The USDA/FDA are not out of control we use science based technology in assuring Food Safety. But it's a great big job with so many food producers, growers, and consumers and each must do their part in the Food Supply Chain.

Glad the USDA is using new media to get information out to the public

This is a great use of New Media. We need other USDA agencies below the Department to start using these technologies too.

It's funny that USDA is saying, "We want to do something, and we want you to tell us what to do and how." That's not very visionary leadership, although it IS thankfully inclusive participatory government. Here are a few ideas.
1. USDA can assign responsibility for KYFKYF to one of its specific agencies. Link the success of some appointed official to the success of this program.
2. Country Of Origin Labeling (COOL) regulations may be extended to indicate US STATE of origin. We can also make this labeling more prominent. Consumers need to know, so they can choose.
3. We currently spend US tax dollars subsidizing agriculture, which is good, because our food security must NOT be left for sale in a capitalist free market. If local food is an important part of agriculture, the USDA should subsidize this segment of the industry. We should use the National School Lunch Program (NSLP) as a precedent, example, and policy marketing tool.

My partner and I were upper-middle-class professionals, who got sick of/from the Global Economy and how it is destroying the planet and the health and well-being of most people--i.e. those of us who are not billionaires, but especially the residents of the Global South. We decided to "disconnect" from it to the extent possible. In 2005, we started our own five-acre farm, and developed it in as green a way as possible, to feed ourselves and the local community and share information on how to live sustainably in both rural and urban settings. Slowly the farm is moving toward real, total sustainability.

Remember the slogan from the sixties, What if they gave a war and nobody came? We need to add to it, What if they gave a Global Economy and nobody came? They can't be reined in by anyone--Obama was our best hope politically, and they are just too big, too entrenched, too powerful. WE have to create a better society right along side this dysfunctional one!

A case in point: Nursing Homes have notorious food issues; when I asked the SNF staff at my mother's health conference last week why they couldn't buy from local organic farmers, which abound in Mendocino County, CA, they said their hands were tied by Title 22 and OBRA regulations. If the USDA really wants to help small sustainable farmers, promote regional food production, and ensure global food security, they should also promote small, local sustainable farms to feed local institutions, public and private: schools, senior facilities, nursing homes, government offices, etc. Last but not least, the USDA should nail Big Ag and Food Processing Giants like Cargill, Monsanto, and Archer Daniel Midlands for their outrageous abuses and end their tyranny over Global Food Production.

We agree with all who have commented that the USDA's one-size-fits-all rules geared to accommodate Big Ag cannot possibly engender sustainability when it comes to food and farming, let alone help the small farmer, because big monoculture farms and conventional agriculture are simply not sustainable. If people really know their farms and farmers, there is accountability right there--by witness, by reputation, by word-of-mouth: There is no need for over-regulation.

It looks like I have to add our comments in segments--here goes:

Greetings from Chalice Farm, Sebastopol, CA. We have read all the comments, and Brava, Good Farmers and Good Consumers, for your hard work, high standards, and conscience! The "Know Your Farmer" Initiative sounds fabulous, but if Tom Vilsack is really an ex-Monsanto executive, then his credibility just went down the YouTube. I have been following these corporations for a long time--over ten years--and along with Cargill and ADM, Monsanto is Blind Greed on Steroids, if not evil incarnate. (Just Google any of them for their latest outrageous food scandal--all they are missing is the mask and the gun, as my mother used to say.)

This program keeps rejecting my comment without explanation.

The usda and the fda are out of control and need to listen to what the people want-good healthy food!