As teachers, we can make kids do almost anything we want. They’re smaller than us. We have all kinds of power over them, from getting them in trouble at home to taking away the things that make school tolerable, like going outside for recess or sitting with their friends in class.

In the late 1960s, Shreveport was brimming with independent geologists who had ideas on how to get the oil and gas from the ground; they just didn’t have the staff and operating knowledge to operate themselves. That’s where L.R. “Bob” Brammer Jr. came in.

A farm? Yes. A farm. An indoor farm. Cotton Street Farms – a top-five finalist last year and an entry in this year’s Louisiana Start Up Prize competition – is the brainchild of Michael Billings, a 35-year-old graduate of Caddo Magnet High School. Billings has bought a vacant building at 406 Cotton St.