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Back in 2009, when President Obama chose Kathleen Merrigan as second in command at the US Department of Agriculture, celebration erupted in sustainable-food circles. Last Thursday afternoon, the USDA announced the imminent end of Merrigan's run as deputy secretary of ag with a terse note from USDA chief Tom Vilsack. It gave no reason for her departure, which is effective at the end of April. 

For generations, the message from the US Department of Agriculture to the nation's farmers could be summed up in the famous piece of advice offered by Ezra Taft Benson, President Dwight Eisenhower's USDA chief: "get big or get out." That's why Merrigan's tenure is so significant. Under her influence, the USDA suddenly began to urge consumers to " Know Your Farmer, Know Your Food," and made a concerted effort to marshal USDA resources to support local and regional food systems supplied by farms of varying scales: the opposite of the globalized, monolithic system envisioned by Benson an put into place with the consent of his successors.

Source: Mother Jones

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HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — Robert Burns, an organic farmer in eastern Connecticut, is candid in describing his business interest in state legislation requiring that genetically modified food be labeled.

“If you’re an organic producer now, you should get ready for an increase in sales,” said the grower of lettuce, mung beans, red winter wheat berries and other vegetables.

Consumer demand for labeling is rising and producers will have little choice but to comply, he said.

Many backers of similar legislation in more than a dozen states say their intent is to give consumers more information about what they’re eating.

Genetically modified food includes products altered to resist pesticides or improve nutritional content. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration says genetically modified foods pose no greater health risks than traditional foods, and opponents of labeling rules say packaging costs would rise for no particular reason because no health hazard has been found....

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Genetically Modified Organism is the most common usage. The acronyms GEO (Genetically Engineered Organism) or simply GM or GE are also used.  What does this mean? It means that we are living like in a movies about the distant future. This means that we now have a blue strawberries, oranges in apples, potato in corn(…). All the food looks like it’s painted and it stays fresh for a long time. All this we used to watch at the movies while today we eating that food! Soybeans are one of the world’s most genetically modified crops. Like it or not, genetically engineered seeds are sneaking into a lot of foods, often via corn, which can be turned in to a huge variety of foods and food-like substances. What worries me more is the fact that people are silent. Governments of all countries are poisoning the land and the seed while the people remain quiet. Whether in the food we eat has some sedative? Whether through the food they affect our brains? This seed is not healthy! There...

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