In South Texas, one woman is leading an agricultural renaissance

HARLINGEN — Countless chain restaurants and retail stores line Interstate Highway 69 here. Were it not for the palm trees, the stretch of highway could be indistinguishable from any other part of Texas.

The Rio Grande Valley, like many regions throughout Texas, continues to invite economic development prompted by population growth, placing pressure on privately owned farms and ranches to convert their land for other purposes.

But just a little more than a mile south of the highway, one farmer hopes to enable and encourage more residents to cultivate the land's natural resources.

Diana Padilla is the executive director of Holistic Organic Practical Education, or HOPE, for Small Farm Sustainability, a nonprofit that provides farmer-to-farmer assistance.

Through the center, Padilla provides training and technical assistance for small, local farmers –– both professionals and beginners –– to teach them to use renewable energy in their farming and help them grow their own healthy, organic produce that might otherwise be unaffordable.

Texas’ privately owned farms, ranches and forests are increasingly driven to be broken up and subdivided, a process known as fragmentation. In other cases, the land ceases to be used for farming, which is what is known as conversion. This is typically due to rapid population growth and suburbanization, according to the Texas A&M Natural Resources Institute.

As regional leaders tout the ongoing development of retail and restaurant spaces and celebrate new industrial parks, Padilla has worked toward enabling sustainable farming practices that aim to protect the environment and expand natural resources.

Earlier this year, Padilla received a $7.4 million grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to purchase land on which prospective farmers can get their start.

The funds, part of roughly $19.5 billion allocated to the USDA through the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022, is meant to help farmers weather extreme climate while also protecting resources like water and reducing the use of fossil fuels.

With the grant, Padilla said she will purchase up to 100 acres of property to be shared for community farming and educate farmers so they can eventually become independent.

To start out, participating farmers will be given a 20 by 20-foot space which is roughly the size of a two-car garage. If they do well there, she'll give them a 50 by 50-foot space and they'll eventually be able to move onto a half-acre plot.

Padilla says educational and financial support is needed for new and potential farmers as veterans of the business choose to retire from the industry.

"Old farmers, they don't want to do it anymore, their kids don't want to do it," Padilla said "And the people who are coming in, they need support and help to help them get into the industry."

Agriculture continues to be a significant sector of the Texas economy, bringing in $25 billion in 2021.

[A generation of Texas farmers are retiring. It’s not clear who will replace them.]

While approximately 83% of Texas is a farm or a ranch, the landscape is rapidly changing, according to Roel Lopez, director of the Natural Resources Institute, who said the state is losing nearly 1,000 acres of farmland per day.

The Rio Grande Valley is among the most rapidly changing areas in the state. Since 1997, the region has lost more than 139,000 acres, or about 7.4% of farmland, far higher than the statewide average of 1.5% during that same time period.

Lopez was born and raised in McAllen, about 39 miles west of Padilla's farm. He recalls growing up in an area toward the south side of the city surrounded by agriculture. Now it's the location of the city's convention center, which hosts concerts, festivals, expos and conventions. Hotels, retail stores and restaurants have set up shop nearby.

Economic growth is a good thing, Lopez said, particularly for one of the state’s poorest regions. However, he is worried the region is losing basic land infrastructure.

"When we think of infrastructure, we think of roads and sewage and all those things," Lopez said. "But land itself, farms and ranches, are a part of that infrastructure fabric and, in essence, that's some of what we're losing in the Valley."

Additionally, the Natural Resources Institute argues that open spaces provide valuable ecosystem services that residents rely on for daily necessities, such as air and water quality, carbon sequestration and wildlife habitat.

As the government leaders throughout the region push toward drawing tech companies to the area and training their workforce for those jobs, Lopez hopes there can be a balance between that drive forward and the preservation of their existing resources.

"I certainly see the importance of the economic development aspects of the Valley, but can we do it in a way that it's sustainable? That's the key," he said. "Can we do it in a way that that development is sustainable and protecting the very resources that we need for those economic drivers?"

The city of Edinburg, which abuts the city of McAllen, is one of the fastest growing cities in Hidalgo County, reporting the suburban development of more than 700 acres in 2023.

Raudel Garza, executive director of the Edinburg Economic Development Corporation, echoed the need for balance, noting the region was still an agricultural-based community that depended heavily on the farming and ranching industry.

"We are definitely looking into how we can continue to sustain our farmland and at the same be able to balance that with our continued urban growth,” Garza said.

While neither the city nor the economic development corporation facilitates the sale of agricultural land for retail spaces, Garza said they do help develop industrial land by purchasing property and selling it to manufacturing companies. The corporation is currently mulling the purchase of more land for industrial use but Garza said that property would equal no more than 300 acres which he points out would be just a fraction of thousands of acres of farmland in the area.

"For us, it's just trying to buy a little bit of land so that when the smaller industrial companies want to come in, we can compete for those jobs," Garza said.

The region's leaders hope to bring in higher-paying jobs for its residents, a large portion of whom continue to live below the national poverty line.

Hidalgo County has a nearly 28% poverty rate while Cameron County, where Padilla's farm is located, has a nearly 23% poverty rate, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

While the USDA funding aims to help small farmers combat the negative effects of climate change, for Padilla, the end goal is to help people access healthy foods despite their income level.

"The people who are poor, they have to buy whatever they can afford and whatever they can afford sometimes isn't always good," Padilla said. "Then they end up paying more for it –– they get sick, they're the ones to get cancer, they're the ones that get all these issues, and then nobody wants to help."

Padilla believes she can make the local agriculture industry as a whole more equitable through HOPE which is a Community Supported Agriculture program that Padilla has run for 10 years on Yahweh All Natural Farm and Garden which she co-owns with her husband.

On their 75 acres of land, the couple began sharing their knowledge and practices with other small farmers over a decade ago and began searching for funding to help them with marketing, training and for any other assistance they could get.

They hold classes at the HOPE center during their farming season which runs from September until the last harvest in June and have a market which is open four days a week where local farmers sell their products.

"Not a lot of people want to grow food, and we need the people who do want to grow food to be supported in every way," Padilla said.

Reporting in the Rio Grande Valley is supported in part by the Methodist Healthcare Ministries of South Texas, Inc.

Just in: Former U.S. Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyoming; U.S. Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pennsylvania; and Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt will take the stage at The Texas Tribune Festival, Sept. 5–7 in downtown Austin. Buy tickets today!