Southwest Classic

Stephen Pahl, Commissioner Staples, Chris Drews and Tim Speer show Aggie pride before kickoff of the Southwest Classic at the new Cowboy Stadium

Who would of have thought, with more than 71,000 fans at the new Cowboy Stadium for the A&M and Arkansas football game, I would run into TDA employees Stephen Pahl and Chris Drews from our Executive Division and Tim Speer from our Regulatory Division. But sure enough in the middle of the sea of maroon I spotted my fellow Aggies.

Obviously, from the expression on our faces you can tell we met up before the beating our football team took at the hands of the Razorbacks. I have decided next year we may need to call out the TDA feral hog eradication team. Maybe we need to meet up with the Arkansas mascot, "Tusk," at the front gate of Cowboy stadium, to give the hog a nice Aggie welcome. Gig' em Aggies!

Statement regarding a Dallas judge’s ruling that Texas’ definition of marriage is unconstitutional

Yesterday a Dallas judge ruled that Texas’ definition of marriage is unconstitutional. Judges should not legislate from the bench. Texas voters overwhelmingly adopted this provision as a part of our state constitution. Throughout the U.S., states have voted to protect the definition of marriage as between one man, one woman. Texans should be outraged a single judge has undermined the citizens of the state of Texas. Our state's constitution is for the people, by the people. It is our constitution which guides the bench – not the bench that guides the constitution.

Texas Drought Far from Fixed

The recent rains have been plenty welcome, but the damage from this year’s record-setting drought is far from fixed.

Not surprisingly, many Texans and neighboring partners have rolled up their sleeves to tackle the task of getting much-needed hay to fellow ranchers and producers.

In Refugio County, a coordinated effort between De-Go-La RC&D, Agri-Life Extension Service and Copano Bay Soil and Water Conservation District is bringing hay in from Oklahoma at the discounted rate of $49 per bale to bolster relief efforts. A similar initiative in Gonzales, Lavaca and Goliad counties finds hay being trucked in from Arkansas for $49 per bale. Another round of applause goes to those who have secured $33 bale shipments from Arkansas to Victoria County on the rails of Southern Pacific.

Like the recent rains, these partnerships are greatly appreciated and need to be sustained.

Here at TDA, we held a conference call last week with the Independent Cattlemen’s Association, Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association, the Texas Farm Bureau and Agri-Life Extension Service to determine if a statewide hay coordination effort was needed at this time. The consensus was to support the local county efforts already underway as the most efficient and effective way to meet the needs of local ranchers. Their early successes are great examples of how local groups can move faster and more efficiently to help those in need.

Meanwhile, our TDA Hay Hotline stands ready to find sources of discounted transportation options to connect suppliers with Texas ranchers. To offer hay for sale, donate hay or help secure discounted transportation services, call the Hay Hotline at 1-877-429-1998 and help us help our Texas ranchers recover.

Do your neighbor a favor and email the Hay Hotline link or call in number to someone today.

GO TEXAN Restaurant Round-Up Chef Showdown

Chief Communications Officer Veronica Obregon had the opportunity to judge the GO TEXAN Chef Showdown on Sept. 30. Here is her guest blog on the delicious Texas meals she sampled for the event.

Roasted Butternut Squash Soup. Pan Roasted Snapper. Is your mouth watering yet? Mine sure was last night when I joined nine other judges for a GO TEXAN Chef Showdown at the Hyatt. The event was part of the GO TEXAN Restaurant Round-Up, the only weeklong statewide dine-out event highlighting Texas farmers, ranchers, local food and restaurants.

The cook-off was a competition among chefs from three Austin hotel restaurants: TRIO at the Four Seasons; Driskill Grill; and Southwest Bistro at the Hyatt. All three chefs had to prepare an appetizer and a main entree with a southwest flare, using ONLY Texas-grown/raised ingredients. And they did a fabulous job!

My favorites included TRIO’s Shrimp Ceviche and Southwest Bistro’s Elderberry Braised Lamb Shanks. But really, every single dish I tried was awesome!

Thank you first to Farm Credit for helping make this year’s GO TEXAN Restaurant Round-Up a success. And thank you to all of the chefs last night and all other chefs across the state who make it a priority to cook with products grown and raised by Texas farmers and ranchers.

Conroe Noon Lions Club Meeting

With Conroe Noon Lion's Club Program Chairman, "Lion" Pete Brasher, and President, Mel Lonon

Congratulations to the Conroe Noon Lions Club on being the second largest in the United States. Of the 43,000 Lions Clubs in the world, the Conroe Noon Lions Club is the fifth largest. Pretty impressive, huh?

