Vetch Capital of the World (Cooper nickname)

Cooper (near Paris, Texas) is known as the “Vetch Capital of the World.” Vetch is a bean that perhaps parakeets like. Cooper’s slogan is not popular.
 
     
Handbook of Texas Online
COOPER, TEXAS (Delta County). Cooper, the county seat of Delta County, is at the junction of State highways 24 and 154, some twenty-four miles southwest of Paris in the south central portion of the county. It was founded in 1870 and named for L. W. Cooper of Houston, one of the sponsors of the bill to organize the county in 1870. 
(...)
In 1970 Cooper reported sixty businesses, including seed-cleaning plants and some thirty-eight dairies.

ePodunk
Cooper
Vetch Capital of the World”
Cooper is a city in Delta County, in the Dallas-Fort Worth metro area.
It is the county seat.
The community was named for L.W. Cooper.
The latitude of Cooper is 33.373N. The longitude is -95.688W. It is in the Central Standard time zone. Elevation is 482 feet.
The estimated population, in 2003, was 2,175.
   
Wikipedia: Vicia
Vicia is a large genus of about 140 species of flowering plants in the family Fabaceae, native to Europe, Asia and Africa. One species, Vicia faba, commonly known as Broad Bean or fava bean is cultivated for human consumption, while a number of other species Vicia sativa, Vicia ervilia, Vicia articulata Hornem. and Vicia narbonensis are cultivated as forage and grain legume for livestock or green manure
(...)
Certain species of vetch are suitable for consumption by ruminant animals, but not for single-stomach animals including humans, due to a toxin. However, split vetch seed (Vicia sativa) resembles split red lentils (Lens culinaris), and cases have been reported of vetch being deliberately mislabelled (by exporters or importers) and sold for human consumption to countries such as Bangladesh, Pakistan and Egypt, which are traditional consumers of lentils. This has resulted in import bans by those countries. (ref. Vetch Scandal)
   
Waterfowler.net Forums
posted October 15, 2003 01:57 PM              
You used to hunt East Texas? I went to high school and collage in East Texas. Delta County, it was the place they raised a lot of vetch. The same stuff they make parakeet feed out of. Doves out the Kazo. I shot my first ducks off a city lake down there. I didn’t know didely about ducks. We tried cooking those mergansers that afternoon and the dog finially buried them all.
Graduated H/S in 67. After I moved they put in Lake Fork close by and Cooper Lake after that. We used to hunt those bottoms before they became lakes. Cooper Texas is a small town of about 2,000 I knew all most all of them. Permission to hunt was no problem. I didn’t know how good I had it.