Arkansas rice farmers race against Isaac to harvest crop

Farmers in the top rice-producing state of Arkansas were harvesting their crop at breakneck speed, industry sources said Thursday, in a bid to limit damage from Hurricane Isaac, which had weakened and made landfall as a tropical storm.

The potential threat to the rice crop from Isaac comes on the heels of the worst drought in half a century, which devastated corn and soybean crops in the Midwest farm belt, but had been beneficial to rice plantings.