Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, I rise today, along with my good friends and colleagues Mr. Denham and Mr. Costa, to recognize somebody, as you can tell, who clearly impacted not just the lives of the three of us but the lives of many people on the Central Coast of California, the Central Valley of California, and across this Nation. Today we obviously commemorate, we celebrate, Rick Antle and what he has done for the Salinas Valley agriculture industry and what he and his family at T&A did to claim that area as the Salad Bowl of the World. Let me tell you, he did it through innovation, and he did it through ingenuity, in dealing with the specialty crops and the technology and practices that are needed in order to grow those types of crops. He was on the forefront of innovation when it came to precision farming, from growing hydroponic lettuce to plant tape, to a Robovator. The farming at T&A used less water and less pesticides, and that led to less harm to our environment. Yet they still continued to grow a vast amount of vegetables. I can tell you it wasn't just his investments in innovation that set Rick apart; it was his ingenuity and foresight that inspired him to implement standards to protect our community, our environment, to invest in making his employees' lives better, and to strive to impact policies that would improve the agricultural industry. Rick clearly was a steward of our environment, from T&A's packaging and energy use, to maintaining soil health, to monitoring water usage.…”