It is believed that rice arrived in the United States
because

Rice production is the third largest among cereals in the United States, after corn and wheat. Of the country's row crop farms, rice farms are the most capital-intensive, and have the highest national land rental rate average. In the US, all rice acreage requires irrigation. In 2000-09 approximately 3.1 million acres in the US were under rice production; an increase was expected over the next decade to approximately 3.3 million acres.[1] USA Rice represents rice producers in the six largest rice-producing states of Arkansas, California, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri