In the wake of poison pet food and its infiltration into the human food supply, there has emerged a hysteria, although it’s exact cause and danger eludes me. In recent weeks, numerous headlines and articles pointing to “The dangers of imported food” (The Week, June 22, 2007), usually correlating it with the millions and millions of annual food poisoning cases here, have appeared.
But why is the danger from imported food? Does not all food have the same potential for poisoning? Or is it that the food blessed by God because it grew up in the good ol’ US of A and sheltered in a barn with a US flag protect it from improper handling? Maybe it is the Made in the USA label on the food itself or the fact it was hauled around in a good ol’ boy truck making it “Ford tough” and, thereby, immune from evil.
Clearly, the evil here–like terrorism–isn’t only from abroad. Just consider how often US-sourced meat and poultry are banned from certain markets, how our pharmaceutical companies poison us daily, and how US spinach is as unclean as a cloven-footed animal.
As with many of these types of threats, I am less interested in the threat itself–although I have recently adjusted my diet–and more interested in what our perception of the threat means. Is the threat a result of US xenophobia? Probably; if it’s not white, watch out!–which is probably why pork has escaped scrutiny.
In a similar vein, are US-based companies contributing to the hysteria? While these companies may not have a xenophobic stripe–after all, they have a good friend who is a foreigner and employ many more–there is an obvious market opportunity that can be used to push out less expensive competitors and push up sales. In addition, might the organic or ‘buy local’ crowds be enjoying recent developments? Remember, it’s imported, not domestic, food that will wipe you out. And nothing organic could ever bring harm (ignore the fact that Mother Nature has provided plenty of poisons and predators).
On the flip side, might it be enemies of capitalism–lets call them traitorous ideologues–who seek to use the sickening effects of free markets, and global capitalism in particular, as an opportunity to free us. Who knew the proletariat would be led by a healthy diet?
And despite it all, the federal government, which is in charge of protecting the sustenance of the American Way, has avoided significant critique. But then again, the imported-food hysteria is probably the creation of dastardly big-government types who want to burden the taxpayers with more and more clumsy regulations.