Her name was not Connie, but I’ll call her that. The company she worked for was not Cargill, but I’ll say it was. The first time I saw her was at our kitchen table, a red folder of pamphlets and fact sheets in front of her.

In March of 2011, at 0200 hours (2 a.m.), I stood at a forward operating base near Mosul, Iraq, with about two dozen soldiers. We lined up, adjusted our Kevlar vests and helmets, our fragmentary eye protection and noise headsets, and in the flurry of dust, the womp-womp of rotors and the darkness of night, we boarded a CH-47 Chinook helicopter.

Americans talk skinny but eat fat. No matter that First Lady Michelle Obama has been on a crusade for a year and a half to slim down the country. Never mind that some restaurants have started listing calories on their menus. Forget even that we keep saying we want to eat healthy. When Americans eat out, we order burgers and fries anyway. "If I wanted something healthy, I would not even stop in at McDonald's," says Jonathan Ryfiak, 24, a New York trapeze instructor who watches his diet at home but orders comfort foods like chicken nuggets and fries when he hits a fast-food joint.

On Sept. 8, the House Agriculture Committee’s Subcommittee on Livestock, Dairy and Poultry held an audit hearing to examine U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) dairy programs. This is the 10th hearing in the series on farm policy that is designed to provide oversight of current spending to ensure programs are delivered effectively. Current dairy programs include the Dairy Product Price Support Program (DPPSP), Milk Income Loss Contract (MILC) Program, Dairy Export Incentive Program (DEIP), Livestock Gross Margin Insurance for Dairy (LGM-Dairy), and Federal Milk Marketing Orders (FMMOs).

First, I am a Braves fan. I’ve written of my devotion to Atlanta’s major league baseball team before. (Click here to read my 2009 editorial "Recharged by the Tomahawk Chop.")

He walked towards me with his hand out and fingers spread as wide as they go. My hand was wet with dirt and sweat. I was going to wipe it on my jeans, but he grabbed it first. “I’m here for the day,” he said. “Just a place to come down to every once in a while, get away from the hustle and bustle of the city.”

In the nearly 20 years of writing this column, I often have written about science and art: what they are to me and how we might describe their role in our public space. For instance, I have written that science is a methodological approach of testing ideas or premises. We start with little knowledge and use inductive reasoning and empirical evidence to arrive at understanding.

Editor’s note: The author submitted this opinion piece after original publication in Farm and Dairy and subsequent compliments for “sticking out” his neck. All-natural eggs. Naturally raised chickens. Natural tofu. If “natural” is so good, then why doesn’t Ford claim a natural pickup, or Apple an all-natural iPhone? Maybe it’s because there is nothing natural about a Ford pickup or an iPhone; yet they are amongst some of the best things ever made for humankind (although some Chevy owners might disagree with the Ford pickup claim … ).