The news from the Farm Bureau is that cost of Thanksgiving dinner is up 14% to a whopping $53.31. Of course that $53 is enough turkey and sweet potatoes and pie to feed 10 people. So… about $5 a plate. I personally have never paid that much for a latte, but I know people who have. So, it’s a pretty […]
Pesticides are Hell on Bugs and Not Much Better on People
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 […]
Wine, Texas, and the Camelot Project
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 in Texas
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 […]
40 years of No
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 […]
Black Farmers in Texas Part III
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 […]
The Beginning of Southwest Cuisine and the Farm to Table Movement
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, […]
Black Farmers in Texas Part II
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 […]
Black Farmers in Texas
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 […]