By Gene Hall

In my more cynical moments, I suspect that the great confusion and controversy surrounding agriculture today is on purpose.

In this mindset, I can easily conclude that those organizations that survive by demonizing modern agriculture manipulate the language and the labels to suit their own purposes. In this way, passions are inflamed. Money is raised. A public is misled. Calling you “Big Ag” could mean “Big Bucks” for me even though all I’ve contributed to the debate are a couple of politically charged words.

By Gene Hall
Last Saturday, I crossed an item off my “bucket list.” I attended the Grand Ole Opry. Seeing it in the current Opry House would have been cool, but, even better, I saw the show during the winter run in the old Ryman Auditorium, once called “the high church of country music.”

The Opry is special and can be appreciated by those who enjoy any musical taste. It is a reflection of where we’ve been as a nation and perhaps where we’re going. It’s indelibly woven into the American fabric.

The following post is a reprint of The Ag Agenda written by Bob Stallman, president of the American Farm Bureau Federation.

The New Year is upon us, which means many of you have probably made a New Year’s resolution or two. The funny thing about resolutions is that they are easier to make than to keep (I speak from experience). Come January 7, that piece of cheesecake typically wins out, while the elliptical machine is already starting to gather dust.

By Mike Barnett

A blast of cool greeted me as I stepped outside Sunday morning, a welcome respite from a week of 100-degree temperatures last week. Does that mean fall has arrived? Hardly. I reckon we’ll face more hot weather.

That’s the thing about Texas . We take a lot of ribbing because we don’t have distinct weather changes like our northern cousins. It may be 95 degrees in February in the Lone Star State. Spring can turn to summer in April. Mild temperatures—like last year—make you wonder what winter is. And in the fall, we don’t have the wholesale changing of the leaves as those further north enjoy. What little color we do have may show up after Thanksgiving.

By Gene Hall

One of my favorite writers is Peggy Noonan, once a speechwriter for Ronald Reagan, now columnist for the Wall Street Journal. She recently wrote a piece called “A Nation that Believes Nothing.” Part of it is too political for our purposes, so I won’t link to it. The piece is notable, and sad, for the premise that we are citizens who do not trust our institutions, or each other. It’s not that we don’t believe “in” anything. It’s that we don’t believe people in authority. True, some have earned our mistrust, but we always overreact.