Farm Visited by the Texas Commissioner of Agriculture
10 August, 2009 - 18:19
Last week our farm had a great opportunity. Todd Staples, Texas Commissioner of Agriculture, visited our farm. We are part of Go Texan and Texas Rural Community Community programs. The commissioner was making a tour of northeast Texas to see for himself what members were doing.
The Texas Department of Agriculture has come a long way in the last decade. It hit bottom under now governor Rick Perry when he was Commissioner, but has been on a steady and impressive upward direction since then. Staples has done much to continue and build on the department's accomplishments and appears to have a strong interest in doing more.
I never miss an opportunity to market our family farm or to make known issues or opportunities to those that may be able to influence them.My "elevator speech" to the Commissioner had just a few points.
1) Texas is far behind our neighboring states in promoting agritourism using the TDA website and the internet. On a nationwide basis we are near the bottom compared to what many states are doing. Tourism is the third largest industry in Texas. Rural Texas needs a state supported agritourism effort.
2) The Department of Public Safety is disregarding state law and has issued administrative law regulations to disallow H2A seasonal agriculture workers in
Texas on legal work visas to obtain a driver's license while here. The state says its okay for them to drive on a foreign license, but U.S. insurance companies will not issue policies to persons under this rule. This has a broad affect on the agriculture industry in Texas and needs to be addressed. I was told by those that know the decision to do this was political.
3) The TDA has several sites on its website where information can be posted. It would be good to have an employment site where those that need workers can post their need and those looking for work can post their availability or find an open position. It would also be a good place for interns to find summer jobs.
4) TDA has been focused on traditional agriculture. To a larger extent Texas' land grant university Texas A & M, does not even give lip service to anything but traditional agriculture. Most of the state agriculture departments in the nation and land grant colleges are refocusing so they spend part of their resources on the emerging area of sustainable agriculture. Texas does not need to get behind in this area and can be a leader if it wants to.
My final point was to share a success story regarding Northeast Texas Community College where I am on the board of trustees. This community college is moving quickly to change the environment in which it educates and operates focusing on green actions that are more in tune with nature. This includes its pilot biodisel project, use of alternative fuels in its Shelby automotive program, going green on campus in many ways, using well water thermal chillers, building green buildings and more. The Commissioner was invited to the dedication of the $2 million sustainable agriculture center the college is building.
It is hard top judge a politician running for re-election, but Todd Staples by his actions at the TDA and with the legislature appears to be doing a good job as Commissioner. I was impressed that he did not arrive with any members of the press, nor did he have a herd of staff supporters. He came by himself with a single assistant and separately the director of Go Texan marketing from Dallas came.
He came, looked and saw what we do on our farm. I hope he took away some information that will support what we do.
The Texas Department of Agriculture has come a long way in the last decade. It hit bottom under now governor Rick Perry when he was Commissioner, but has been on a steady and impressive upward direction since then. Staples has done much to continue and build on the department's accomplishments and appears to have a strong interest in doing more.
I never miss an opportunity to market our family farm or to make known issues or opportunities to those that may be able to influence them.My "elevator speech" to the Commissioner had just a few points.
1) Texas is far behind our neighboring states in promoting agritourism using the TDA website and the internet. On a nationwide basis we are near the bottom compared to what many states are doing. Tourism is the third largest industry in Texas. Rural Texas needs a state supported agritourism effort.
2) The Department of Public Safety is disregarding state law and has issued administrative law regulations to disallow H2A seasonal agriculture workers in
Texas on legal work visas to obtain a driver's license while here. The state says its okay for them to drive on a foreign license, but U.S. insurance companies will not issue policies to persons under this rule. This has a broad affect on the agriculture industry in Texas and needs to be addressed. I was told by those that know the decision to do this was political.
3) The TDA has several sites on its website where information can be posted. It would be good to have an employment site where those that need workers can post their need and those looking for work can post their availability or find an open position. It would also be a good place for interns to find summer jobs.
4) TDA has been focused on traditional agriculture. To a larger extent Texas' land grant university Texas A & M, does not even give lip service to anything but traditional agriculture. Most of the state agriculture departments in the nation and land grant colleges are refocusing so they spend part of their resources on the emerging area of sustainable agriculture. Texas does not need to get behind in this area and can be a leader if it wants to.
My final point was to share a success story regarding Northeast Texas Community College where I am on the board of trustees. This community college is moving quickly to change the environment in which it educates and operates focusing on green actions that are more in tune with nature. This includes its pilot biodisel project, use of alternative fuels in its Shelby automotive program, going green on campus in many ways, using well water thermal chillers, building green buildings and more. The Commissioner was invited to the dedication of the $2 million sustainable agriculture center the college is building.
It is hard top judge a politician running for re-election, but Todd Staples by his actions at the TDA and with the legislature appears to be doing a good job as Commissioner. I was impressed that he did not arrive with any members of the press, nor did he have a herd of staff supporters. He came by himself with a single assistant and separately the director of Go Texan marketing from Dallas came.
He came, looked and saw what we do on our farm. I hope he took away some information that will support what we do.