“I would go out, wherever there was a group of farmers, … Talk to them. Explain the Right-to-Know law. Here it is. We’re tasked with enforcement. First, we educate you and tell you what you need to do. We will work with you to help you get that set up, and if you refused, then you’ll get some fines. By […]
Richard Croxdale
“(N)othing much happened in Texas until Jim Hightower was elected in 1983. He roared into office with a goal of improving family farmer’s opportunities to make a living. Farmers Market was seen as a tool to provide more of the value of the produce to the farmers and less to the dreaded middleman. It also provided healthier, tastier, and more […]
Nora Linares-Moeller
“He (Hightower) really was the kind of leader that depended on a bunch of people. He hired the right kind of people to do the right kind of work, and he was the titular head. A great person to really get the word out to everybody, but he really didn’t get into the weeds of things. He’s great on the […]
Doug Zabel
“In ‘79, Jim [Hightower] came in and hired us to do his advertising, all that stuff was for the Railroad Commission race in ‘80… (H)e ran against Jim Nugent, otherwise known as The Snake, on the Texas Railroad Commission. And Hightower got 49 percent, almost won, and it was probably the best thing that ever happened to him because he […]
Fred Lundgren
“Reagan Brown (incumbent Ag Commissioner) was planning a news conference to talk about fire ants. So, not to be outdone, we set up a competing news conference for State Rep Dan Kubiak to do the same thing. Dan was chairing the Select Committee on Fire Ants and running for Land Commissioner. From our point of view, talking about fire ants […]
Jim Harrington
“Hightower’s tenure is certainly a meteor compared for the farmworkers compared to what it was and what it is now. It’s still it’s not as bad now as it was before. And that is because, I think, Hightower brought it along. You get to a place you can’t retrench too much. And I think that’s where it is. I’m not […]
Sandra Tenorio
“Some of my first meetings as director (of TDA’s Right to Know Program), imagine this room: Rebecca Harrington from the United Farmworkers, Jon Fisher from the Chemical Council, somebody from the Farm Bureau, somebody from the Farmers Union and then we had somebody from Legal Aid. Those were the five entities that were in the room to negotiate the regulations […]
Mariann Wizard-Garcia
“It (Project Tejas) was NOT a Jim Hightower aggrandizement project. It was all Texans were coming together in a non-partisan way. Smart. I’m sure we got a lot better cooperation because of that…It would be more in the line of questions, Don’t you think we should be helping American farmers? Well, buying farmers’ grain and milk and stuff is obviously […]
Mike Moeller
“When Hightower comes around, and they’re starting to put emphasis on organics, that was an attraction. By the time I got there, I was already working on farm worker issues and it was obvious pesticide protection was going to be a major thing that we would have to fight for, all the way until Rick Perry came along. I definitely […]
David Guarino
“Even though Hightower’s tenure was a contentious one, there was also a lot of cooperation back and forth, at least at the grassroots level. Of course, a lot of that was because things were so desperate out there people were willing to listen and willing to try stuff… Hightower created the Office of Farmer Assistance…And he said, basically, go out […]