BD Fontenot grew up in Mamou, Louisiana — a small town in Evangeline Parish surrounded by agriculture. When he was 10 years old, Fontenot got his first job. His relatives had a cotton farm and came to town on Sunday to eat lunch at their grandparents’ house. Fontenot rode home with them in the afternoon and stayed all week to pick cotton. When they brought the cotton bale to town on Saturday, they dropped him back at his house.
“I think that is what developed my interest in agriculture,” Fontenot says. “I always did like farming.”
Read more about the 2021 Rice Consultant of the Year, BD Fontenot, in the special tribute below.