The Texas Farm Bureau’s chief executive is facing criticism for using a song by the country band Pink Floyd’s The Wall to criticize a farm.
In an interview published Friday in the Texas Tribune, Brian Jones defended his use of the Pink Floyd song as a way to highlight how he and his staff were “the first ones” to make changes to the farm’s policies.
The Farm Bureau, which represents nearly 3 million farmers, issued a statement Monday calling Jones’s use of “Pink Floyd” as the song’s title “offensive and wrong.”
The Farm Bill, the state’s farm-safety law, requires that farmers comply with the law.
The law does not require farmers to change policies, but it says the Farm Bureau “may make any necessary changes, including the termination or withdrawal of any license or other right or privilege.”
Jones said the song was inspired by a recent episode at a Strawberries farm in southern Texas.
“We got a little tired of the [farm] manager not showing up and the management saying, ‘We have to get out here and get this shit done,'” Jones said.
“And then we got a phone call from the management that, ‘This isn’t working.
Become one. “
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Become one.
The song’s lyrics suggest the farm manager’s “tired” and “uncomfortable” with Jones’s policies were the reason the farm was getting “lost in the weeds.”
The farm, located in San Antonio, has been the subject of a wave of controversy since last summer, when Texas state regulators began looking into whether the Strawberries’ farm-to-table policy was “contrary to the intent of the law.”
On Sept. 15, a Texas House committee approved legislation that would require farmers with more than 100 employees to adopt a strict no-till, no-farming policy.
The Strawberries, which have more than 7,500 employees, also have a strict, no GMOs policy.
Jones said in the Tribune interview that the farm will change its policies “in a couple of weeks” and that the Strawberry “took a very different approach.” “
The farm is still a very small operation, so there’s no way to predict what might happen if we changed policies,” he said.
Jones said in the Tribune interview that the farm will change its policies “in a couple of weeks” and that the Strawberry “took a very different approach.”
“We made a conscious choice not to have a farm manager, and the farm is the last one to do that,” Jones said of the Strawbills, which had just been bought by the Texas Department of State Health Services for $11.5 million.
“They’ve been the first ones to get rid of the no-farm policy.
We’re the last ones to implement it.”
Jones added that the farming industry has become “very polarized” since the legislation passed.
“What we’re seeing is that the left is saying we can’t change these things,” Jones told the Tribune.
“That’s not the case.
The left is all about getting rid of these policies, and we’re just trying to keep our farmers and keep our businesses and keep the economy going.”
Jones, who previously served as the Farm Bureaus regional director, also took issue with a previous statement made by the farm.
“I am disappointed that the media did not see through our new policy change,” Jones wrote in the Sept. 20 statement.
“To me, the FarmBureau’s statement has been nothing more than an attempt to put us in the same position as other states.
I am very disappointed by the failure to understand how our new policies are in the best interests of Texas and the farmers who depend on them.”
Jones is currently serving a five-year term as president of the Texas Association of Farm Bureau President.
The farm bureau was founded in 1891 as the first statewide agricultural association in the country.
The organization is the state agency that oversees more than 5,500 farm groups and operates about 700 farms.
The association’s chief, Brian S. McClellan, also serves as president.
A spokeswoman for McClellins office declined to comment.
Jones has worked at the farm bureau for more than two decades.
He was the president of Texas A&M University’s Department of Agriculture from 2005 to 2010, and he was the chief operating officer of the farm agency’s division for health services until last year.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
