Being such a water-intensive crop, rice doesn’t quite strike me as being all that well suited for California.
In the 1800s, the slaves that harvested the rice had it bad. That rice grew sharp leaves to try to protect itself from birds, and would cut up humans, too.
The water would reflect the Sun, causing eye damage, not to mention the heat would effectively be around 120F, sterilizing both males and females.
I agree with your assumption. But apparently, seeing how this a third generation California rice farmer, it is suited for this particular area of California. In one of the episodes he went to a Rice Farming... convention, or something like that, and there were plenty of Japanese there learning and seeing how we do it here.
Rice actually doesn’t need the water. It’s simply an ancient way to kill all other plants that compete with the rice.