The Texan Podcast - Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller Talks Re-election Campaign, Hemp and THC, Screwworm Threat

Episode Date: September 24, 2025

Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller joins reporter Cameron Abrams for a detailed discussion on various pressing issues, including the ongoing debates around hemp-derived THC regulation and the challenges faced by hemp farmers. He also discusses the New World screwworm threat to the livestock industry and highlights Texas's innovative efforts to make school lunches healthier through locally sourced products. Finally, he speaks about his achievements, ongoing initiatives, upcoming election campaign, and his thoughts on GOP contender Nate Sheets.

Commissioner Miller, thank you so much for joining me today. Glad to be here. Thank you for having me on. So I actually wanted to start with a post that you put up on social media yesterday. Yesterday, the memorial for Charlie Kirk, you put up a post about how he called you after the Butler assassination attempt on Donald Trump. I just want to give you an opportunity to maybe say something about Charlie Kirk. and what he really meant to Republicans and conservatives? Well, you know, I've known Charlie for quite some time,

and I was actually in Butler, Pennsylvania when President Trump was, you know, attempt on his life, you know, almost assassinated within, you know, millimeters. Yeah. So I was about 20 foot from Trump when he got shot. You couldn't have been any closer unless I'd been on the stage. So after it was over, we went to our bus. It was probably less than an hour. Charlie called and said, hey, man, what's going on up there?

He said, you know, I told him to live. little bit about it and he said could you would you mind coming on my podcast and talking about said no I'll be glad to do that I said let me get my schedule I said no no no schedule it's we're on now so right there from the bus in Butler you know we talked for about an hour about what it's like you know to be an elected official and you know and what it's like you know you're always you're always I wouldn't say you're always afraid but you're always aware right and I talked about how that day when I got there I was very easy because I was not satisfied that the place was secure. I thought this is just two laps.

There's no there's no snipers on the buildings. This area is not secure. You know, they've got five foot two people trying to cover a six foot four, you know, 240 pound man. I said this is just everything about it just just kind of gave me the creeps. Right. So, but anyway, uh, kind of ironic was almost a year. That was on July of the 13th, you know, uh, Charlie was assassinated his self. Yeah. So, yeah, it was, you know, brought back some memories that I really hadn't thought about, you know, since then, not that much, but in it, I'd seen Charlie and Marlargo, you know, and when I'd go down there and, you know, and visit with him. Yeah. Well, it was a really touching post. I encourage people to go check it out, but I want to get into a few

issues that are going on here in Texas. First, I want to start with hemp-derived THC. Hemp, in Texas. It has remained a huge talking point, huge issue. For the ledge, for the governor, they had multiple special sessions trying to resolve it because there was the veto on SB3. They couldn't take care of it during the special. We got the executive order from the governor. But where do you, how do you kind of see the current state of hemp and hemp-derived T.A.C. in Texas, from the act perspective. Just a little background for you. We wrote the rules on hemp in 2019 and implemented them. They were approved by the USDA and I'll qualify that a little bit. We write the rules on hemp as long as it's on the farm. Once it leaves the farm, it's out of

my jurisdiction. That's HHS, Health and Human Services, write the retail regulations on that. They probably, they had the opportunity to write rules and regulations on their end that could restricted the delta nine delta eight they chose for some reason not not to do that but mine is strictly as on on farm growing of him matter of fact I'm a hemp farmer myself I grew three crops myself okay so I know a little bit about it yeah not only how to regulate it but I know how to grow it yeah the problem is we couldn't market it we we just typical farmers we overproduce the product and we've got so much it don't on hand now we really don't need to grow anymore okay The hemp market is booming, though, but it's turned to a different market.

It's for the industrial hemp or fiber hemp. We've left the CBD market because it wasn't profitable. So there is a huge demand, huge market for industrial hemp. Now, that's hemp that's made into boards, cinder blocks, rope, canvas, upholstery. You know, the list, there's over 2,000 products. Right. People are wanting to get away from synthetics and go back to more natural products that will, you know, not a harmed environment as much. And the hemp fits that.

So we've got a big surge in industrial hemp farming in Texas. And my hip operation had two full-time employees for three acres, you know, so it's very labor intensive, much like growing tobacco. Right. But a farmer can farm, you know, 640 acres by himself with a pivot and a, you know, a cutter and a bailer. bail it and load it on the truck and send it to process so right fits typical farming much better right well just today uh senator charles perry uh issued two letters one of them was addressed directly to you um he was bringing up some concerns about loopholes in state code and state law regarding the total t hc that is currently contained in some of these hemp drive t hc products i wonder have you had

a chance to read that letter. Do you have any thoughts on some of the prescriptions he laid out in that? Well, I've just read it, and if I remember, it's nine or ten pages long, and it's mostly written by some lawyer, I think. So I've got my people going through it. It's, you know, pretty descriptive. I don't know that I have, I haven't heard from my legal team if I can do what they're asking to do. I do think it would be prudent to get buy-in from the other branches of government. The House, I think, you know, I probably need to get the opinion of the chairman of the House Ag Culture Committee, probably the speaker.

