The Pickens Plan is a trojan horse, and yesterday, warriors hidden inside came pouring out.  Pickens revealed his plan for the government to grant him the power of eminent domain, government subsidies for power transmission lines, and power to control those lines (as well as water pipelines) from his land in the Texas Panhandle to Dallas/Fort Worth.  The Pickens Plan is being sold as a common sense effort to shift toward wind and solar power, but it includes a bold attempt to gain control over the market for alternative energy sources. 

Today, the United States Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals filed an opinion of great importance.  It may, at long last, give farmers protetection from Pilgrim's Pride, Tyson Food, and other meatpackers that dominate the livestock markets.  For decades, farmers have been denied this protection under the Packers and Stockyards Act ("PSA").  The opinion in Wheeler v. Pilgrim's Pride Corp,  Case No. 07-40651 (5th Cir.) may change that.  

Rural Oklahoma today looks much different than it did when I was growing up there in the late 70's and early 80's. Then it was a community of farmers -- small businessmen who knew how to manage the naturally variable process of growing things.  Most of them are gone now and their kids moved away.  The ones who still farm do so in a way that is hardly recognizable.  No one seems to see any future in it, but I see a huge opportunity.    

The U.S. Constitution was written by and for independent farmers who knew how to manage the naturally variable process of growing things.  Industrialization of agriculture replaced most U.S. farmers with low-skill, low-wage laborers and top-down corporate/government management.  Unfortunately, neither the laborers nor the managers know how to farm.  They are unprepared to respond to changes in the climate, energy markets and food markets which have all become very variable.  We need people who are skilled at managing the naturally variable process of growing things.  We need farmers.  And we need them now.