I had the opportunity to address members today and thank them for their service and dedication to building a better Texas. These men and women understand the importance of giving back and are very active in benefiting worthy causes in the Montgomery County area.

Montgomery County has enjoyed substantial growth since 2000, increasing approximately 40.4 percent to a population of 412,638. Along with this tremendous population growth, the area’s agriculture industry also is growing. Montgomery County cash receipts for agricultural products in 2008 totaled $108.8 million, with a statewide economic impact of $183.4 million.

As the Montgomery County area continues to grow and prosper, the leadership and vision of organizations like the Conroe Noon Lions Club will become increasingly more important to enriching the community and bettering all of Texas.

Day Two of the GO TEXAN Restaurant Round-Up in Longview

Joined today by State Rep. Tommy Merritt, Gregg County Judge Bill Stoudt and members of the local agriculture and business industry, we celebrated day two of the GO TEXAN Restaurant Round-Up, presented by Farm Credit , at Johnny Cace’s Seafood and Steak House in Longview. A lunch, made with fresh Texas-grown ingredients, was served as part of the only statewide, weeklong dine-out event in Texas created to honor Texas farmers and ranchers who provide us with the safest and most affordable food supply in the world.

Showcasing the best of Texas is what the GO TEXAN Restaurant Round-Up is all about. When restaurants like Johnny Cace’s Seafood and Steak House choose foods grown by Texas farmers and ranchers, more jobs are created and our economy benefits. Through the Round-Up, all Texans have the opportunity to celebrate Texas by dining at restaurants serving their customers locally grown and raised products.

In addition to supporting Texas agriculture, the GO TEXAN Restaurant Round-Up also benefits local communities, as many restaurants are donating a portion of their proceeds to local food banks.

The GO TEXAN Restaurant Round-Up runs Sept. 28-Oct. 2. For more information, visit www.gotexanrestaurantroundup.com.

GO TEXAN Restaurant Round-Up is Sept. 28 - Oct. 2

State Representatives Vicki Truitt, Marc Veasey, Lon Burnam, and Mark Shelton helped me kick off the GO TEXAN Restaurant Round-Up at Eddie V’s in Fort Worth today. This event is the only statewide dine-out event featuring the best of Texas.

Now in its second year, the GO TEXAN Restaurant Round-Up links Texas farmers and ranchers with restaurants that proudly serve Texas ingredients. This year, more than 400 Texas restaurant locations are participating in the Round-Up. Not only is the Round-Up a winner for Texas consumers, it also benefits many area food banks that receive a portion of the proceeds from participating restaurants.

The Round-Up runs from Sept. 28 - Oct 2. Visit www.TexasAgriculture.gov for a restaurant near you. Remember GO OUT. GO EAT. GO TEXAN.

Eminent Domain Reform Needed

Check out this article. It clearly demonstrates the need for eminent domain reform and the failure of current policy.

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/nation/6636739.html

Or read full text below:

Conn. land vacant 4 years after court OK'd seizure
By KATIE NELSON Associated Press Writer

NEW LONDON, Conn. — Weeds, glass, bricks, pieces of pipe and shingle splinters have replaced the knot of aging homes at the site of the nation's most notorious eminent domain project.

There are a few signs of life: Feral cats glare at visitors from a miniature jungle of Queen Anne's lace, thistle and goldenrod. Gulls swoop between the lot's towering trees and the adjacent sewage treatment plant.

But what of the promised building boom that was supposed to come wrapped and ribboned with up to 3,169 new jobs and $1.2 million a year in tax revenues? They are noticeably missing.

Proponents of the ambitious plan blame the sour economy. Opponents call it a "poetic justice."

"They are getting what they deserve. They are going to get nothing," said Susette Kelo, the lead plaintiff in the landmark property rights case. "I don't think this is what the United States Supreme Court justices had in mind when they made this decision."

Kelo's iconic pink home sat for more than a century on that currently empty lot, just steps away from Connecticut's quaint but economically distressed Long Island Sound waterfront. Shortly after she moved in, in 1997, her house became ground zero in the nation's best-known land rights catfight.

New London officials decided they needed Kelo's land and the surrounding 90 acres for a multimillion-dollar private development that included residential, hotel conference, research and development space and a new state park that would complement a new $350 million Pfizer pharmaceutical research facility.

