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 […]

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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 […]

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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 […]

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21 Apr 2023

Michael Bauer

“I remember back in ‘81 or ‘82 with Routh Street Cafe, Stephan (Pyles) would sometimes use local Texas antelope when he could get it. The supply chain hadn’t really been established. It was catch as catch can, that’s what kept chefs from using it. They wanted to, and they were talking about local products, but it was hard to find […]

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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 […]

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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 […]

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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 […]

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Organic Blog 5 Keith Jones
6 Jul 2022

Organic Blog 5 Keith Jones

This is the fifth blog on the subject of Texas creating the first organic label. Please read the first 4 which explains the background of organics in Texas. Once the process of organic certification had been set up, someone needed to enforce it.  In Texas, that someone was Keith Jones.   “I was looking to get back into agriculture. I […]

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Texas Organic Label part 4
15 Jun 2022

Texas Organic Label part 4

Dennis Holbrook was appointed by Hightower to the Texas Organic Advisory Board that Dan Kelley was assembling that would craft a Texas Organic Label.  We talked about that process in the previous blog. Holbrook has farmed organic in South Texas for over 40 years. Holbrook is a bit of a legend in Texas organic circles.  He has a story to […]

PHIT Blog 0 7 min read