You know, I'd like to have his opinion. Certainly would like to have the governor to weigh in. I'd like for everybody to be on the same page if we're going to write new hemp laws. So I'll reach out and do that. I haven't done that yet. Like I said, I just got the letter. I've read over it. I haven't studied it.

But we're certainly taking a look at it. If we can get everybody together and comply with the senator's wish or demands, however you want to read into it, we'll certainly do that. Okay. We're team players. Right. Well, I want to move to another issue, the New World Screw Worm. Because, again, just today, there was a press release from Secretary Rollins that there was

the northernmost detection in Mexico. I just want to ask about sort of a status update what's going on here in Texas and trying to combat this pest. Well, if you read the rest of that release, USDA has a five-point plan. We think it needs to be a six-point plan. Okay.

The most effective part of that plan is not in there. So we've discovered a fly bait that will actually kill 90% of the screw worm flies. That's not part of the plan. The only thing they have to combat the screw worm fly itself is sterile flies. But we don't have enough of them. Right. We use a sterile fly to eradicate it in 1966.

But we started in 1937, so it took 29 years to eradicate the screw worm fly with a sterile-fly-only approach. So my solution, and it's not really my solution, USDA came up with this in 1976, is you put out this fly bait, it kills 90% of the squirrel worm flies. Then you come in behind that with sterile flies and mop up the other 10%. So if they would follow my recommendations, from the day we implement the bait, put it out, we can eradicate the squirrel worm flying 60 to 90 days, be done with it. Well, has there been more back and forth between you and Secretary Rollins on... implementing this bait plan?

Secretary Rollins is not necessarily opposed to it, but the USDA are opposed to it. They think it's two reasons. They think it's it'll kill the sterile male flies, and absolutely it will. But only an idiot would put the bait out and the flies at the same time. So the way you do it, you put the bait out, let it kill all the screw worm flies that it can. And when the bait runs out, then you release the sterile flies to come. come in and clean up the remaining 10%. The other complaint they have, well, it's not environmentally sound

that it will kill good flies along with the screw worm fly. And I said, good flies? I mean, what's the definition of a good fly? Is that like a good fire ant or something? I mean, what? You know, I really don't care if there's some collateral damage if it kills some house flies or stable flies. Well, I'm not opposed to that.

What I want is the screw worm's dead, but it's threatening our entire livestock. industry and our wildlife industry. So if it kills a few, you know, other flies, well, I don't have a problem with that, as long as we get rid of the screw worm fly. Now, we did this in 1976. We had over 30,000 cases in the summer of 1976. We did the one, two punch, the bait followed up by the flies. In spring of 1977, we went from almost 30,000 cases to 39 cases. So it works 100% basically. So I just haven't got them to commit to doing that.

Short of that, Texas and the rest of the United States is going to be infected with a screw worm. I mean, it's 70 miles off our border now. Right. So we don't have enough flies and we won't have enough sterile flies for four years. We've got to build a brand new facility. And these don't happen quick. People think it's just like putting up a warehouse and some equipment. No.

No, these flies are you really? radiated. So that means you've got radioactive material. You've got to put lead walls and precautions and store, you know, storing radioactive material. And the building has to have reverse pressure in it. So when you open the door, it sucks in there. So no flight, you know, it's just a lot of, it's kind of an engineering challenge. Right. So it's not just a building and you get after it. It's got some engineering challenges. So it's not going to happen quick. Right. Well, And I remember there was some committee hearings during the special session. You gave testimony at those.

But is there enough time to wait for the legislature to act? Or is there something you can do as commissioner to expedite this process and trying to combat? I'm doing everything I possibly can. I don't have the authority to mandate that Mexico put out a flybate. That has to come from USDA. Because we're one state. We're not, you know, we don't represent. New Mexico and Arizona and everybody else that's affected by this.

