Austin – Today Representative Mike Villarreal called for the Texas Department of Agriculture (TDA) to play an expanded role in increasing the amount of locally produced fresh fruits and vegetables in the state's public schools. Rep. Villarreal urged the Sunset Advisory Commission to include the recommendation in its review of the agency. The Commission is currently reviewing TDA and will make recommendations for legislation to reauthorize and improve the agency in 2009.

An excerpt of Rep. Villarreal's letter to the Commission is below:

As you conduct your Sunset review of the Texas Department of Agriculture (TDA), I encourage you to recommend an expanded role for TDA in increasing the amount of Texas-produced fresh fruits and vegetables in the state's public schools.

Currently TDA plays a limited role in this area, but I believe it would be of great benefit to the state to place a greater emphasis on this goal. While the state has made progress in addressing childhood obesity and school nutrition, increasing access to fruits and vegetables would provide an additional needed boost to student health. By providing healthy snacks, we can also ensure that more students are alert and well-behaved rather than distracted by hunger. In addition to aiding students, Texas farmers would enjoy the benefit of a stronger local market for their products. Finally, by relying on Texas farmers, we can reduce the air pollution generated by deliveries from other states.

TDA currently administers federal programs that could be expanded on the state level to meet the goal of directing more produce from Texas farms into Texas schools…