The Battalion
2STATE & LOCAL
Monday, April 10,1989
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Gramm begins
examination of
rural health care
WASHINGTON (AP) — Doc
tors, hospital administrators and
nurses are among a coalition of
volunteers being drafted by Sen.
Phil Gramm to examine the rural
health care crisis in Texas.
Gramm, a Texas Republican,
said the task force would conduct
hearings around the state in con
junction with personnel from the
state and federal offices of the
U.S. Department of Health and
Human Services.
The purpose is to “look at
areas of rural health care — the
problems, the successes and fail
ures in trying to provide quality
rural health care,” Gramm said in
an interview Friday.
Gramm said he hopes the
group, which was still being
formed late last week, would be
able to draft a set of recommen
dations to revitalize the failing
health of rural medical care.
“I’m trying to get local people
with a stake in the problem,”
Gramm said. “I’m bringing peo
ple together from various regions
to present their concerns, their
ideas. We’ll sift through all of this
and find the common denomina
tors.”
Gramm said he has asked Dr.
Louis Gibson of Corsicana to be
chairman of the committee,
which will include hospital ad
ministrators, nurses, hospital
board members, and at least one
consumer. Some 20 to 25 people
will be included and all will be
volunteers, paying their own
transportation costs.
"The primary prerequisite is
knowledge and concern,” Gramm
said. “Closing a rural hospital is
an economic and medical tragedy
for a small community.”
Gramm said he is looking at
the possibility of holding the first
hearings by the end of the month,
Plains-Panhandle
area and East Texas.
“My primary concern is the
Texas problem,” Gramm said.
“Ultimately what we come up
with will be taken to HHS and
good ideas might become na
tional policy.
Pesticide scares promote
interest in organic foods
HOUSTON (AP) — Two recent pesticide scares have
helped fuel the already growing popularity of organi
cally-grown fruits and vegetables, as the mainstay of
American agriculture before World War II and the
hobby of the hippies in the 1960s moves into the mains
tream.
Interest in organic farming — growing food without
chemical fertilizers or pesticides — is surging as Ameri
can consumers become more health-conscious. And
Texas agriculture producers and grocers are cashing in
on the trend.
“We’re not talking about something that is the prov
ince of a bunch of health nuts,” said Fletcher Clark,
marketing specialist for Austin-based Whole Foods
chain, which operates eight Texas stores. “We’re talking
about pure economics.
“Texas is looking for ways to diversify its economy,”
Clark told the Houston Post.There is a huge market out
there that we can develop and position ourselves for.”
The day after a recent “60 Minutes” television pro
gram on Alar-treated apples, sales jumped about 25
percent at Whole Foods stores, Clark said. A more re
cent scare over cyanide in Chilean grapes also reflected
in sales, he said.
In reaction to consumer trends, state Agriculture
Commissioner Jim Hightower announced a program in
February 1988 of certifying Texas organic farmers.
Farmers who comply with the Texas Department of
Agriculture regulations can send their crops to market
bearing a state logo guaranteeing the product is organi
cally grown.
Since the TDA began sending out applications last
June. 60 Texas farmers have joined the program and
are now in the process of certification. Four hundred-
more have requested applications, officials said.
The products range from watermelons grown near
Wichita Falls to long-grain rice from the Beaumont
area to Rio Grande Valley citrus.
About 15 states now have some laws or regulations
relating to organic farming, but Texas and Washington
are the only states where agencies conduct site visits and
regulate organic farmers, Susan Raleigh, consumer af
fairs director for the TDA, said.
A recent Lou Harris poll found that 84 percent of
Americans, given a choice, would prefer organic foods.
Forty-nine pecent said they would pay more for the
normally higher-priced organic produce.
The products which generally have found a market
only in health food stores are now moving into major
supermarket chains, and other retailers are testing the
waters.
Carmen Pate of Kroger Food Stores, said the chain
which operates 173 Texas stores has been test market
ing organic produce in 15 of its Michigan stores. Safe
way spokesman Debbie Rog said the chain has had a pi
lot program marketing a variety of organic produce in
about 25 percent of its Texas stores for more than a
year.
But price is making sales difficult, despite the polls,
Rog said. “We’re not going to sell apples for $4 a
pound,” she said.
Dr. Dudley Smith, associate director of the Texas Ag
ricultural Experiment Station, said his organization is
helping organic farmers by looking for non-chemical
ways to kill pests and for new methods of crop rotation
that allow natural enrichment of soil.
Wadley conducts blood drive
at A&M, celebrates 30th year
The Blood Center at Wadley will
conduct its 30th anniversary blood
drive at Texas A&M this week.
Representatives of Wadley rec
ommend that individuals eat within
four hours of donating blood.
Those who have donated blood
within the past 56 days before the
drive are ineligible to donate.