So I've been working with the Texas delegation. We've been up to Washington twice in the last two weeks. Not one Texas representative is opposed to this. They all support us. Ted Cruz supports using the fly bait. Everybody from Texas except the USDA is ready to put out the fly bait and end this problem. So it's one of the most frustrating things I've, run up against as commissioner because it's just cowboy logic you know let's put out of

bait and kill the flies right it's not a it's not a controversial issue with with me or any of the congressional delegation so it's just a deep embedded bureaucrats you know not not wanting to they want to build they would rather build a 750 million dollar screw worm fly facility and you know and keep perpetuating the problem instead of finding a solution and knocking it out Interesting. Well, I want to talk about one more issue. There's been this giant Make America Healthy Again movement. We saw that come to Texas with Make Texas Healthy Again. There was a big piece of legislation that involves food additives and labeling products and things. What are you hearing from farmers or in the farmers who sell that product to manufacturers

who then sell it to stores? There's a big process to this. What are you hearing from them now that this new legislation has been passed? Well, we've been talking to farmers about this for years. I mean, 10 years ago, I basically had the first Maha program long before Bobby Kennedy, you know, became part of the administration. So we started with our schools. Our schools weren't serving any local product. They were buying it from Benny Keith or Cisco's. It was ultra-processed, flash frozen added dyes additives preservatives chemicals they would thaw it out and put it on the lunch tray and instead of having healthy kids we had healthy trash cans because it just it was terrible they wouldn't eat it so uh i don't do mandates so i started a program uh where schools could

voluntarily you know join our farm fresh program and i started small and slow because this change is hard especially if it's not mandated and we have had farm fresh Fridays, and I challenged schools at least on Friday, serve some local product and have meat to farmer Friday. Bring that farmer in, let him get up and tell the kids how that product got on their plate because kids think their food comes from the grocery store and heat comes from the furnace. They have no idea. And we send out gardening kits to the younger grades and let them grow some vegetables, get a little dirt under their fingernails, and that developed a lot of healthy eating habits when they grew their own food and saw the value of that

with no chemicals, most of it grown organically. We started a big summer conference called Megakon, where we brought all the food nutritionists in, the cafeteria workers. We showed them how to make the lunchroom fun and exciting and found them some money to renovate their kitchens and their cafeterias. And now they can have salad bars or deli bars or a hamburger bar along with a regular meal. And kids, when they can pick something they like, They'll eat it.

But just because that's what's on the lunch. Sloppy Jodes is on the lunch menu today doesn't mean everybody likes it. So it's worked real well. And we'd bring the farmers in, and we connected the farmers with the schools. And last year where we had started with zero local products, our Maha movement has put $300 million of locally grown product in the place of our children at our public schools. So we're very proud. As a matter of fact, we sent out an invitation, I just got back from Washington, D.C.,

in a meeting with RFK Jr., and he wants to make Texas a shining example for the rest of the state. So next month, we have a national school lunch month, and we sent out an invitation. They're planning on coming down and touring some Texas schools to see how we're doing it. So we're looking forward, hopefully, to get RFK Jr. here with HHS, Brooke Rawlins, with USDA. We're also inviting Linda McMahon with the education agency. So I don't know if we'll get all three of them not, but I'm almost positive that Bobby Kennedy will be here. He's very excited about what we're doing.

Yeah, I'll be looking forward to that. But I want to move to your run again for AG Commissioner. You're running again in 2026 here. And you've been in this position for a long time. And in your mind, what do you think, needs to be accomplished in this position well you know I'm running again I'm certainly not through we have a lot of challenges in that culture we're working through the tariffs you know we've got a farm bill that isn't written I've got a

little civil war with Florida going on now of shipping in the cotton pest so we've got to solve that we've got to say the cotton industry we've got the bird flu we've got swine flu we got the screw worms right we've had devastating floods in the hill country and and devastating fires in the panhandle that we're still trying to get the farmers some help. You know, Excel Energy. I just did an op-ed on that. They still haven't paid for the farms.

They burn up up there, the cattle and the houses and all of that. So we're trying to get that resolved. We're fighting real hard for the shrimp industry. Our shrimp industry is going to be gone. If we don't do something, it's being overrun by imported foreign inferior shrimp. So that was another part of my trip that I made to Washington, D.C. I'm working with a company to bring the sugar cane industry back to Texas. You know, Mexico didn't pay their bill, so we didn't have any water,

so we couldn't grow enough sugar cane, so the last sugar cane processing plant is closed in Texas. So I'm this close to bringing that industry back. Water's always been one of my main issues. We've discovered a new source of water. It's going to revolutionize the way we water cities and farms across the state and this nation, so we're very excited about rolling that out. Well, I'll just stop there. So I've got a lot left to do, okay?

Right. We've got a lot going on and a lot left to do. Yeah. I want to ask about your GOP contender, Nate Sheets. He's a former donor of yours. And maybe just what are your overall thoughts on Nate Cheats running against you on this race? Nate Sheets is a good man. He's a Christian man.

I like him. He was one of my best donors. He's, I don't think, near as qualified, doesn't have near the experience as I do. He's kind of a single issue when it comes to ag culture. He knows bees and beehives. I'll give him that, probably a better expert on honey than myself. But I have a degree in ag culture. I was an ag teacher.

