By John Paul Dineen III

My family is in the business of agriculture, helping to feed the people of our state, nation and world. I farm and ranch full time on the Blacklands of North Central Texas.  My wife, Heather, and I and our four children call Ellis County home, where we farm 1,800 acres of dryland crops. We also have a small commercial cow-calf operation.

Texas Food Connection Week, Feb. 17 -23, is being celebrated across the Lone Star State. I would like to talk with you about how we grow that food and the steps we take to ensure that food is safe, wholesome and nutritious.

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.”

By Mike Barnett

With all the hoopla over genetically-modified Tifton-85 bermuda grass killing cows in Texas last week—which by the way was totally false, because there is no such thing as genetically-modified Tifton-85 bermuda grass—you might have missed some important news from the American Medical Association (AMA) regarding bioengineered food.

That august body of physicians said in a policy statement, adopted at their annual meeting in Chicago, that there is no need to label foods containing genetically modified ingredients.

That jives nicely with my reasoning that bioengineered food and food that uses conventionally bred crops are pretty much one and the same.

Dear Farmer,

As a loyal customer, I am grateful for you and the other Texas farmers and ranchers who grow the fruits, vegetables, meat and other products that I buy and serve to my family. Each week, I know the shelves at my local grocery store will be stocked with a large variety of products with plenty of price, flavor and nutrition choices.

By Mike Barnett

If I were a betting man, I’d wager that many of the foods that I love—salad dressing, bread, candy, ice cream, cereal and many others—contain oil or products made from genetically modified corn.  So, if anti-GMO (genetically modified organism) activists logic holds true, I should have cobs for ears. Their logic fails because I don’t have to shuck my ears to clean them with a Q-tip.

Silly? Yes. But no more ridiculous  than the anti-GMO fanatic nonsense about Frankenfoods and biotech mutants in our food supply.  It’s an issue that simmers quietly in the backs of consumers’ minds but one that is about to come full boil if a group in California has their way.