Individuals who participate in the
Aggie Blood Drive, which is a joint
campus service project of Student
Government, Alpha Phi Omega and
Omega Phi Alpha, will receive
credit for up to a year after donat
ing in the Texas A&M Blood Club.
The club provides blood replace
ment coverage to A&M students,
alumni, faculty and staff, and their
families.
Wadley, which conducts a blood
drive each semester at A&M, col
lected 5,471 pints of blood at A&M
in 1988. It is a non-profit organiza
tion that distributes blood to hospi
tals throughout Texas.
Donors lor the spring blood drive
will receive a free T-shirt inscribed
with the logo “grin & bare it.”
The following are locations
and times for donating blood this
week on the Texas A&M campus:
• Commons
10 a.m. to 8 p.m., Monday —
Thursday.
• MSC
10 a.m. to 6 p.m., Monday —
Friday.
• Sbisa
10 a.m to 6 p.m., Monday —
Friday.
• Medical Sciences Library
10 a.m. to 6 p.m., Monday —
Friday.
Texas oil spill teams
not ready for leaks,
commissioner says
AUSTIN (AP) — Texas oil spill
teams have not implemented a num
ber of measures needed to combat
another mishap, despite two major
leaks that oozed millions of gallons
of crude onto Texas beaches in the
past decade.
The two biggest spills of the past
ten years, the 1979 Ixtoc well blow
out and a 1984 spill by the tanker Al-
venus, convinced many Texans the
state needs a well-coordinated re
sponse effort, Texas Land Commis
sioner Garry Mauro said.
He said several crucial proposals
among recommendations made by a
special oil spill committee appointed
by then-Gov. Mark White in 1985
have not been implemented.
“I would hope that with the prob
lems we’ve seen with the Valdez,
we’d put these things on the front
burner,” Mauro said of the recent
spill from the Exxon Valdez tanker
that fouled the Alaskan coastline.
“The only problem now is before
the state can intervene, they have to
get permission from the feds,” he
said.“We’ve seen whafs happened in
Alaska; everybody waiting for some
one else to begin the work.”
“In White’s committee recom
mendations was that the responsibil
ity and the authority be given to one
person or group to make absolutely
certain the proper action will be
taken in the appropriate time,” the
land commissioner said.
Not enough oil cleanup equip
ment is available in the state, said
Coast Guard Capt. Robert W. Ma
son, who runs the Marine Safety of
fice in Galveston.
“The State of Texas personnel is
well-prepared and qualified to han
dle an oil spill cleanup,” he said.
Riviera couple selected
A&M Parents of Year
By Juliette Rizzo
STAFF WRITER
Dr. Patrick L. Hubert and his wife
Goldie of Riviera were named the
1989-90 Aggie Parents of the Year
Sunday.
The award was presented at a Par
ents’ Weekend awards ceremony in
Rudder Auditorium.
Leslie Lam, parents’ weekend
programming sub-chairman, said
the Huberts didn’t know they had
been nominated for the award. They
were nominated by their youngest
son, John Thomas Hubert, Class of
’88. Eight of the Huberts’ nine chil
dren attended Texas A&M.
Lam said the Huberts were told
their son was to receive an award at
the ceremony.
The Huberts, selected out of
eleven nominees, were named Par
ents of the Year for outstanding
service to their local community and
to A&M.
Hubert, a 1951 graduate of A&M,
is a veterinarian in Kingsville and a
member of the Texas A&M Sports
Hall of Fame. He played baseball at
A&M for the 1949 to 1951 seasons
and was an All-American in 1951.
Hubert was inducted into the hall of
fame in 1980.
Hubert also devotes time and
service providing healthcare to the
horses in Parsons Mounted Cavalry.
Mrs. Hubert is a music teacher at
Saint Gertrudes Catholic School in
Riviera and is attending classes at
Texas A&I University. She is an ac
tive member of the Kleberg County
Aggie Mothers’ Club.
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Are you interested in the
performing arts?
Want to have fun too?
Maybe you should consider
MSC OPAS
(The Opera and Performing Arts
Society of Texas A &M University)
An information session will be held
April 11th in 410 Rudder
at 7:00 p.m.
Applications for membership are available at
the session and in the OPAS cubicle in
216 MSC.
For more information call 845-1515.
%
The Middle East:
Peace or Powder Keg
April 12,1989
£xcelie*tcy
Javier Perez de Cuellar
United Nations Secretary-General
Robert C. McFarlane
former National Security Advisor
Ed Bradley
Co-Editor "60 Minutes"
Stansfield Turner
former C.LA. Director
#MSC
.Wiley Lecture Series
8 p.m. Rudder Auditorium
Tickets on sale now at the MSC Box Office
Tickets $6-$8-$10 for all TAMU students, $8-$10-$12 for all others