1035w, https://bloximages.newyork1.vip.townnews.com/nola.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/e/4a/e4a84b6e-1cf7-11ee-ac43-135487e3e333/64a85fb7609cf.image.jpg?resize=1200%2C800 1200w, https://bloximages.newyork1.vip.townnews.com/nola.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/e/4a/e4a84b6e-1cf7-11ee-ac43-135487e3e333/64a85fb7609cf.image.jpg?resize=1333%2C888 1333w, https://bloximages.newyork1.vip.townnews.com/nola.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/e/4a/e4a84b6e-1cf7-11ee-ac43-135487e3e333/64a85fb7609cf.image.jpg?resize=1476%2C984 1476w, https://bloximages.newyork1.vip.townnews.com/nola.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/e/4a/e4a84b6e-1cf7-11ee-ac43-135487e3e333/64a85fb7609cf.image.jpg?resize=1763%2C1175 2008w)
The Drax Power Station in Drax, England is Britain’s largest power plant. The former coal plant now produces power by burning wood pellets produced at mills in Louisiana and Mississippi.
The wood pellet industry boomed after European regulators classified wood-burning as a green energy source comparable to solar and wind power. That made Drax’s power plant eligible for renewable energy subsidies that have amounted to billions of dollars over the past decade.
Drax has sourced much of its wood from the American South, where timber is cheap. Growing demand has pushed the company to look elsewhere, including the old-growth forests of British Columbia.
The company recently announced plans to establish a U.S. headquarters in Houston and build several new facilities in the U.S. and Canada in the coming years.
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Mississippi
Bus company in deadly Mississippi crash has mixed safety record: USDOT
WARREN COUNTY, Miss. (WJTV) – There are questions about a bus company’s track record after a fatal bus crash in Mississippi on Saturday, August 31.
Seven people died when a passenger bus traveling on Interstate 20 left the roadway and overturned. The Mississippi Highway Patrol (MHP) said that 41 passengers and two drivers were enroute to Dallas from Atlanta.
Autobuses Regiomontanos owned the bus in the crash. The company, which is registered with the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT), has had a troubled record in recent memory. It consists of lawsuits, driver fitness violations and even another fatal crash in 2023.
According to the DOT, the company, based in Laredo, Texas, operates 17 vehicles and employs 39 drivers. The company currently has a ‘conditional‘ safety rating. It is given to companies with ‘inadequate‘ safety controls. Still, companies with this rating may continue to operate.
Its most recent compliance review occurred in July 2023. Using data available from the DOT’s Safety Management System, it has had 155 inspections. Of those inspections, 58 had violations. Nearly all were vehicle maintenance violations.
Three infractions between October and December of 2023 involved issues with vehicle tires. Other infractions included 16 brake or air brake violations and citations for having two buses with no or defective emergency exits.
Seven victims killed in Mississippi bus crash identified
Other inspection violations related to the bus company’s drivers. All violations occurred this year. They include the following:
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(1) Operating a commercial vehicle without corrective lenses or hearing aids as indicated on the driver’s medical certificate (2) Operating a commercial motor vehicle (CMV) while not possessing a valid commercial driver’s license (CDL).
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05/13/2024
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05/14/2024
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05/14/2024
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05/28/2024
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Operate a CMV while not in possession of a CDL on person.
DOT data indicates that company buses have been in four separate accidents over the last two years. A November 2022 crash required a bus to be towed away and another in April 2023 resulted in someone dying. Below is the record.
Date |
Location |
Deaths |
Injuries |
10/16/2023 |
Louisiana |
0 |
1 |
4/15/2023 |
Texas |
1 |
2 |
11/23/2022 |
Tennessee |
0 |
0 |
9/24/2022 |
Arkansas |
0 |
1 |
The NTSB is investigating the crash in conjunction with MHP. NTSB officials said they will look at the carrier’s safety record and protections for bus occupants.
Community comes together to help Mississippi bus crash victims
Autobuses Regiomontanos violated several provisions of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). According to the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), it failed to have an ADA training program in place for its employees and contractors, failed to file required ADA compliance reports and failed to ensure that all lifts on its buses were properly maintained.
