Maybe the news left you yawning over your nutritious breakfast, but it shouldn’t. Every American has a stake in the fact that the United States Department of Agriculture has announced the closing of nearly 260 offices, labs and other facilities.The coming months will see a testing of our uneasy love-hate relationship with the USDA. We hate bureaucracies, waste and overregulation – but we love our benefits and food safety programs.In these tough economic times, the USDA’s Blueprint For Stronger Service calls for trimming the fat.My day job involves working at a farmers’ cooperative store; but almost everyone knows that the USDA oversees a wide array of programs, including emergency aid to farmers, grants for rural development and food assistance programs for the poor. You may be unaware of some of the other services that face getting the old heave-ho: sensitivity training for scarecrows; scrutiny of the dating practices of “extra-virgin” olive oil; helping former farmers with “summer rain falling on a tin roof” withdrawal; transportation assistance so this little piggy doesn’t have to cry “wee wee wee” all the way home…Also endangered: the military’s contingency plan for blocking the Straits of Des Moines and stopping the flow of corn to Iran.