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——–1=z–N —–\\–;74 1 = =—1—- —–1— . 7:52: —-A – $ F OE . —. % HE PEOP ..-/-__ -&-.. -. . LTh III _-:.. PRIE144 mow ,_ __ –Sr -‘fiir4,11iitaq -.0-… ..;.:__ ,-,46…:_ ;-;:…-,—.:=–.-.——: j i .1.—1.1—.._ =En , 1 ,, ,,, _ – 411 _ ____ c i f of 7.11..,,,,,,i pi i A, ; .; 0 II ;: IP I I li K T.J1.11.!’ r; ur :1111 ‘ ” ‘ ’11,—11119:17—-“:17-.::—___r , , _. –,…–. …-:—‘….-..-,..,–._ —-…….._….._ _ .,..—… _ ,..11____=. =-“—-4—…, – TEXAS BSE’VER : The Texas Observer Publishing 0o., 1984 Ronnie Dugger, Publisher Vol. 76, No. 22 7,412-”’.6 November 9, 1984 Incorporating the State Observer and the East Texas Democrat. which in turn incorporated the Austin Forum-Advocate. EDITOR Geoffrey Rips ASSOCIATE EDITOR Dave DenisOn EDITOR AT LARGE Ronnie Dugger CALENDAR EDITOR Chula Sims EDITORIAL INTERN: Terri Langford WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Al Watkins LAYOUT AND DESIGN: Alicia Daniel EDITORIAL ADVISORY BOARD: Frances Barton, Austin,: Elroy Bode, Kerrville; Chandler Davidson. Houston; Bob Eckhardt, Washington. D.C.; Sissy Farenthold, Houston; Ruperto Garcia. Austin; John Kenneth Galbraith, Cam, bridge, Mass.: Lawrence Goodwyn, Durham. N.C.; George Hendrick. Urbana, Ill.; Molly lvins, Dallas; Larry L. King, Washington, D.C.; Maury Maverick, Jr., San Antonio; Willie Morris, Oxford, Miss.; Kaye Northcott, Austin; James Fred Schmidt, Tehachapi. Cal., Robert Sherrill, Tallahassee. Fla. CONTRIBUTING WRITERS: Warren Burnett. Nina Butts. Jo Clifton, Craig Clifford. John Henry Faulk, Ed Garcia. Bill Helmer, Jack Hopper, Amy Johnson, Laurence Jolidon, Mary Lenz. Matt Lyon. Rick Piltz, Susan Raleigh, Paul Sweeney, Michael Ventura, Lawrence Walsh. CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHERS: Alan Pogue, Russell Lee, Scott Van Osdol, Alicia Daniel. CONTRIBUTING ARTISTS: Jeff Danziger, Beth Epstein, Dan Hubig, Pat Johnson, Kevin Kreneck, Carlos Lowry, Joe McDermott, Ben Sargent, Gail Woods. A free journal of voices We will serve no group or party but will hew hard to the truth as we find it and the right as we see it. We are dedicated to the whole truth, to human values above all interests, to the rights of humankind as the foundation of democracy; we will take orders from none but our own conscience, and never will we overlook or misrepresent the truth to serve the interests of the powerful or cater to the ignoble in the human spirit. Writers are responsible ,for their own work, but not for anything they have not themselves written, and in publishing them we do not necessarily imply that we agree with them because this is a journal of free voices. Managing Publisher Cliff Olofson Advertising & Development Director Dana Loy Subscription Manager Alicia Daniel Circulation Assistant Stefan Wanstrom Consultant Frances Barton Editorial and Business Office 600 West 7th Street, Austin, Texas 78701 The Texas Observer at Austin, Texas. Subscription rates, including 5 118% sales tax: one year $23, two years $42, three years $59. One year rate for full-time students, $15. Back issues $2 prepaid. Airmail, foreign. group, and bulk rates on request. Microfilm editions available from University Microfilm:Intl., 300 N. Zech Road, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48106. Copyright 1984 by Texas Observer Publishing Company. All rights reserved. Material may not be reproduced without permission. POSTMASTER: Send form 3579 to: 600 %Vest 7th Street, Austin, Texas 78701. PAGE TWO Lines Ever since the election of Jim Hightower in 1982, conservative political and farm interests have been itching for an opportunity to take a shot at him. Among those interests have been agribusiness concerns who had enjoyed a cozy relationship with Hightower’s predecessor, Reagan Brown. For the most part, these interests reap the most benefit from a farm economy in which the large producers control the market. Some of these interests are multinational and are not made or broken by a Texas drought or freeze or by prices for raw commodities in the United States. While they have not, by any measure, been hurt by recent TDA efforts to market the products of smaller, independent farmers and ranchers of Texas, in principle these agricultural conglomorates don’t like the idea. Neither do they like the idea of an agriculture commissioner who presumes to exercise any of his regulatory authority. Before Jim Hightower was sworn in, agribusiness interests lobbied against any increase in the agriculture department’s budget for regulation and inspection, wielding their influence during legislative budget hearings, including Senate Finance hearings held by state Senator Grant Jones, D-Abilene, prior to the 1983 legislative session. Prominently represented among the agribusiness interests gunning for Hightower has been the Texas Farm Bureau. The Farm Bureau, while purporting to speak for the agricultural community, actually speaks for its own many varied business interests, most notably insurance. On both state and national levels, the Farm Bureau combines right-wing rhetoric with an assumed authority to speak for the farmer and has been used more than once by the Reagan administration to give a stamp of approval to Reagan farm policy. Texas Farm Bureau President S. M. True said the regulations proposed by Hightower “would be very detrimental to agriculture.” The opposition to pesticide regulation is, in part, revenge for workers’ compensation for farmworkers. In 1983 and ’84, the Texas Farm Bureau led the opposition to legislation providing workers’ compensation coverage for farm and ranch workers, passed during the June 1984 special session of the legislature \(TO, a protracted fight, the legislation passed largely because of the formation of a coalition of Mexican American and urban legislators with a few progressive rural legislators thrown in for good measure. The legislation was supported by Governor Mark White and Lieutenant Governor Bill Hobby, and its passage marked a nadir in the influence of the Farm Bureau. There is every indication that, since pesticide regulations have been pushed for years by farm worker advocates, part of the rancor inspired by the TDA pesticide regulations is a result of the workers’ compensation battle. One rural legislator termed the organized opposition to pesticide regulation “revenge for workers’ compensation.” The position of the Farm Bureau on this issue has not been devoid of racist undertones. One legislator noted that any time a measure is proposed to protect farmworkers the Farm Bureau claims that measure will “end agriculture.” Add to this the obvious financial interest of the chemical lobby. While the regulations proposed by Hightower do not 2 NOVEMBER 9, 1984