21 Apr 2023

Ben Delgado

“I was the mechanic, the admin guy who knew how to do contracts, knew who to call, figure out how to hire people how to bring people on board, how to schedule things out, how to organize meetings, all the understated and underappreciated, even to this day, admin stuff that has to happen in order to make an organization work…I […]

Gallery of Stars
21 Apr 2023

Juanita Cox

“(W)ith Hightower, we were very proud, we were able to get even stronger pesticide regulations than what California had at that time….It was the combination of having people in office that cared about the people that harvest the food for this world. It was the power that the union had built in farm workers that said we want you to […]

Gallery of Stars
21 Apr 2023

Martin Burrell

“His (Jim Hightower’s) initiatives about working with small and minority businesses. That was one of the things that I learned from him, and I was able to use that. I’ve been using that, essentially built a career around strengthening the environment with women and minority business because his initiative was whenever we spend money, look for opportunities to do business […]

Gallery of Stars
21 Apr 2023

Sam Biscoe

“But we adopted them (the pesticide regulations). Well, the big producers sued us. But the lawsuit was here in Austin. So we won that lawsuit. And for a short time, you know, some of the farmers had come around and farmworkers became accustomed to being protected in the fields. The other thing is that, the most frightening part of all […]

Gallery of Stars
21 Apr 2023

Jennifer Bailey

“No matter how the brand changed, Taste of Texas products still today, international, national, and local markets always sell. Opening markets for products, giving opportunities for small producers to market their product and gain visibility in the market so they can grow, and have a homegrown product that is recognizable in the market is the seed that was planted by […]

Gallery of Stars
21 Apr 2023

Susan Auler

“He (Hightower) was wonderful. That was the first time any state agency had given agriculture any attention, so it was incredible. I do believe we did some trips to either New York or Philadelphia. I need to sit with Bruce (Auden) and Robert (del Grande) and lean on their memories, go back and look at some photographs. He stirred up […]

Gallery of Stars
21 Apr 2023

Bruce Auden

“It really was the wine that had the biggest impact for the restaurant scene because we could sell wines and use wines that were high quality. You don’t see change unless you were there when it was different. Jim Hightower was a totally different person from everybody we’ve had since him…I just took it for granted that what he was […]

Gallery of Stars
10 Aug 2022

Texas and the National Organic Label part 6

Kathleen Merrigan was a key player in the legislative creation of a National Organic Standard.  Passage of a national organic standard had to be accomplished without the help of the United States Department of Agriculture.  Fortunately, Merrigan had the support of the Texas Department of Agriculture. Kathleen Merrigan hailed from Massachusetts. For some bizarre reason, she went “abroad” and enrolled […]

PHIT Blog 0 6 min read
Texas Organic Label part 3
25 May 2022

Texas Organic Label part 3

Hightower, in his crusade to save the family farmer, focused on efforts to market higher value-added food products in niche markets, markets that wouldn’t interest the big commodity farmers and the big agribusinesses.  Organic vegetables, organic grains, and organic meats were seen as one of those efforts. Growing food organically also just happens to aid the reduction of exposure to […]

PHIT Blog 0 3 min read
Farm Bill 1985: A Lost Opportunity
24 Jun 2020

Farm Bill 1985: A Lost Opportunity

Rally to Save Family Farms Texas Populism Project Doug Zabel grew up on a farm in the Midwest and was a political consultant and campaign manager before he went to work with the Texas Department of Agriculture.  He became closely involved with the development of the National Farm Bill of 1985. “My dad had this little community bank that was […]

PHIT Blog 0 4 min read