DIRECT FROM TEXAS

BY JEAN LONIE

We’re now more than half way through 2020. To say it’s been an interesting year would be a massive understatement! We’re all living through history and watching new habits and trends unfold that are, in some cases, very different than what we took as “normal” in our pre-COVID-19 days.

Our daily routines are a bit different. Whether that means you now get 2 weeks to the gallon because you aren’t driving to work/school/run errands or you’re getting really creative when cooking multiple meals per day at home, life has shifted in ways big and small.

Yet, in some ways, life in agriculture carries on as it always has. Crops and livestock have a way of

reminding us that there are some things that have to be done no matter what, and that even a global pandemic doesn’t stop nature … or our farmers and ranchers!

At the Texas Department of Agriculture, we continue to look for ways to help support the families who produce the food, fiber, and fuel that sustains us and drives our communities. Right now, this includes challenging ourselves to get creative about how we can connect Texas agribusinesses – from farms and ranches selling directly to the public to value-added companies across the full spectrum of the agriculture industry – to customers who are looking for local ways to shop and engage.

With that challenge in mind, we created the “Direct From Texas” initiative. As more people turn to digital resources to find what is available around them, we wanted to provide platforms that make it easy to

Helping agribusinesses connect with consumers across Texas

connect customers with local companies providing food, beverages, plants/landscaping materials, and other agricultural products.

On the Department’s GO TEXAN website (gotexan. org), you can find a link that reads “Support Local Farmers and Ranchers.” This is where you can find Texas farms and ranches who are selling directly to consumers (or, Direct From Texas!). Using this directory is a great way to identify and support your Lone Star neighbors and start your own new shopping habits.

Expanding on the idea behind the website, we created a Facebook group called Direct From Texas. Our goal was to provide a space that gave consumers the ability to go online and ask about specific products or find producers in a certain region of Texas, while also enabling Texas agribusinesses of all sorts to promote their products and services directly to potential customers. This free service is a great way to identify new Texas products to try, make connections with agribusinesses in your area, and even set up some road trips for the future.

In addition to these two online tools, you can also always look for the GO TEXAN mark to help you support your neighbors in the agriculture and food industry.

There is no doubt the first half of 2020 brought about a lot of changes to how we shop and explore. We hope using the Direct From Texas resources is a change we can all get excited about – and one that helps keep the trend of buying local going strong!