We were both riding in the back seat of the car, on our way to a concert. We were talking back and forth about minutia, and then "J" turned to me and said. "You'll never guess who called me today.""Who," I responded."Someone from the USDA.""The USDA?" My mind started to whirl. I have always associated the U.S. Department of Agriculture with those little labels you see on milk, poultry and beef products. I knew intellectually that they encompassed a much larger role than just that, like farming and food subsidies and agricultural research and what not, but it was all...