Anderson Named Cotton Grower Magazine
2007 Cotton Achievement Award Winner

By Henry Gantz
hgantz@meistermedia.com

In the 1890s, the boll weevil crossed the Rio Grande River at Brownsville, TX. Within 10 years, it had infested every cotton-growing area from east Texas to the Atlantic coast.

Woody Anderson

By the 1900's, W. W. Anderson, an east Texas cotton grower, decided enough was enough of what would become the most devastating cotton pest in U.S. history. So he headed west to Colorado City on the Rolling Plains of Texas, where the cool, dry conditions were not conducive to boll weevil over-wintering.

But that would change. "In the mid-70s we began to have some heavy migrations, and it got bad in the mid-80s. They had adapted - they seemed to have climatized," says Woody Anderson, W. W.'s grandson.

Ironically, what drove W. W. west was exactly what drove Woody to an active role in the National Cotton Council (NCC). "I became interested in the National Cotton Council in the early 1990s, primarily because of my interest in the boll weevil eradication programs (BWEP). The Council has been right at the heart of it - both in research and technology."

Not surprisingly, among the many NCC committees Anderson served on was the Boll Weevil Action Committee. In 2004, he was elected chairman of the National Cotton Council.

In the early ‘90s, Anderson served three years as chairman of the Texas Farm Service Agency. He was appointed by U.S. Representative Charles Stenholm, who was the ranking Democrat on the House Agriculture Committee. Stenholm was one of the most conservative Democrats in Congress, and was the leader of like-minded Democrats who became known as - get this - "Boll Weevils."

Those would not be the first or the last of Anderson's cotton leadership positions. Based on his good works for the betterment of the entire cotton industry, the staff of Cotton Grower takes great pleasure in naming Woody Anderson our 2007 Cotton Achievement Award Winner.

NCC President and CEO Mark Lange says, "Achievement is Woody Anderson's middle name. Along with being an innovative producer, Woody has long been a contributor to the health of the U.S. cotton industry. For several years, he has served the American Cotton Producers and the National Cotton Council in numerous capacities - from working to keep the national Boll Weevil Eradication Program on track in Texas, and improving the annual Beltwide Cotton Conferences, to chairing the Council's Farm Policy Development Task Force."

"As Council chairman in 2004, he testified before Congress on the 2002 farm law's effectiveness to U.S. cotton and agriculture," Lange adds. "Anderson's statement helped to prevent damaging amendments from undermining that important legislation."

Anderson is the third generation on the land his granddad settled. "I left for a while and went off to school at the University of Texas," he says. "I went down there to become a lawyer, but I decided I couldn't wear a coat and tie to work every day and sit between four walls.

"People ask me all the time what kind of ag degree I could get at UT, and I told them I didn't need one - I got it growing up," says Anderson. What he got was a degree in journalism and public relations. "There has not been a day that I haven't used it in some way or another," he adds.

He returned to Anderson Farms for good in 1974 to work with his father Warren. "Probably in the back of my mind, I always thought I would come back to the farm," he says. His brother Randy joined the operation 10 years after that. Later on, the Andersons were named the Colorado City Chamber of Commerce Farm Family of the Year.

Anderson married his wife Susan in 1972 while he was working his way through school for the Texas Dept. of Agriculture.

They have two children. Their son Brad, 29, is a lawyer with the Jackson Walker firm in Austin. Their daughter Kendra, 26, is an assistant basketball coach at Charleston Southern University in Charleston, SC. She was a basketball All-American at Hardin-Simmons in Abilene.

Anderson has a sister and another brother. His brother Les is with Sears in San Angelo; his sister Kathy Cash in a speech therapist in Heavener, OK.