Kelo and six other homeowners fought for years, all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. In 2005, justices voted 5-4 against them, giving cities across the country the right to use eminent domain to take property for private development.

The decision was sharply criticized and created grassroots backlash. Forty states quickly passed new, protective rules and regulations, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. Some protesters even tried to turn the tables on now-retired Justice David Souter, trying unsuccessfully in 2006 to take his New Hampshire home by eminent domain to build an inn.

In New London the city's prized economic development plan has fallen apart as the economy crumbled.

The Corcoran Jennison Cos., a Boston-based developer, had originally locked in exclusive rights to develop nearly the entire northern half of the Fort Trumbull peninsula.

But those rights expired in June 2008, despite multiple extensions, because the firm was unable to secure financing, according to President Marty Jones.

In July, backers halted fundraising for the project's crown jewel, a proposed $60 million, 60,000-square-foot Coast Guard museum.

The poor economy meant that donations weren't "keeping pace with expenses," said Coast Guard Foundation president Anne Brengle.

The group hopes to resume fundraising in the future, she said.

Overall, proponents say about two-thirds of the 90-acre site is developed, in part because of a 16-acre, $25 million state park. The other third of the land remains without the promised residential housing, office buildings, shops and hotel/conference center facility.

"If there had been no litigation, which took years to work its way through (the court system), then a substantial portion of this project would be constructed by now," said John Brooks, executive director of the New London Development Corp. "But we are victims of the economic cycle, and there is nothing we can do about that."

A new engineering tenant is moving into one of the office buildings at 1 Chelsea St., and a bio tech firm with as many as five employees is getting ready to move into an existing building on Howard Street, Brooks said.

Kelo, paid $442,000 by the state for her old property, now lives across the Thames River in Groton, in a white, two-bedroom 1950s bungalow. Her beloved pink house was sold for a dollar and moved less than two miles away, where a local preservationist has refurbished it.

Kelo can see her old neighborhood from her new home, but she finds the view too painful to bear.

"Everything is different, but everything is like still the same," said Kelo, who works two jobs and has largely maintained a low profile since moving away. "You still have life to deal with every day of the week. I just don't have eminent domain to deal with every day of the week, even after I ate, slept and breathed it for 10 years."

Although her side lost, Kelo said she sees the wider ramifications of her property rights battle.

"In the end it was seven of us who fought like wild animals to save what we had," she said. "I think that though we ultimately didn't win for ourselves, it has brought attention to what they did to us, and if it can make it better for some other people so they don't lose their homes to a Dunkin' Donuts or a Wal-Mart, I think we did some good."

Scott Bullock, senior attorney for the Institute for Justice, argued Kelo's case before the Supreme Court. He calls "massive changes that have happened in the law and in the public consciousness" the "real legacy" of Kelo and the other plaintiffs.

The empty land means the city won a "hollow victory," he said.

"What cities should take from this is to run fleeing from what New London did and do economic development that is market-driven and incorporate properties of folks who are truly committed to their neighborhood and simply want to be a part of what happens," he said.

Climate Change Summit

This morning I joined Gov. Perry and commissioners from the Texas Public Utility Commission, Railroad Commission and Texas Commission on Environmental Quality for a climate change summit.

Right now it is critical for us to take a stand. The current administration and some in Congress are pushing an environmental agenda that threatens the very livelihood of Texas farmers and ranchers. We must navigate this debate with a balanced approach enlightened by the reality that a clean environment and a strong economy can co-exist, and likely can benefit from one another. You can hear a small portion of my speech by clicking here or read the full text below.

Thank you, Gov. Perry for your leadership on this issue. I want to also say thank you to commissioners from the Texas Public Utility Commission, Railroad Commission and Texas Commission on Environmental Quality Texas Commission for Environmental Quality for holding this climate change summit today.

The American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009 (HR 2454) has been rightly called the Cap & Trade bill because if passed it will most assuredly cap economic activity, cap productivity and trade American jobs overseas.

In fact, it could have many names: it could be the
Pay More to Heat Your Home bill,
Pay More for the Food You Eat bill, or
Pay More for the Clothes You Wear bill.

At a time when Washington debates solutions for those without access to affordable healthcare in America, it contemplates this legislation, which will - if passed - add to the rolls of the uninsured.

How so? HR 2454 will add a new layer of uncertainty into the market place. It will, by the proponents’ own admission, increase the cost of energy and will be punitive not just to Texans, but to all Americans.