I've raised just about every kind of livestock and grown about every kind of crop there is. You know, I've served as president of the Southern United States Trade Association from the ag, from the other associations, the Ag Teachers Association, the Ag Commissioner's Association. I've been president of it. You know, I've sat and dine with presidents, ambassadors, kings. I have those relationships around the world that I can pick up the phone if we need something. You know, Trump likes me. He, you know, calls me Trump's man in Texas. He's endorsed me. in every election I've had. So I think you can look at my track record. I think I sent you a list of what we've done the last 10 years. It's quite lengthy, quite extensive.

We've completely reformed the agriculture department. We have accelerated our marketing program, the Go Texan program. It's the best in the United States by far. We have our own TV show. Matter of fact, we just ended a 14 seasons of Texas AgCulture Mass. Last week was our last week. But we have a new show called Texas Our Texas. It's very much like Texas Country Reporter.

Matter of fact, we've hired the production manager that did that for Bob and Kelly Phillips. He now works for me. We've got two shows now on Sirius XM radio a week. We've got daily radio shows on the Texas State Network, 140 rural stations. I also do a closing market report. It goes out on those same stations.

same station so we're getting the word out yeah we're busy I don't think you'll find any Ag Commissioner United States that's as active as me or better well known than me matter of fact might probably sound a little braggadocious but Texas are known for that right you know I'm the most popular Republican in in Texas and I can back that up because I got more votes than anybody more than governor lieutenant governor or anybody else so very very active on social media it's very common for me to reach from 40 to 60 million people a month on just social media. Well, I want to ask you about something Nate Sheets did say in an interview that you had told

him to run because you were possibly eye in a different position. Is that same inaccurate? It's kind of halfway accurate. Okay. I did say, well, I said, you are to run, but he doesn't ever finish the sentence. If I don't run. He never finished the sentence. I said, you know, if I don't run, you should run. At the time, it looked like it was a possibility that I might be serving in the Trump cabinet. I was actually offered three positions. I didn't think any of them fit me, so I turned those down. So that didn't happen. He thought I might run for something else. There's not a better job in Texas suited for me than Ag Commissioner. So I announced that I was running for re-election. But he had, I think he announced prior to me announcing, I was running for

re-election. So I think he assumed that I was not running again. Okay. So now he's, he's, he's, he's, he put that out there and he's kind of stuck. Yeah. Well, you know, like, like I mentioned and you mentioned, Sheets was one of your biggest donors. And lately there's been some talk that it's maybe been a bit tougher to raise campaign funds. Do you think that's an accurate assessment of how campaigning has been going for you, raising funds? Raising funds hadn't been a problem for me. He may have been talking about himself because his funds come from his own pocket. He hasn't raised that many funds, privately funds. Most of his funding has been his own money. Mine comes from individuals. We've had a great fundraising season. We're doing that now.

Keep in mind, he touted that he raised more money than I did at the last reporting period. But I couldn't raise any money last reporting period because of the session, right? I had like three weeks to raise, and he had six months. So that gave him a little bit of advantage, but we still raised more money than he did if you don't count his own money that he put in the race. So we're doing fine. And, you know, it's not unusual for me to be outspent by my opponents, but you know the Texas is littered with the political bodies of my previous opponents and so I seem to do all right in the end even though I may not spend as much money as they do I can certainly outsmart them and outwork them and we always do that right and just wrapping up here you've mentioned a lot of things that you've done previously a lot of the issues that still need to be addressed but what would be your pitch to Texans for for them to re-elect you to this position?

Well, you know, look at my track record. I've got a deep and long history of providing and protecting Texas farmers and ranchers, but it doesn't stop there. You know, we're the protection of consumers. We do consumer protection. You know, I found over 7,000 businesses were selling on illegal scales. That was one of the first things I corrected. We had a three-year backlog and organic certification. I got that fixed in 90 days and the train still running on time. We've done so much. We've expanded our marketing program. We had 20% of our gas pumps were inaccurate. I got that fixed immediately. It was taken 12 years to inspect all the gas pumps in Texas. I got that done in 12 months now. And so we've done a lot, not just for farmers and ranchers, but for consumers.

I've already talked about what we did to the school lunchroom, you know, $300 million for the locally grown products. No other state in the nation has done that. No one else is actually doing a farm to school program. We're the leaders on that. So I've got a great track record. I'm a eighth-generation farmer and rancher. You know, I still make my living off the land.

I raise cattle and horses and crops, so I'm close to it. I just think I've got the chops to do the job again. I've got a proven track record. People keep electing me, you know, over and over. Like I said, I've got more votes than anybody else did in the last election. So I haven't done anything to screw that up that I know of. So we'll see. See what they think of this time.

It'll be up to the voters. Excellent. Well, thank you so much for joining me. Glad to do it. Thank you. I don't know.