In 2015, the company entered into a settlement agreement with the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Texas.
The company was also named as a defendant in a $708 million lawsuit filed by New York City City in January. The city accused Autobuses Regiomontanos and other charter bus and transportation companies of taking migrants to the Big Apple on behalf of the State of Texas.
The DOT advises travelers to do the following before they book their next bus trip.
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Search for bus companies
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Verify that a company is authorized to operate
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Review the company’s safety records
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Make sure the company is licensed and insured
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If appropriate, report a company
DOT agencies advise consumers that unless a motor carrier has received an unsatisfactory rating or has been ordered to discontinue its operations, it is authorized to operate on the nation’s roadways. Additionally, readers should not conclude that a carrier is safe or unsafe by only using data from DOT agencies. For more information, click here.
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Mississippi
As Climate Threats to Agriculture Mount, Could the Mississippi River Delta Be the Next California? – Inside Climate News
![As Climate Threats to Agriculture Mount, Could the Mississippi River Delta Be the Next California? – Inside Climate News As Climate Threats to Agriculture Mount, Could the Mississippi River Delta Be the Next California? – Inside Climate News](https://insideclimatenews.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/PRODUCE015-1024x683.jpg)
This story was originally published by The Tennessee Lookout.
A smorgasbord of bright red tomatoes and vibrant vegetables line the walls of Michael Katrutsa’s produce shop in rural Camden, Tennessee. What began a decade ago as a roadside farm stand is now an air-conditioned outbuilding packed with crates of watermelon, cantaloupe and his locally renowned sweet corn — all picked fresh by a handful of local employees each morning.
The roughly 20-acre farm west of the Tennessee River sells about half of its produce through his shop, with the rest going to the wholesale market.
Farms like Katrutsa’s make up just a sliver of roughly 10.7 million acres of Tennessee farmland largely dominated by hay, soybeans, corn and cotton. Specialized machines help farmers harvest vast quantities of these commodity “row crops,” but Katrutsa said the startup cost was too steep for him. While specialty crops like produce are more labor-intensive, requiring near-constant attention from early July up until the first frost in October, Katrutsa said he takes pride in feeding his neighbors.
The World Wildlife Fund sees farms in the mid-Mississippi delta as ripe with opportunity to become a new mecca for commercial-scale American produce. California currently grows nearly three-quarters of the nation’s fruits and nuts and more than a third of its vegetables.
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But as climate change compounds the threats of water scarcity, extreme weather and wildfires on California’s resources, WWF’s Markets Institute is exploring what it would take for farmers in West Tennessee, Mississippi and Arkansas to embrace — and equitably profit from — specialty crop production like strawberries, lettuce or walnuts.
Specialty crops make up only 0.19% of the region’s farm acreage, but their higher sale value allows them to generate 1.08% of the region’s agriculture revenue, according to WWF’s May report, called The Next California, spearheaded by Markets Institute Senior Director Julia Kurnik. She argues that there’s an opportunity to proactively create more inclusive, higher-yield business models on existing farms, preventing natural ecosystems from being unnecessarily transformed into farmland.
But shifting produce growth to the Mid-Delta comes with hurdles: it requires buyers willing to try new markets, understanding of new crops’ diseases and needs, specialized equipment like cold storage and lots of expensive hands-on labor.
“It is not as simple as a farmer simply putting new crops in the ground,” Kurnik said.
Early Adopters Put Idea to the Test
Sixth-generation Arkansas farmer Hallie Shoffner is putting WWF’s models to the test through a nonprofit called the Delta Harvest Food Hub. The hub works with Black and women farmers to pilot the scalability of growing specialty crops in the Delta region, starting with specialty rice.
Shoffner grows basmati, jasmine, sushi rice, sake rice seeds and more on her 2,000-acre, century-old farm located in an unincorporated town outside Newport, Arkansas. She’s skeptical about a full switch to produce, but sees specialty rice products as “low-hanging fruit” easily adopted in the mid-Delta, where commodity rice is already widely grown.
