Kinky Is The Best Choice For Texas Ag Commissioner

Today marks the start of early voting in the Texas primary run-off election (with primary election day being May 27th -- next Tuesday) -- and Texas Democrats must decide who their candidate for Agriculture Commissioner will be.

I have made no secret that my choice is Kinky Friedman. Kinky is well known in the state, and can bring voters to the Democratic ticket that normally would not vote at all (or vote Republican because that's what their neighbor is doing). And Kinky is campaigning for the entire statewide Democratic ticket. Meanwhile, his opponent is unknown to voters, and has already said if nominated he will not campaign at all. The choice seems clear to me -- either nominate a popular fighter or an unknown wimp. I choose the fighter -- Kinky.

Kinky is also right on the issues. Here are the issues he is running on:

End The Prohibition On Marijuana

•  We are losing the war on drugs - in 2010, Texas arrested 74,286 for possession of marijuana.  The ACLU estimates that in 2010, Texas spent about $251,648,800 to enforce its marijuana possession laws. This war is already lost.

• Legalization means a boon to the economy - a CATO Institute study estimated that Federal drug expenditures on marijuana prohibition in 2008 were $3.4 billion, and legalization would generate $8.7 billion in annual revenue through taxes. This is a $12.1 billion turnaround, and it is only the beginning.

• Fund education through taxation/regulation of marijuana - Washington state, through a 25% marijuana excise tax, retail sales, and business and occupation taxes, has been able to direct 60% of the new revenues toward education, health care, substance abuse prevention, and research.  Texas can do even better.

• Medical marijuana really works - from cancer care to mental health treatment, pot has proven to be an effective medicine throughout history, and we’ve only seen the tip of the iceberg.  An investment in studying its medical uses is an investment in Texas’ future.

• Texans, above all, covet personal freedoms - we demand freedom of choice at every other level, why not the freedom to smoke marijuana?

Promote The Cultivation Of Hemp

• Hemp conserves water - it uses one-half the amount of water cotton uses. 

• Hemp is more profitable than cotton - it produces two to two-and-a-half times more usable fiber than cotton. The quality of clothing and other products made from hemp fibers is often even better than cotton.

• Hemp is environmentally friendly - it needs no pesticides or insecticides to ensure healthy growth, it will grow virtually anywhere, and it will overcome and kill weeds trying to sprout nearby. Cotton uses approximately 25% of the world’s total insecticides and 10% of the world’s pesticides. Ranchers and farmers would not need to pay for these ever again.

• Hemp is good for the air we breathe - it is a high-performer at sequestering CO2 out of the atmosphere.  Breathe easier, Texas. 

What To Do About Water 

 

• Water conservation on the state level needs more cohesion - any discussion of water management in Texas eventually must include the radical amending or the end of the “rule of capture.”  Texas is the only western arid state that still abides by this centuries old rule, and the result is a constant flood of suits and countersuits clogging our courts over water rights, mostly by the myriad regional water authorities.  A state level environmental water board needs to be empowered, knitting together the regional authorities under a single authority.

• More investment is needed in harvesting water - this is the only sustainable way to manage our water into the future.  Water harvesting capacity needs to be increased at least ten-fold through Ag grants.

• More research must be funded to advance desalination, both of brackish ground water and gulf water.  The El Paso model has proven extremely effective, but new methodologies must be found for using what may be Texas’ next great water source, the Gulf Of Mexico.

• An indigenous environment uses less water - turf requires two to three times the water of a sustainable mixed landscape.  Tax incentives are needed encourage home owners to replace sod lawns with indigenous ground cover.

  

Family Farms, Organic Farming, School Gardens, School Lunches

• The redefining of the family farm and the erosion of rural communities during the past century has been as dramatic in Texas as anywhere in the nation.  Our current number of a quarter-million family farms operations is declining precipitously.  Texas needs to reinvest in family farms in a big way.

•  Organic farming is the wave of the future  - grants for family farms must focus on organic farming, with a farm-to-table plan that uses these foods in our school lunches.  This will allow sustainable, affordable expansion of our school lunch programs with locally produced, healthy foods.  It will also form a sound business model.

• Bring the gardens to the children - privately financed public school gardens, cultivated primarily by at-risk school children, have already proven highly effective in such cities as Austin.  These programs are already providing fresh organic foods for school lunches.  State grants are needed to expand the program statewide, to ensure all our children are properly and well fed. 

  

Immigration

 • With border crossings currently at zero net migration (and moving quickly toward negative net migration), ramping up border security should not be our current focus, especially if we succeed in legalizing hemp/pot and cutting all illegal border traffic by as much as 60%.

• We need to create worker guest passes/visas that don’t discouragemuch needed farm workers with impossibly high priced permits or fees.  A low cost permit should be offered workers who will then pay their full and fair share of taxes for work done.  This should be offered with a carrot - points toward eventual permanent citizenship.

• Instead of focusing only on the illegal immigrants, law enforcement needs to go after the coyotes, the human traffickers  who prey on their own.  These are the true criminals of the border.

• Law enforcement agencies need to work together to create a less dangerous environment on the Mexican side of the border.  Those who live on the border know that a safer living environment in Mexico will also discourage the influx of immigrants into Texas.

Feral Hogs

 • Feral hogs are a food industry waiting to happen - with between five and six million feral hogs tearing up crops, disrupting farm animals and wildlife, and wreaking havoc on the environment, Texas farmers and ranchers are nearly desperate for a solution.  A full sixty percent of the population needs to be culled every year, just to keep it at the current level.  Nearly all of those culled are simply destroyed.  The ongoing Caldwell County hog program is proving the potential for industry.  The hogs are captured live, taken to processing plants and donated as food to charitable organizations.  This can easily be converted to a for-profit model for the entire state.  It is the only solution that can be implemented immediately, it puts people to work, and the feral hogs can be managed and sustained like a herd.  It will be profitable:  wild boar meat sells for as high as twenty dollars a pound outside the state.