By Gene Hall

Organic. Conventional. Natural. Modern. Local. Grassfed. Grainfed. The choices are endless for consumers when it comes to food and the farmers and ranchers who grow it.

Confusion often reigns as some with evangelical zeal turn up their noses at how you like to eat. Scare tactics are used by everyone from multi-billion-dollar corporations like Chipotle, fond of slamming modern agriculture in their marketing efforts, to animal rights groups like the Humane Society of the United States with their vegan agenda, to scores of individuals who use the Internet as a platform to advance some flavor of the month cause.

Gene Hall is celebrating the holidays with his family. This blog originally ran on Jan. 21, 2010.

By Gene Hall

Things have been lively on the blog for the past few posts—a lot of intense discussion about policy. I’m going to lighten things up a little bit today. Everyone who grew up on a farm has a story about their favorite farm animal—a cow dog, a horse; maybe even a barn cat. Mine is a horse we called Smokey. What a horse he was.

By Mike Barnett

Blessed rains fell over much of the state this week, but Texas is still in hot water in terms of drought and water resources.

Rains statewide—which ranged from a trace up to 6-8 inches in parts of Central and West Central Texas—were a short-term fix for Texas farmers and ranchers.  Hot temperatures are forecast to return this week, and two to three weeks without rain could pretty much put us back where we started.

By Gene Hall

July 4^th—the 237^th birthday of our nation this week–will be quite a party across Texas and the nation. They all are.

As Americans, we know how to celebrate and the birth of our republic is certainly worth celebrating. I mean, a noisy birthday with fireworks is really something. If it is not also celebrated with common sense and good manners, then it can be a very bad day for someone.

By Chandler Bowers

As I am top dressing wheat with fertilizer and herbicide, I am reminded of the sacrifices that we all must make to keep the world revolving for generations to come.

There are lots of sacrifices made by farm families in order to keep their businesses profitable. Long hours, seasonal vacations, the unpredictability of Mother Nature—these are just a few of the challenges that we face. And that’s just the beginning of the “lessons learned at the end of a dirt road.”

So, if these lessons are so great, why would young people come back to farm and ranch?