"In Nevada, the chief executive of an import company examines the lawsuit that just hit him, wondering how much it will cost to ensure that his next purchases of pet food ingredients are free of industrial poisons.
In Kansas, wheat growers wonder how China usurped the once-bustling market in gluten, a protein-rich byproduct of those amber waves of grain that once symbolized America's bounty.
And at a park in Washington, the owner of a soft-coated terrier says that after learning the food he had been giving his beloved Checkers for the past six years was on the recall list, he will never again buy pet food brands with foreign ingredients."
How did we get in this mess? Simple: We believed in a free-market free lunch.
We believed we could import food (and everything else) from overseas without having to pay for a robust and fully staffed FDA. We thought we could get cheaper ingredients from the other side of the world than we could from the other side of the state.
The reality, of course, is that there is no free lunch. What appeared to be free was simply a cost charged to the Cosmic Karma credit card. And now (sadly) the bill is due in full.
Too bad the dog's have to pay. Thank God it's not our children.
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