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The U.S. Department of Agriculture today called out the Drudge Report for its misleading criticism of federal stimulus spending -- clarifying that the government did not spend $1,191,200 for one two-pound ham.

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack released a statement in response to postings on Drudge. Several government contracts funded through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act were linked to on the site with headlines such as, "Awarded: $1,191,200 for '2 pound frozen ham sliced.'"

"Press reports suggesting that the Recovery Act spent $1.191 million to buy '2 pounds of ham' are wrong," Vilsack said in the statement. He explained the description of "2 pound frozen ham sliced" referred to the packaging size and that the USDA in fact purchased 760,000 pounds of ham for $1.191 million, at a cost of approximately $1.50 per pound. The food is being distributed to food banks, soup kitchens and other local organizations that assist the needy, via the state-run Emergency Food Assistance Program.

"This program will help reduce hunger of those hardest hit by the current economic recession," Vilsack said.

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On the 200th anniversary of Lincoln’s birth earlier this month, the Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack and his staff at the department’s Washington headquarters broke out its shovels and “broke pavement” on a garden.

Dubbed The People’s Garden, the project seems slated to simply replace a lot of unnecessary pavement with grass. But it is nonetheless a symbolic nod to the eat-local movement, which encourages community gardens in urban areas.

Will the Obamas be following suit? Vilsack adviser Neil Hamilton, the chair and director of the Agricultural Law Center at Drake University Law School in Iowa, says yes.

“I believe that by this summer there will be a garden – another garden, a vegetable garden – on the White House lawn,” Hamilton said at a weekend legal seminar at Yale University.

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