November 3, 2001
TEXAS AGRICULTURE IS IN
TRANSITION,
COMBS TELLS CATTLE FEEDERS
"One hundred years ago, approximately 85% of Texans lived in the country and 15% lived in the city. Today, the reverse is true-approximately 14% of us live in the country and 86% live in cities. And of all Texans, only 1.9% are still in production agriculture." That, according to Texas Agriculture Commissioner Susan Combs, presents both a challenge and an opportunity.
Combs spoke this weekend to cattle feeders on "Texas Agriculture
in Transition" during the 2001 Annual Convention of the Texas Cattle
Feeders Association in
"It's a challenge in the sense that, because we are a smaller percentage of the state's population, we need to be sure we are both connected to our urban cousins and understood by our urban cousins," she said. That crops up in several different ways.
"You have folks moving to the country who sometimes don't come from a rural background and don't understand the rural way of life." So when a neighbor's calf is out on the road, or dust is blowing from a cotton gin or a slow-moving tractor blocks the driving lane, conflicts can arise.
Another major area is water. "As the state's need for water continues to grow, one place it will be looked for is from agriculture," she told cattle feeders. "Whether that means increased conservation, which is always a desirable goal, or from a reduction in agriculture, which is not a desirable goal, the question is, 'how do we demonstrate that agriculture's need for water has merit?'"
But a challenge and an opportunity are usually the same thing in different clothes, she said, and that's why agriculture needs to do a better job in neighbor relations, community relations and in reaching urban centers. The question that ag producers must answer, she said, is this: "How can we explain who we are and why it's important for our neighbors and our rural and metropolitan communities to protect and preserve agriculture?"