As the first decade of the new century closes, we are looking back over the last 10 years to see how we have changed (if not improved!), and vegetable gardening and food are in the headlines.

J.M. Hirsch, food editor for the Associated Press, writes that you can sum up the changes in the American diet in three words: sushi at 7-Eleven.

And, the author writes, Walmart embraced organics and McDonalds pledged to study how to raise chickens in a more humane manner.

Grass-fed, local, sustainable and arugula were added to our food vocabulary, and watching people cook - from The Food Network to Julie and Julia - became a hugely popular form of entertainment.

We've come a long way from the ketchup-as-a-vegetable Reagan years and the no-broccoli Bush Sr. years, writes Hirsch, who blogs under the name Blunt Force Cooking.

Photo courtesy of H.J. Heinz Co.