Texas Border Business
By DAVID A. DIAZ
Mani Skaria, Ph.D., the Founder, President, and CEO of U.S. Citrus (USCitrus.com), located in Hidalgo County near the rural community of Hargill, has launched an Internet news network as a public service to help Texans become better informed and more effective participants in the Texas Legislature.
U.S. Citrus Texas Legislative News Service features high-quality journalism about the key actions of the Texas Legislature and major statewide officeholders, and how they impact the $100+ billion Texas agricultural economy – which includes the Texas citrus industry, valued at $200 million, which is centered in the Rio Grande Valley.
U.S. Citrus is a 550-acre state-of-the-art facility with the potential to produce large quantities of high-quality, disease-free citrus trees of many different varieties for sale.
Skaria, a renowned citrus plant pathologist and successful entrepreneur, and his family are longtime residents of McAllen. He and his wife, Anne Skaria, are proud parents of son Rony T. Skaria, M.D., and daughter Amy A. Skaria, M.D.
Key individuals and institutions to be covered by U.S. Citrus Texas Legislative News Service shall include, but not be limited to:
• The Rio Grande Valley state legislative delegation;
• The Rio Grande Valley congressional delegation and both U.S. senators;
• The debates and actions of the Texas House of Representatives and the Texas Senate;
• The Governor of Texas;
• The Lt. Governor of Texas;
• The Speaker of the House;
• The Texas Commissioner of Agriculture and the Texas Department of Agriculture;
• The Texas A&M University System, its Board of Regents, and its Chancellor; and
• The University of Texas System, its Board of Regents, and its Chancellor.
U.S. Citrus Texas Legislative News Service has been created because the Rio Grande Valley state and congressional delegations are key players in shaping laws and policies that affect agriculture, and because the Texas citrus industry, whose products are famous worldwide, has the potential to become a multi-billion dollar economic engine, just like in California and Florida.
“Look at what the citrus industries have done in California and Florida. Tens of thousands of jobs now exist in California and Florida because of their citrus industries,” Skaria noted. “The annual economic impact of the citrus industries in California and Florida are $8.6 billion and $7.1 billion, respectively.”
To borrow a famous saying about another food industry, “when we are talking about the potential for the citrus industry in Texas, we are not talking ‘small potatoes’,” he emphasized.
Agriculture in Texas is so important that one of every seven working Texans (14 percent) is in an agriculture-related job, according to the Texas Department of Agriculture.
“Texas leads the nation in cattle, cotton, hay, sheep, goats and mohair production. Texas leads the nation in the numbers of farms and ranches (248,800). Texas has more women and minority operations than any other state in the nation, according to the Texas Department of Agriculture,” Skaria said. “U.S. Citrus Texas Legislative News Service, with its stories and images, will inform and educate Texans on what our top state leaders and our South Texas legislative delegations are doing to help agriculture, including citrus, grow as worldwide economic powers.”
In Skaria’s dedication to public service, U.S. Citrus Texas Legislative News Service shall send out its news coverage and images, at no charge for their use, to Rio Grande Valley journalists, and business, political, agricultural, and elected leaders in deep South Texas, and at the Texas Capitol.
“Soon, we will have our own website online for U.S. Citrus Texas Legislative News Service, and anyone in the world will have free access to our stories and images,” he added. “We will announce the launching of our website as soon as we are on the Internet.”
, located in Hidalgo County){kind=link}