Uncertainty, volatility and lack of predictability freeze investment. In short, it costs jobs.

Cost of implementation of this legislation is all over the map. The most conservative estimates are from the bill sponsors, who say it will cost American families less than a postage stamp per day.

When did our country become so consumed with change that we have allowed our debate on policy to move from if it will cost, to who is right on how much it will cost?

Does anyone but me find it ironic they chose a postage stamp for a cost analogy? A stamp whose price tag has increased 144% since I graduated from high school in 1981. And, more importantly, the very future of our postal system is in doubt today.

American agriculture produces the safest, most affordable, most reliable food supply in the world.

HR 2454 threatens the ability for continued domestic food production.

The proponents’ own analysis says that total farm expenses could increase by $700 million each year. This is a far cry from the American Farm Bureau economists’ predictions that the bill will cost U.S. farmers approximately $5 billion in farm income each year by 2020, increasing to $13 billion annually by 2030.

They are not alone. The Pennsylvania Farm Bureau says the economics don’t add up for agriculture. They say this is akin to playing Russian roulette on energy issues. They say we are forfeiting America’s competitiveness.

I am proud of the fact that in Texas, agriculture contributes almost 9.5 percent of our GSP. Texas leads the nation in the production of cattle, cotton, sheep and goats, and is among the leading states in the production of citrus, vegetables, poultry products, sorghum, wheat and rice.

USDA claims agriculture can see net benefits in the long-term. Do you want me to tell you how they define long term? 2048! What will the price of a postage stamp be then?

Consumers might ask: How many farmers will even survive to the middle of this century?

The recently completed U.S. Census of Agriculture says the average age of the U.S. farmer has risen to age 57. Alarmingly, the number of farmers under age 25 has decreased by 30 percent since 2002.

The biggest factors blocking access to young people entering production agriculture are volatility and increased costs. Volatility and increased costs are the only two certain elements with this proposed climate change legislation.

Americans do not like being dependent on foreign oil. We cannot, and we must not, become dependent on foreign food.

From the House Committee on Energy and Commerce's Web site, the bill sponsors and advocates:

“Because of its balanced approach, the American Clean Energy and Security Act has received broad support from industry and environmentalists. Passage of the bill in the House was supported by electric utilities, oil companies, car companies, chemical companies, major manufacturers, environmental organizations, efficiency advocates, agricultural interests, labor organizations, and representatives of the faith community, among many others.”

I am a person of faith, and I’ll tell you what I believe: These guys just don’t get it.


An article from an American Farm Bureau publication points out, “Climate change supporters claim there will be droughts, floods, fire, loss of species, damage to agriculture, worsening air pollution and more, if the Senate does not pass the Climate Change bill.”


To draw from a recent Walter Williams article, “Are these the same people that in 1968 predicted there would be a major food shortage in the U.S., and in the 1970s, hundreds of millions of people are going to starve to death.

“Or, in 1972, warned the world would run out of gold by 1981, mercury and silver by 1985, tin by 1987 and petroleum, copper, lead and natural gas by 1992.”

Either they are wrong or Texans are wrong. And we know Texans aren’t wrong. Here is how we know; it is supported by the facts. Let me tell you about the Texas experience.

In the last two years, if Texas were its own country, Texas had the highest GDP per person compared to the world’s largest economies. In a direct comparison of Texas with the U.S., U.K., Canada and France, Texas tops the charts at No. 1 in productivity per person.

Let me be perfectly clear: We must practice environmental stewardship. Agriculturalists are the original environmental stewards. Farmers know better than anyone you must take care of the land for it to take care of you.

In the words of our 34th President Dwight Eisenhower, “Farming looks mighty easy when your plow is a pencil, and you’re a thousand miles from the corn field.”
Maybe Congress should continue this debate in the cornfields of America.

Obesity Awareness Week: Genetics Not Solely To Blame for Obesity

The Texas Department of Agriculture's Chief Nutrition Coordinator, Paige Abernathy, will be guest blogging throughout Texas Obesity Awareness Week. Read her blog to find out interesting obesity facts, and tips on losing weight.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) explains that genetics can play a role in obesity; however, behavior can also affect a person's weight. It appears that having a certain combination of genes may make an individual more susceptible to being overweight or obese, and outside factors such as low levels of physical activity and an abundant food supply are required for the issue to be expressed.

Genetics do not control individual behavior. For more information on genetics and obesity visit the CDC Web site.