By Mike Barnett

2011 was a year of great contradiction for Texas Farm Bureau and Texas agriculture. As an organization, it was a year of great success. As an individual farmer or rancher, it was a year of bitter disappointment.

Through the hard work of our members, Texas Farm Bureau had the greatest legislative year in our history. True eminent domain reform, groundwater rights and a grain indemnity fund—as well as a host of other agriculture-related legislation—were achieved because of grassroots efforts.

By Mike Barnett

Just when you thought it was safe to drive down a dirt road, the dust issue has billowed up again.

The Environmental Protection Agency likes to call dust particulate matter, as in,“ That particulate matter is really blowing today.” That kind of sounds funny to me. But whatever you call it, dust is part of Texas. It’s a natural occurrence. It’s a part of agriculture.

By Gene Hall

President Obama will announce a major jobs creation plan sometime around Labor Day. I assume this will be a more or less typical federal program with lavish outlays of federal cash, which will be borrowed and therefore not available to private businesses that might actually create some jobs.

I am skeptical on a number of fronts. Though our American infrastructure could stand an upgrade, I suspect an administration that owes a substantial chunk of its soul to the unions will require that such projects proceed with union labor. That means less bang for the borrowed buck.

By Mike Barnett

“To everything there is a season.” Ecclesiastes 3:1

“For many regulations, there is no reason.” Mike

From planting to harvesting and everything in-between, regulations are facts of life in agriculture—as they are for every industry and all Americans.

Not all are bad. Regulations have made for a cleaner and safer environment for all Americans. Our food supply is safer because of regulations. The problem is overkill. Rules tend to proliferate like rabbits.

Wayne Crew’s Ten Thousand Commandments: An Annual Snapshot of the Federal Regulatory State—a survey of the cost and compliance burden imposed by federal regulations—shows the following:

By Dane and Robin Sanders

Today is another windy West Texas day, as the last 6 out of 7 have been.

If you have never had the pleasure of experiencing a West Texas windstorm, let us describe it for you. If you were to ask our two-year-old what color the sky is, he would accurately answer, “brown.” Yes, on windy days such as these, it is hard to find even a slight hint of the color blue in the long Texas skyline. Ladies, if you haven’t exfoliated your skin in a while, all you have to do is step outside and let Mother Nature take care of that for you, via sandblasting.