Catching up on Fish in the Fields™ 2025Harvest Day

FISH IN THE FIELDS

Apr 11

Science, Fish Snacks, and Scaleable Solutions — See What’s Next

Many thanks to all of you who came from near and far—and braved severe storm warnings!—to join in this year’s Fish in the Fields (FIF) Harvest Day. For those of you who couldn’t be there, we hope to see you at the next FIF event.

On March 14, we gathered at Isbell Farms, the home of our 140-acre research site, where the generous Isbell family has hosted our project for over three years. We were excited to demonstrate our enhanced on-field operations, including our fish vacuum pump and new methane measuring devices that supplement our e-flux towers. We also introduced everyone to Lucky Catch, a prototype commercial pet treat product, and presented the first edition of the FIF Implementation Guide.

More News From Harvest Day

40+ guests from a variety of sectors—NGOs, academia, the private sector, government, trade associations, and philanthropy—joined the event.

In the hands of the skilled team from Anderson Minnows, our vacuum pump—now equipped with a new sorting attachment—was used successfully for the second time. The technology has significantly streamlined the fish harvesting process, allowing us to retrieve hundreds of thousands of healthy adult fish that had grown from tiny juveniles stocked last November.
Knowledgable graduate students from Dr. Ben Runkle’s University of Arkansas Landscape Flux Group led field visits out to the flux towers and greenhouse gas chambers that measure methane gas emissions. The students provided scientific context to the FIF process and presented information about their FIF-related research projects.
A film crew was on site to capture the day’s events for an upcoming documentary about the FIF project.
We introduced the new Fish in the Fields™ Program Implementation Guide (First Edition, March 2025)—a replicable and scalable blueprint designed for rice producers interested in adopting rice/fish production systems.
We shared a first look at the mock-up packaging for Lucky Catch, our new co-branded (Isbell Farms and Resource Renewal Institute) freeze-dried raw fish treats for dogs and cats.
A new fish processing facility—our first one—was delivered to Isbell Farms, and assembly is underway!
Mark Isbell gave us a tour of their farm’s specialty sake rice milling facility, Cypress Creek Milling, which included tasting their excellent proprietary sake made from heritage Japanese rice varieties grown on the Isbell’s farm.
Last but certainly not least, special thanks to the JM Kaplan team, who thoughtfully treated us all to a delicious post-harvest lunch at Charlotte’s Eats and Sweets. Love those pies!

To learn more about FIF and this year’s Harvest Day, read the informative press release from USA Rice, whose Director of Grower Relations & Rice Stewardship Partnership, Josh Hankins, joined us for the event.

We’d love to hear your comments about our project and any suggestions you have for Harvest Day 2026.

Thanks again to all of our excellent partners and supporters. You make this work possible!