Return American Farms
While the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and other so-called "free trade" deals are often blamed for sending jobs overseas, little attention has been paid how they also sent our agriculture overseas too.
- Many labels on food are not necessarily true, especially country of origin labels. Just because a food package has the American flag on it does *not* mean it's from an American farm.
- NAFTA & other "free trade" deals turned Texas into a net-importer of food.
- Supply chains are fragile. It is dangerous to be an net-importer of food.
- Many agriculture products suffered under NAFTA, including beef, wine, pecans, most vegetables, tomatoes, potatoes, and more, which overshadows any other export gains.
- We lost approximately 250,000 small and medium farms since NAFTA.
- While there has been some progress in honesty and transparency for nutritional labels, there are still too many loopholes corporations use to hide potentially harmful or otherwise unhealthy ingredients in food. This includes dishonesty in "pasture raised" labeled products, hiding sugar by calling it something else, etc.
We must return American agriculture and rebuild our local supply chains. Our foods should be from local farms, be fresh, and be American.
As TX Agriculture Commissioner, Clayton will:
- Support and implement a Country of Origin Label (COOL) so all Texans know where their food is from.
- Support and implement honesty in labels, from pasture raised, sugar free, if a food is processed, etc.
- Support and implement any policy that works towards return agriculture and relevant supply chains.
- Support and implement require that all foods served in Texas public schools be from Texas farmers (exceptions can be made for products that cannot be grown en mass in Texas).
- Work with the Texas Legislature, USDA, and other agencies to craft policies to put American agriculture first, clean up our food, and achieve food sovereignty.
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