By Gene Hall

Today, you all get a look at the cranky consumer in me. My wife and sons tell me it’s getting worse, and perhaps that’s true. I only know that all who participate in the delivery of a product are responsible for the quality of it. I am especially passionate about this when it comes to beef.

Last Saturday, on my birthday, my wife, as is our custom, took me to a well-known Waco, Texas, steakhouse, the name of which I will not mention. Two of my sons came along. They never miss a steak dinner.

By Mike Barnett

Food is full of chemicals, meat is pumped with hormones, the rights of food animals are trampled and genetically-altered crops will kill us all if industrial agriculture remains unfettered and factory farms continue rolling.

My blogging partner recently wrote about labels and agriculture, and it’s true—conventional agriculture is being defined by activists who have some bone to pick with modern farming and ranching methods.

And it’s wearing down their target—the consumer, I like to call them customers—who buy the food Texas farmers and ranchers grow.

By Mike Barnett

Get your back up. Mix it up and fight those who use agriculture as a whipping boy.

That was the battle plan advocated by American Farm Bureau Federation President Bob Stallman in 2010 during his annual address to the membership in Seattle. I dubbed him the Mad Prophet of Agriculture back then.

President Stallman has mellowed a bit. And so has the tune sung by the organization and others in battling the myths and lies perpetrated about what we do.

By Gene Hall

Regardless of how you feel about the hatchet job ABC News foisted upon a perfectly honorable and legitimate company, Beef Products Inc. (BPI), and the meat business itself, the resulting court case is interesting. BPI has sued ABC News. I don’t know if they can win, but at a minimum, this should embarrass the network.

ABC is defending itself on first amendment grounds. As a former reporter, I understand that free speech and a free press have to be almost absolute in this country, but there are limits. I blogged about this awhile back.

By Gene Hall

My evening with the elite of the National Association of Farm Broadcasters (NAFB) at their Harvest Dinner a few days ago was eye opening.

Reporting life and work on America’s farms and ranches, we can bridge the gulf between farmers and their customers. Some of those customers are now four generations removed from the “farm years” in all our family trees:

• It’s the lady being interviewed on a Texas major market television station about biotechnology. “These products have not been tested.”