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January 4, 2002
The future: Stronger, brighter, better
(The following are excerpts from TFB President Donald Patman's address at the recent Texas Farm Bureau annual meeting.)
By
Donald Patman
Texas Farm Bureau President
"Americans are living in perilous times. Today, we live with new and unfamiliar threats to the safety of our families—and we have learned the depths of hatred some people feel for America and freedom itself.
"But we have also seen how America—bloodied and wounded—has picked herself up and faced adversity. Freedom was challenged, but not lost. Hope was attacked—and yet survives.
"We are farmers and ranchers—people of the land. As an industry, agriculture has known many hardships in recent years. We thought we knew difficulties—but in a few moments, a tragedy of unimaginable proportions has caused all of us, as Americans, to recognize how important our freedoms and the American way of life really are.
"One of the things President Bush has asked us to do is get on with our lives. Getting on with our lives, as farmers and ranchers, means doing what we know and love best to do—producing crops and livestock and feeding a hungry world.
"Some policymakers have said that we no longer need to grow our own food domestically. How does that stack up with the hard reality of September 11? We believe it is critical that the United States has the food production capacity to feed our armies in the field and to meet our needs at home.
"This is not a self-serving point of view—as some have suggested. It is a very basic fact.
"It is also important that we have the food to reach out to people who live with hunger that has been forced upon them by tyranny.
"At President Bush's order, packets of food were dropped into Afghanistan. Perhaps those offerings of peace will help in the battle over tyranny and evil. I like the think that a Farm Bureau member just might have grown some of that food on a Texas farm.
"As all of us think about the events of September 11, and what has come after that, we know that many things will never be the same again. We have been asked to keep doing that which we do best—produce food and fiber.
"As rural people, for the first time in my lifetime, we are concerned about `Homeland Security.' We have been asked to be more attentive about what goes on around us.
"We are the first line of defense against those who would attack America's food supply.
"We must exercise a level of care and caution that would have seemed unnecessary only a few months ago. We have to know who is on our land, who is asking questions and who is watching.
"But we must be vigilant and dare to think the unthinkable—because the unthinkable has happened.
"And, we should not forget, as we go on with our lives—that some of our efforts—should go toward building our Farm Bureau.
"Attention given to making our County Farm Bureaus a little bigger, a little better, will pay off in the halls of Austin and Washington.
"Our membership is vital—our leadership is essential—as agriculture continues to search for solutions to major challenges.
"Sometimes, the voices of individuals get drowned out and overpowered by wrong-headed public policy. What Farm Bureau does is turn the voices of individuals into a powerful message of unity, focus and achievement.
"As long as there is a Texas Farm Bureau, any farmer or rancher, anywhere across this great state, need not face adversity alone.
"All across America, our nation has come together in a way that many people cannot remember.
"We are bound together by tough and difficult battles.
"We are united by our passion and determination that agriculture be treated fairly.
"We have come together with hope for the future, so that the children of our Texas farm and ranch families can stay on the land—and build a future that is stronger, better and brighter."
