Forming a sort-of "food safety alliance," the USDA, Department of Health and Human Services, the Centers for Disease Control and the Ad Council joined forces to launch a campaign titled "Food Safe Families" targeted at helping Americans reduce the risk of foodborne illness.

USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack is being urged by the nation's top physicians, scientists and the Environmental Working Group (EWG) to release overdue data on pesticide levels for fruits and vegetables tested in 2010.

A genetically modified (GM) corn variety developed exclusively for ethanol use in fuel was approved last week by Agriculture Secretary, Tom Vilsack, amidst a chorus of food manufacturers concerned the biotech corn will contaminate non-GMO crops.

In a surprising move, three well known organic brands gave a supportive nod to what they're calling "the conditional deregulation" of genetically modified (GM) alfalfa. The nation's first certified organic retail chain, Whole Foods—who has a storewide policy banning the sale of GM foods—along with the largest organic yogurt brand, Stonyfield Yogurt, and Organic Valley, the largest co-op of organic meat, egg and dairy farmers issued their formal support in lifting restrictions on growing GM alfalfa.

Go to the supermarket and start pulling products off the shelves and you'll see everything has nutrition labels, even water! And now, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) says starting in 2010, nutrition labels will be mandatory on many popular cuts of meat and poultry too.

Tom Vilsack, the USDA Agriculture Secretary, is urging a compromise between parties rooted in an argument over genetically modified foods. In a letter he sent to both those on the pro side of GMO and those vehemently anti-GMO, he called for cooperation and compromise.

Currently he serves on the House of Appropriations Agriculture Subcommittee and co-chairs the Congressional Organic Caucus, a group formed to promote organic agriculture. Recently, The New York Times Green Inc. blog interviewed him about organics and U.S. food safety. Here’s a bit:

Question: How did you first get interested in organic agriculture?

Answer: When I was in the California legislature in the ’80s, the organic growers, who were sort of the small hippie farmers in those days, brought it to my attention that there were no regulations on organic labeling. In essence, anybody could just grow a thing any way they wanted and put “organic” on it. So I carried the legislation creating the California organic act.
Question

Question: Some environmentalists and others have called for the creation of a national Sustainable Agriculture Practice Standard that would go beyond organic certification. Do we need a better standard to measure how sustainable our food is?

Answer: It’s a lofty goal, but it seems on the academic side of any issue you need to have those lofty goals and you need some advocacy for it. Our area is, frankly, one that would be very interested. To make agriculture sustainable, the grower has got to be able to make a profit. There are a lot of market functions that I think prevent us from really becoming sustainable until we become, as a consuming society, more demanding that our food be fresh and nutritious and grown using practices that are not injurious to the environment.

Other government officials are making headways into organics, like Secretary of the U.S. Department of Agriculture Tom Vilsack who has been crusading for reform in America’s farming and new Deputy Secretary of Agriculture Kathleen Merrigan and her passion for organic farming methods and environmental compassion.