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 […]
Texas has Bragging Rights to the First Organic Label in the United States Yep! Texas! Who would have thunk it. Texas! First in the nation! Wait a minute!!. What?? The first? Yes…dear readers. Texas has bragging rights! Yet you won’t hear the current Agriculture Commissioner ever mention it, nor will you hear it from any of the Ag. Commissioners […]
by Blake Herrera Imagine this: It’s Valentine’s Day. You walk into any supermarket in the state of Texas (be it H-E-B, Whole Foods, or Kroger) looking for a bouquet to give to your special someone. But wait — there is no cut flowers section! Valentine’s Day is a wash. If you have ever bought a bunch of flowers at a […]
The 1980s were hard times for agriculture, the worst hard times since the Great Depression. When you look at the raw data, it is truly staggering. Real U.S. net farm income fell over 40% from the early 1970s to early 1980s. Well over a quarter of a million farms were lost in the 1980s. Those lost farms were overwhelmingly family […]
People’s History in Texas is in the middle of a in-depth project collecting oral history and archives on the Jim Hightower tenure as Commissioner of Texas Department of Agriculture from 1983-1991. In those eight years, an amazing legacy of support for family farmers and sustainable rural agriculture was implemented. That legacy of positive programs is still making its impact on […]
The Jim Hightower Department of Agriculture (1983-1991) operated like the Knights of the Round Table. He attracted men and women who were willing to fight the good fight and sent them out into the field to Do Good things for the small farmers, the consumers, the farmworkers and the environment. One group, working through the marketing department, offered valiant services […]
Forty years ago, the Department of Energy made a colossally ill-conceived effort to declare Deaf Smith County a repository for the national mandated nuclear waste dump. The good folks of Deaf Smith didn’t think it was a particularly bright idea to put toxic radioactive waste in the ground below the Ogallala Aquifer. They also didn’t think it was safe to […]