Like TURF
Follow TURFPerry insults farmers
Link to article here.
In a total slap in the face to Texas farmers and ranchers, Rick Perry feigns fond memories of growing up in cotton fields and learning hard work on a farm. Well, that memory is clearly faded and jaded since being parked in the Governor's mansion. Perry VETOED eminent domain protection for farmers whose land and livelihood are about to be gobbled up by Perry's legacy-building project, the Trans Texas Corridor (TTC). In the biggest land grab in Texas history, Perry is presiding over and demanding that TxDOT steal 580,000 acres of private property for a pittance in the name of "public use" and hand it over to a foreign corporation for PROFIT! He knows he's responsible for the policy that will forcibly take these same heritage farmers' land that has been in their families for 100+ years and give it to a Spanish company. Spare us the platitudes about how you "value" farmers, Governor Perry. We don't buy it!
Then, Todd Staples isn't any better. He chaired the committee that voted the Senate version of the TTC bill to the floor for a vote and he voted FOR the TTC in both cases. Then when he ran for Agriculture Commissioner and needed the votes of the farmers and ranchers he betrayed, Staples tried to claim he's now against it. Convenient!
Gov. Perry Honors Texas Ranchers
NBC News, Dallas/Associated Press
April 8, 2008
AUSTIN, Texas -- Texas Gov. Rick Perry praised longtime farm and ranching families Friday as people who feed the world with the work of their hands. "Your land is more than your livelihood, it is your life. And we salute you for your unyielding grip on it," Perry said in prepared remarks at the Texas Department of Agriculture's family land heritage ceremony.The tribute honors Texas farms and ranches that have been owned and operated by the same family for a century or more.
Agriculture Commissioner Todd Staples and the Texas Department of Agriculture recognized 102 farms and ranches at the 33rd annual ceremony, held in the Texas House chamber at the Capitol.
"For more than a century these families have made agriculture a way of life, establishing Texas as a nationwide leader in an ever-demanding agricultural industry," Staples said.
Fourteen farms and ranches were honored for having been in operation at least 150 years. They are located in Burnet, Collin, Colorado, Ellis, Fannin, Jim Hogg, Lampasas, Panola, Parker, Waller, Williamson and Zapata counties.
Perry talked of growing up in the cotton fields of West Texas, where he said he "learned the value of hard work, and earned a master's degree in patience, waiting for rain that never came exactly when we wanted it."
Texas has 230,000 farms and ranches covering more than 130 million acres, he said.
Perry said he is perhaps most fond of his time spent in agriculture, as a farmer and as agriculture commissioner.
As commissioner, he said, he always looked forward to the annual family land heritage celebration. Since 1974, the state has honored some 4,300 farms and ranches in 233 counties for maintaining their heritage and agricultural production for 100 years or more.
Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press