The United States is the fifth-largest rice exporter in the world, and Arkansas is the country’s top producer, with other Mississippi River valley states not far behind. But the majority of specialty rice is grown in California or imported from East Asian countries.
“We are forward-thinking farmers who want to change, who want to do something different,” Shoffner said. “We want to make more money, because we know we cannot make as much money as small farms in the current agricultural economy.”
The commodity farming that dominates Delta agriculture makes the economic success of farmers largely dependent on the market prices of rice, corn, soybeans, wheat and other crops, Shoffner said. This incentivizes farms to grow larger to ensure they turn a profit even when prices are low, like they are now. But smaller farms struggle to stay afloat.
Shoffner said her vision for developing specialty crop markets in Arkansas will be through more collaboration between many smaller farms to diversify crop production and produce for large contracts together. She’s also exploring possibilities for expanding chickpea, sunflower, sesame and pea production in Arkansas.
And while she’s at it, Shoffner is working to make agriculture more equitable.
“As a white farmer who is a sixth generation farmer, I realize that I have inherited a large amount of land that systematically disenfranchised Black farmers,” Shoffner said. “And it is my responsibility to acknowledge that, and leverage what I’ve been given to help others.”
Her project, Delta Harvest, has a contract to grow specialty rice with a large company and she’s working with several Black farmers. She was too small to do it by herself, so they are doing it cooperatively.
Finding the Right Markets
In Mississippi, efforts to shift some of California’s sprawling specialty crop industry to the Mid-Delta drew skepticism from some farmers—even those with established specialty crop operations.
For the past 20 years, Don van de Werken has co-owned a 120-acre blueberry and tea farm in Poplarville, Mississippi, distributing much of its crops to buyers in his county and nearby cities.
Van de Werken questioned whether there would be enough regional demand to sustain a scaled-up specialty crop industry in Mississippi, noting that the success of his own enterprise hinges on targeting hyper-local markets like New Orleans. Shipping vegetables, fruits and other produce to buyers outside the Delta region would quickly become cost prohibitive for local farmers, van de Werken said.
“The problem we have, not just in Mississippi but the mid South in general, is we just don’t have the population base,” said van de Werken, who is also president of the Gulf South Blueberry Growers Association. “We don’t want our blueberries to go to Maine or Seattle. We want to focus our produce in a regional market.”
To make growing specialty crops worthwhile, Mississippi farmers would need to identify nearby buyers willing to purchase the new products on a consistent basis, van de Werken said. While selling goods directly to retail grocery chains like Kroger is often difficult, farmers could reduce financial risks by signing purchasing agreements with regional brokers like Louisiana-based Capitol City Produce.
“Anybody that puts anything in the ground is already taking a risk, but you want to minimize that risk,” he explained. “If you can prove to the brokers and the buyers that they can make money doing this, then the farming will come.”
The WWF report investigates ways to distribute risk across the supply chain to make selling to new markets easier on farmers, and works to connect buyers with Mid-Delta farmers.
AgLaunch, a Memphis-based nonprofit that guides farmers in innovation, estimates that adding specialty crops to the Mid-Delta region could spur $4.6 billion in added revenue and 33,000 jobs. But while commodity crop prices are readily available on the Chicago Board of Trade, the specialty crop market is generally not so transparent. Large, vertically integrated companies usually dictate contract terms, AgLaunch President and farmer Pete Nelson said.
AgLaunch helps build “smart contracts” that allow multiple farmers to produce on a contract, helping them secure higher quantity deals with proper compensation as a collective.
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Purdue College of Agriculture professor Fred Whitford said the idea of farming cooperatives that help smaller farmers carve out space in a large-quantity market is more than 100 years old. Whitford compared commodity producers to retail giants like Walmart, which make money by selling in bulk. Small producers are more like Ace Hardware, he said.
“Maybe the smaller folks have an ability to make more off their land by going to a specialty crop,” he said.
New Challenges Need New Solutions
Farmers who embrace specialty crops will face hurdles before they make it to the market.
Growing produce can be more profitable but “easier said than done,” Whitford said. “It’s nice on paper … but boy, in reality, you’re going to have to keep an eye on this crop, whatever you’re growing, because one slip up … then you have lost a lot of money.”
