Author: admin

How many pounds of rice do you think you eat in a year? According to USA Rice, the average American enjoys 27 pounds annually — equivalent to the weight of a case of bottled water. In fact, rice isn’t just a mainstay in pantries, it’s a staple for more than half the world, and a vital source of income for 19%¹ of the world’s population.

With extreme weather events—such as droughts, floods, pests, and diseases—threatening rice yields and demand for rice in the United States continuing to rise, it is crucial for industry leaders like Mars to advance supply chain resiliency strategies to secure the future of rice.

Rising to the Challenge: How Mars is Supporting Rice Farming Resilience
The Arkansas Delta is a region in the eastern part of Arkansas that stretches along the Mississippi River and is one of the most productive agricultural areas in the country. This area accounts for 49.3% of total U.S. rice production and 49.9% of the total acres planted in 2024². Today, its once-fertile fields are grappling with droughts, saltwater from rising sea levels and floods, among other challenges. These challenges all point to an urgent need for innovation to secure and maintain this essential crop’s environment — one grain at a time.

As the manufacturer of iconic brands like Ben’s Original™— one of the world’s most recognized rice brands — as well as Tasty Bite® and Seeds of Change™, Mars, the maker of more than 40 U.S. food, snacking and pet brands, deeply understands the role rice plays in kitchens across the U.S. and around the world. Rice is more than just a staple ingredient; it’s a cornerstone of culture and nourishment for more than four billion people worldwide. That’s why our role goes far beyond simply selling products — it’s about honoring rice’s global significance and supporting the communities, farmers and families who depend on it.

“As a leader in the rice industry, we recognize our opportunity to help farmers across our value chain address environmental challenges that threaten their livelihoods,” said Dave Dusangh, President Mars Food & Nutrition, North America. “By collaborating closely with our partner farmers, we are working to build a more sustainable, resilient and innovative rice supply chain that benefits both people and the planet.”

Innovating for a Water-Smart Future
We’re using our longstanding expertise and global resources to help farmers adopt and scale advanced agricultural techniques that conserve water while reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

Conventional rice cultivation often relies on continuously flooded fields, which is water intensive and restricts oxygen in the soil and creates conditions for methane-producing bacteria — leading to greenhouse gas emissions. Mars is helping farmers adopt innovative water management techniques and technologies that improve water efficiency, strengthen climate resilience, and cut emissions. A few of these examples include:

• Alternate wetting and drying (AWD): A water management technique that allows rice fields to alternate between periods of flooding and drying, rather than maintaining continuous flooding throughout the growing season. This approach has been shown to reduce the amount of water used by up to 30% and reduce the amount of GHG emissions produced by over 40%³ each growing season.
• Multiple inlet rice irrigation (MIRI): This system optimizes how water is delivered using multiple inlets in pipes placed across a field. This distributes water more efficiently, cutting down on water usage, and reducing emissions.
• Row rice, or furrow irrigation: A method that bypasses the need to flood fields, while improving ease of crop rotation. Using this technique, water is applied in rows rather than flooding across the entire section of the field.
• Zero-grade fields are precision-leveled to ensure a flat surface with no slope, allowing water to flow evenly across the field and eliminating the need for internal levees or side inlets. This minimizes the need for intensive tilling, further improving efficiency and enabling farmers to save up to 37%⁴ more water each growing season compared to traditional contoured or leveed fields.

While these are promising solutions, shifting away from traditional methods can be challenging. The cost of new systems, concern about potential yield loss and difficulty of changing longstanding habits all make adoption a challenge for many farmers. Mars is supporting farmers by paying premiums on top of the commodity price to incentivize the adoption of new practices, as well as sharing data so Mars can measure the environmental benefits of these practices. This data sharing has helped show farmers in the Mars rice supply chain that embracing these practices hasn’t negatively impacted their crop yields. In fact, research has shown that using zero-grade fields with the AWD irrigation method reduces water usage by 65%⁵ while still providing the same crop yields.

“The role Mars plays in helping us adopt climate-smart agriculture practices is critical because it gives us an incentive to go out there and try something new,” says Terry Gray, an Arkansas rice farmer in the Mars Food & Nutrition rice supply chain. “We’re trying out these practices to grow the same yields with less strain on the land — and the results are showing it’s better for the environment all around.”

Partnering to Protect Farmers and the Planet
“The challenges faced by rice farmers today demand bold leadership, and partners like Mars are vital in driving meaningful change,” said Peter Bachmann, President and CEO, USA Rice. “By leveraging its resources, expertise and scale, Mars is helping farmers adopt climate-smart agriculture practices that not only sustain their livelihoods but also safeguard the environment.”

At Mars, mutuality is one of our core guiding principles. Collaboration with partners throughout our supply chain is essential to how we’re working to shape a more secure future for farmers, communities and the planet. Our approach to rice farming reflects this value, as we address challenges and build the future we envision together, every step of the way.

Through a steadfast commitment to our Sustainable in a Generation plan, Mars is championing impactful innovation that strengthens U.S. rice farming, setting an example across global food systems in an ever-evolving world.
 

