John Stewart, snake-bit Creekstone Farms CEO and founder. Even though he headed up one of the most technologically advanced plants in North America, he couldn’t seem to catch a break on 2006. He made the first shipment of beef to Korea in 3 years only to see it refused. His export business maybe mortally wounded by BSE, he wanted to test every animal that trotted through his plant for the disease, a reasonable free market response to a scientifically unreasonable demand by his Japanese customers. The USDA, quoting an obscure century old regulation, impolitely told John the beef industry wasn’t operating in a free market. In the boldest move of his long career, he said, “Damn the political torpedoes, full speed ahead! I’ll sue the government!” The third arm of American politics will soon decide.