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 […]
Farmer’s Markets!! Don’t we all just love going down to our local farmer’s market and getting our sprouts and local eggs and home-grown tomatoes? These days it is so easy, and, well…normal. Farmer’s Markets are ubiquitous, an essential cog in the “know what you eat” movement.” Buy local, talk to the people who grow your food, pay attention to […]
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 […]
by Benjamin Brown Black land loss ranked among the most pressing civil rights issues of the late 20th century, and yet it remained largely unaddressed in the sphere of public policy. Andy Welch described the Hightower Texas Department as the coming of a bright new day. “The Hightower election and administration was a big wake up. … The Texas Department […]
By Shereena Mathew Before the 80’s, Southwestern cuisine didn’t really have a name or a presence even in the cooking field. It was through the hard work of the Gang of Five alongside the TDA that Southwest cuisine became known nationwide. The Gang of Five, consisting of cookbook writer Anne Lindsay Greer, and chefs Stephan Pyles, Dean Fearing, Avner Samuel, […]
by Benjamin Brown When the guns of the American Civil War fell silent in May of 1865, a precarious peace settled over the United States. Ruined plantations littered the South. Millions of emancipated slaves were suddenly under federal protection. Abraham Lincoln’s party took the White House under a philosophy which celebrated the sanctity of free, dignified labor, and the forceful […]
by Benjamin Brown Part 1 In 1973, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Earl Butz rendered clear his approach to farm policy: “get big or get out.” It marked the latest episode in a century-long feud between Wall Street and the Main Street of agrarian America. In the wake of the Civil War, the federal government pursued a series of measures designed […]
Texas is the now King of Wind! Wind delivered 22% of the state’s electrical energy in 2019. More than the nasty, no longer dirt-cheap, coal and wind power gaining rapidly on natural gas as a source of Texas electricity. It is quite a stunning achievement for Texas, the land of fracking and flaring natural gas, to also rule the renewable […]
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 […]