
          Hormone-free Texas.  Beef Ships Out
          By StaffStaff
          Vol. 11, No. 4, 1989, p. 21
          
          Twenty tons of hormone-free Texas beef left the Port of Houston in
late July on their way to European customers. The shipment was the
first U.S. beef allowed into Europe since the federal_government and
the European Economic Community reached an impasse over the issue of
artificial growth hormones in cattle, resulting in an embargo of
U.S. beef on January 1. Texas Agriculture Commissioner Jim Hightower
rounded up Texas ranchers who raise cattle without hormones and worked
out the "Texas Plan" for reopening the U.S.-European beef trade.
          Hightower called the recent shipment the start of a "modern day
cattle" drive that can bring extra money to enterprising ranchers, and
create jobs for both agricultural workers and members of
longshoremen's unions. While most of the U.S. trade community
protested that the hormones were necessary for profitable operations,
Hightower and some Texas ranchers set about to prove them
wrong. "From the outset, we felt that more was at stake than steak,
and a whole lot more was at stake than growth hormones," he
said.
        