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1. Rice – Rice Sector at a Glance | Economic Research Service. n.d. https://www.ers.usda.gov/topics/crops/rice/rice-sector-at-a-glance

2. Handbook, IPM, AND-STaR | Arkansas Cooperative Extension Service https://www.uaex.uada.edu/farm-ranch/crops-commercial-horticulture/rice/

3. Mars & Riceland Sustainable Rice Program (Arva Intelligence)

4. Massey et al. 2022, Direct Comparisons of four rice irrigation systems on a commercial rice farm, Agricultural Water Management, Vol 266, 31 May 2022 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0378377422001536

5. Mars & Riceland Sustainable Rice Program (Arva Intelligence)

New strategic alliance brings CrowdStrike Falcon Sensor and OverWatch Threat Hunting to F5 BIG-IP, free of charge through October 14, 2026

November 12, 2025 – SEATTLE and AUSTIN, Texas – F5 (NASDAQ: FFIV) and CrowdStrike (NASDAQ: CRWD) today announced a new strategic technology alliance and first-of-its-kind integration that brings advanced workload security to F5 BIG-IP. By enabling F5 customers to embed CrowdStrike’s Falcon Sensor directly into F5 BIG-IP and leverage CrowdStrike Falcon® Adversary OverWatch managed threat hunting service, the companies are advancing adaptive, AI-driven security to the network perimeter where enterprises front their most critical application and API traffic.

Extending detection and response beyond the endpoint

For years, the cybersecurity paradigm has centered on the edge as the primary battleground. Organizations rightly focused on securing laptops, desktops, and mobile devices with endpoint detection and response (EDR) software. This is crucial because these are the gateways through which users interact with corporate data and where many initial intrusions occur. However, attackers don’t stop at a compromised laptop; they see the entire network infrastructure as a sprawling set of cross-domain targets. To stop modern attacks, organizations need protection that extends beyond the endpoint – unifying visibility and defense across every domain that adversaries target.

“Today’s threat landscape demands taking the power of the Falcon platform beyond the endpoint,” said George Kurtz, CEO and founder of CrowdStrike. “We’re taking a bold step to move cybersecurity forward: normalizing the deployment of detection and response sensors across every attack surface, including network appliances. We’re pleased to take the first step by embedding CrowdStrike Falcon and OverWatch onto F5 BIG-IP. The Falcon platform has become essential for securing the modern enterprise.”

“For too long, network devices have lacked the same protection as other endpoints, even as they sit in front of the world’s most critical applications and APIs,” said François Locoh-Donou, President and CEO of F5. “The security incident we recently disclosed underscores how important it is to close this gap and continue raising the security bar across the industry. Delivered on the F5 Application Delivery and Security Platform (ADSP), CrowdStrike Falcon and OverWatch for BIG-IP brings AI-driven detection and threat hunting to the network edge. With over 200 customers already using Falcon for BIG-IP in their networks, our collaboration with CrowdStrike is enabling security teams to reduce blind spots and accelerate response times in their environments.”

CrowdStrike Falcon and OverWatch for F5 BIG-IP available now, free through October 14, 2026, to F5 customers

CrowdStrike Falcon Sensor and Overwatch Threat Hunting are available for BIG-IP Virtual Edition (VE) with availability on BIG-IP hardware systems by the end of the calendar year. F5 is providing eligible BIG-IP customers with complimentary access through October 14, 2026, to enable the immediate adoption of AI-native security and threat hunting at the network level without upfront costs. Interested F5 BIG-IP customers can view the Knowledge Base article or contact F5 for further information and assistance with onboarding.

Additional Resources:

To learn more, read the blog, watch the demo video, or visit the F5 and CrowdStrike partnership page.

About F5

F5, Inc. (NASDAQ: FFIV) is the global leader that delivers and secures every app. Backed by three decades of expertise, F5 has built the industry’s premier platform—F5 Application Delivery and Security Platform (ADSP)—to deliver and secure every app, every API, anywhere: on-premises, in the cloud, at the edge, and across hybrid, multicloud environments. F5 is committed to innovating and partnering with the world’s largest and most advanced organizations to deliver fast, available, and secure digital experiences. Together, we help each other thrive and bring a better digital world to life.

For more information visit f5.com

Explore F5 Labs threat research at f5.com/labs

Follow to learn more about F5, our partners, and technologies: Blog | LinkedIn | X | YouTube | Instagram | Facebook

F5 and BIG-IP are trademarks, service marks, or tradenames of F5, Inc., in the U.S. and other countries. All other product and company names herein may be trademarks of their respective owners. The use of the terms “partner,” “partners,” “partnership,” or “partnering” in this press release does not imply that a joint venture exists between F5 and any other company.

About CrowdStrike

CrowdStrike (NASDAQ: CRWD), a global cybersecurity leader, has redefined modern security with the world’s most advanced cloud-native platform for protecting critical areas of enterprise risk – endpoints and cloud workloads, identity and data.

Powered by the CrowdStrike Security Cloud and world-class AI, the CrowdStrike Falcon® platform leverages real-time indicators of attack, threat intelligence, evolving adversary tradecraft and enriched telemetry from across the enterprise to deliver hyper-accurate detections, automated protection and remediation, elite threat hunting and prioritized observability of vulnerabilities.

Purpose-built in the cloud with a single lightweight-agent architecture, the Falcon platform delivers rapid and scalable deployment, superior protection and performance, reduced complexity and immediate time-to-value.

CrowdStrike: We stop breaches.

Learn more: https://www.crowdstrike.com/

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Start a free trial today: https://www.crowdstrike.com/trial

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