YOUR TEXAS AGRICULTURE MINUTE

One label fits most farms: Family

By Gene Hall

I’m fortunate to know and work with hundreds of Texas farmers and ranchers. They have all kinds of farms—big farms, small farms, ranches.

One of them I’m thinking of grows peas and okra. On less than 10 acres. Folks come out and pick their own. Another grows wheat and corn conventionally, and organic green beans on thousands of acres.

What do all of them have in common? They are family farmers or ranchers. All of them.

Families own and operate about 98 percent of the farms or ranches in Texas. That doesn’t mean you won’t run into a few that have family corporations. Many farmers do this for tax and liability reasons. But the work is done, and the risks are taken, by families.

The nonsense about corporate involvement in agriculture is a myth, and one almost entirely perpetrated by persons who do not have family farmers’ best interests at heart.

I’ve been told those families like to think about your family sitting down to a dinner of something they’ve grown. I hope you think about them, too.

The preceding commentary is brought to you by Texas Farm Bureau, the “Voice of Texas Agriculture.” Called “Your Texas Agriculture Minute,” TFB will issue thought-provoking editorials each week—via print and audio—to spark understanding of agriculture in the Lone Star State and its impact on each and every Texan.

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