In Tennessee, Katrutsa grew strawberries in addition to his other crops for 10 years, but last April, a hail storm pulverized his entire field, leaving him with nothing. He’s not growing strawberries this year, and he might not plant them again — he’s not sure if he can find enough labor to make it work.
He grows many types of produce so if one fails, it’s less catastrophic. He sources seedlings from a neighboring state (it’s cheaper than growing from seed) and plants five times each season to maximize yield.
He works with a consultant to help identify diseases and how to treat them. Tomatoes are the most challenging, Katrutsa said. Some of his tomato plants withered this year due to bacterial wilt that flourishes in wet soil and high temperatures and has few effective chemical remedies.
Carolyn Preble helps out farmer Michael Katrutsa at the farm shop, which stocks the more than 20 acres of produce Katrutsa grows in rural Camden, Tennessee. Credit: John Partipilo/Tennessee Lookout
Chemical treatments pose other challenges. In Shaw, Mississippi, Michael Muzzi relies on a range of herbicides to grow soybeans and other feed grains on his 2,000-acre farm. Once sprayed, herbicides like Liberty and Dicamba remain in the ground and can drift in the air, which is hazardous to specialty crops, like tomatoes, that aren’t resistant.
“You’re not going to be able to spray [those herbicides] on specialty crops,” Muzzi said. “You’d have to have something that’s chemically tolerant.”
Growing fruits and vegetables on a farm with previous heavy herbicide use would require insulating those crops from chemical runoff — a feat that could only be reliably achieved by leaving whole acres of land unused for years, he said.
AgLaunch is exploring innovative ways to address these problems. For some farmers, this means helping make their existing row crops more efficient using farmer-incubated technology, adding local value by growing specialty crops or taking on processing, Nelson said.
Then there’s disruption with higher risk: farmers can partner with agriculture automation technology startups, allowing them to field test their products and collect data in exchange for farmer equity in the startup companies. If the startup succeeds, the farmer shares in the benefits.
“It’s not as simple as, ‘Hey, we should grow tomatoes,’” Nelson said. “It’s how you think about the whole value chain and make sure the farmer is protected. Make sure it’s not an opportunity just to grow a crop, but it’s an opportunity to own part of the processing or to build new products.”
Kurnik said WWF isn’t trying to recruit farmers to start growing specialty crops – they just want Mid-Delta farmers to have the information they need to make informed decisions. In terms of acreage, row crops “dwarf” specialty crops in the United States. A small percentage shift would mean a significant change in the level of specialty crops in the Delta.
“We don’t need everyone to want to jump on board tomorrow,” she said. “They would flood the market if they did.”
This story is a product of the Mississippi River Basin Ag & Water Desk, an independent reporting network based at the University of Missouri in partnership with Report for America, with major funding from the Walton Family Foundation. Disclosure: The Next California report was also funded by Walton.
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Mississippi
Mississippi man dies of an apparent overdose in MDOC custody in Rankin County
![Mississippi man dies of an apparent overdose in MDOC custody in Rankin County Mississippi man dies of an apparent overdose in MDOC custody in Rankin County](https://www.gannett-cdn.com/-mm-/62f03215fa8f49a1bd8baf9d444d47064169505c/c=0-21-533-322/local/-/media/2015/08/01/JacksonMS/JacksonMS/635740391618225482-jail-bars-prison-bars-.jpg?auto=webp&format=pjpg&width=1200)
A 41-year-old man incarcerated at Central Mississippi Correctional Facility in Rankin County died Thursday of an apparent overdose.
Mississippi Department of Corrections Commissioner Burl Cain confirmed the death in a news release.
The man was identified as Juan Gonzalez. According to prison records, he was serving a four-year sentence on multiple convictions in Hinds County and was tentatively scheduled for release in May 2025.
“Because of the unknown nature of the substance, the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency and the Mississippi Department of Health were notified,” MDOC reported.
The investigation into Gonzalez’s death remains ongoing.
This is a developing story and may be updated.
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