THE U.S. Department of Agriculture is commonly referred to as "the people's department." President Abraham Lincoln declared it as such in his final address to Congress, and in many ways, the moniker is still apt. Yet, the casual observer might think that USDA has become the federal government's public relations department in recent years. Case in point: the recent efforts by Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack to whitewash the Obama Administration's numerous forays into more heavily regulating agriculture and rural America.
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