Boyds Untethered #19


Driving across southern Louisiana on US 90 we saw lots of rice paddies.

These rice fields are pristine enough for a picture postcard. Long, straight rows of bright green grain protrude from crystal clear water, with not a weed in sight. But one thing looks out of place.

Between every row is a long line of traps with bright orange tops that poke out of the water every few feet. 

They are there because the farmer is growing two crops…. rice and crawfish.

Rice has been a mainstay of Louisiana agriculture since the 18th century. It is one of the few crops the wet, silty soil can support. 

For years, crawfish was a wild product, harvested mostly in the Atchafalaya Basin between New Orleans and Baton Rouge. 

But in the 1970s and ’80s, farmers realized that they could make extra money by managing and harvesting the crawfish that already lived in their flooded rice fields.


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