This year the food policy landscape shifted for better and for worse. Here are the top ten food and farm stories of 2011, according to the Environmental Working Group (EWG).

1) The Secret Farm Bill–Dead!

Fortunately, the Congressional Super Committee failed in its effort to come up with a deficit-cutting plan, putting an end to a scheme that sought to use the process to enact a secret farm bill crafted behind closed doors. Leaked versions of the bill showed that industrial agriculture lobbyists and their allies in Congress were trying to protect the status quo once again to continue funneling billions of dollars to the same highly profitable mega farms that have fattened up on taxpayer-funded subsidies for decades. No surprise there, but there are plenty of lessons to keep in mind as the farm bill debate resumes in early 2012.

2) Goodbye to the Corn Ethanol Subsidy and Tariff

In a victory for environmentalists, taxpayer and anti-hunger groups, Congress will chop off two legs of the three-legged stool of wasteful ethanol supports. The tariff on foreign ethanol and the $6 billion Volumetric Ethanol Excise Tax Credit both expire on Dec. 31. Trying to put a brave face on the inevitable, corn ethanol lobbyists who were apoplectic about losing federal support just five months ago are now claiming they voluntarily gave it up. The main driver of highly polluting corn ethanol production, however, remains intact. That’s the federal Renewable Fuel Standard, which unwisely mandates the use of billions of gallons of the stuff.

3) A Disturbing View of Industrial Agriculture

EWG’s aerial survey of Iowa cornfields captured our worst fears about agricultural pollution. Farms are losing their irreplaceable topsoil up to 12 times faster than the government estimates. And this severe erosion and runoff isn’t limited to Iowa. Agricultural chemicals are fouling Americans’ water from the Dead Zone in the Gulf of Mexico to the Chesapeake Bayto Minnesota’s Lake Pepin.

4) Don’t Consumers Have the Right to Know What’s in their Food?

Corporate lobbyists pushing for genetically engineered products don’t want food labels, even though most consumers are begging for more information about what’s in their food. The Just Label It campaign was launched this year to give consumers a voice and urge the Food and Drug Administration to make GMO labeling mandatory. In contrast, the organic industry has no qualms about labeling its products.

5) The Produce Industry’s Highly Public Lobbying Campaign

Until this year, EWG had never before seen the produce industry take such a high-profile role in debates over pesticide policy and safety. Invariably, it was the pesticide industry’s trade association that took the lead. But when the U.S. Department of Agriculture unexpectedly delayed release of its annual analysis of pesticide residues, EWG discovered that conventional produce growers were putting intense pressure on the agency to downplay consumer concerns about pesticides and to discredit EWG’s Shopper’s Guide to Pesticides on Produce. We called attention to it, and in the end, USDA released its testing results, fortunately, without any spin.