By Mike Barnett

The Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) attempt to clarify the Clean Water Act (CWA) is muddying the water for farmers and ranchers in Texas and across the U.S.

That’s not much of a surprise knowing EPA’s history, but their new proposed rule could be bad news for your land use decisions and farming practices.

The CWA was established to give EPA and the Corps the authority to regulate navigable waters, such as interstate rivers.  The law calls these “waters of the U.S.” State and local governments have jurisdiction over smaller, more remote waters, such as ponds and isolated wetlands, because state and local governments are more accountable to their citizens.

By Gene Hall

Anti-GMO food activists are among the angriest and most mistrustful people in the world. I get the trust issues. It’s that kind of world, but I often wish we could put aside the anger for reasonable discussions.

I do not pretend to be a scientist, but I’ve studied this a lot. This issue comes into very sharp focus on the question of Golden Rice. We have the technology to introduce beta carotene and therefore Vitamin A into rice at the genetic level. Many children in the poorer regions of the world suffer from Vitamin A deficiency. They go blind from it. They are dying from it. We can fix a lot of that. The question is, “Why would we not?”

An editorial cartoon recently printed by the Corpus Christi Caller-Times implied that as the result of the new farm bill, those who need assistance with food are starving to death while farmers get fat off subsidies. Nueces County Farm Bureau President Scott Frazier took offense and submitted the following letter to the editor in response. We thought we would share it with you.

By Scott Frazier

The American Gothic Revised cartoon printed on the editorial page of Monday’s paper is offensive to two very diverse groups of your readers.

By Mike Barnett

You know it’s a bad Super Bowl when you wait until the game starts back up after the commercial to take a bathroom break.

That was the state of America last night as the Seahawks flew away with a huge win over the lackluster Broncos. Complicating things was a first half of boring commercials. But then the second half kicked in. The game didn’t get any better, but the commercials did.

There were a couple of agriculture-related commercials that really caught my attention. And one that was entirely forgettable.

By Stewart Truelsen

Picture yourself in the future, the not too distant future, on a bright summer day. You are grilling hot dogs at a picnic with your family in a park. You pay little attention to the drone flying overhead. It’s probably a UPS or FedEx drone making a package delivery. But it’s not. It’s the food police and they are monitoring the items you brought to the picnic. The hot dogs, buns, potato chips and soda pop exceed your family’s maximum caloric allowance for the day. Besides, non-diet soda pop has been completely outlawed because it contains sweetener. You are in trouble with the food police.

By Gene Hall

How’s that for a provocative headline? Make no mistake, there is a food elite, called “The Food Police,” in an excellent book by Dr. Jayson Lusk that is quite determined to substitute their food choices for yours.

The thing I like about this book is that it so completely explodes all the food myths out there. I am not at all opposed to the local food movement, for example. I guess I assume that when it breaks down, as it must, that there will be exceptions. I hope so, because there just isn’t much commercial fresh fruit and vegetable production in Central Texas, where I live.