Landowners' group strives for safe food and fiber, retaining land

By LYNN MONTGOMERY | East Texas Edition

October 30, 2003 -- With the theme "Farmers and Ranchers impacting communities through sustainable farm and ranch operations in production of safe food and fiber, and homeland security," the Landowners Association of Texas, Inc. (LAT) held their 19th annual Farmers and Ranchers Conference Oct. 9-10 in Tyler.

LAT is a group of landowners wanting to make a conservative effort to utilize their inherited land, according to Joe Radford, LAT advisor. Currently, there are four chapters of the LAT across Texas.

Radford, also a Cooperative Extension agent through Prairie View A&M, said the purpose of LAT is to provide support programs that help reduce the rate property is lost by "underserved landowners."

Primarily began by African-Americans, Radford stated the LAT was for "anybody and everybody seeking knowledge about landownership."

The conference's keynote speaker was Sibyl Wright, USDA program analyst in the Food Safety and Inspection Service. She told the audience the food safety and inspection service is available to help farmers and ranchers produce good quality and safe food.

"Consumers are becoming very concerned about their food," Wright said. "Food safety begins on the farm. We need to get back to the basics, which are, 'I am producing livestock for the purpose to serve the public.' This is going to be somebody's food. It doesn't need to be about trying to get a better yield but the end product should be getting a safer food product.

"God created this land and we need to get back in contact with that," the analyst continued. "God has given us laws that we must respect. God designed this world in a specific way and we must respect that. Once we go outside the law, that's when we get hurt. If you don't believe me, then watch what happens when a man walks off a building without a parachute."

Wright explained a cooperative agreement between the USDA and Prairie View A&M University.

"It's still baking in the oven and not quite ready, but the cake is smelling real good," she said.

The agreement, issued in fiscal year 2003, supports educational programs to identify farmers and ranchers who are wanting to learn more about safety food practices. Under this program, farmers and ranchers would enter a certification program, which eventually would lead them to a complete Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point (HACCP) program.

HACCP is used by processors to insure animals are healthy and safe. (For more information about the Food Safety Inspection Service, log on to www.fsis.usda.gov.)

Conference-goers also had opportunity to learn about a variety topics in workshop sessions. Topics ranged from diversified use of land to livestock care.

Participants also toured several sites in the area, including a forage demonstration by Roy L. Branham; beef production and land usage at Winford Bowie's farm; pasture improvement with goats, buffalo, beef cattle and pastured chickens at Michael Tolbert's; vegetables, low-till demonstration, certified farmers market, ag bio-tech plants and vegetables at Arzo Cox's; and low-till and vegetable production, ag bio-tech plants and vegetables by Jimmie and Greg Williams.

Next year, LAT's meeting will be in Crockett.

For more information about the LAT, contact Homer Coleman, Smith County LAT president, at 903-859-7744.