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Please do not let this become a diatribe against either China or expanding 
US trade policies.  First, a political discussion belongs on a political 
forum, not an Endurance forum and second, just like in our AERC preamble 
where we place the responsibility for the well being of our horses squarely 
on their riders, we should likewise not even REMOTELY suggest that a nation 
thousands of miles away or a trade policy that has expanded the 
availability of goods and services to American citizens of every economic 
strata is responsible here AND NOT THE COMPANY THAT MANUFACTURED THE FOOD.

Especially if this disaster turns out to be as simple as suggested this 
morning, that the wheat used in the products was from China and that said 
wheat had been treated with aminopterin (a rat poison ?), an apparently 
legal and acceptable practice in China, then the responsibility here is 
CLEARLY on Menu Foods.  It is THEIR responsibility to KNOW the regulations 
that exist governing the processing of foodstuffs in EVERY country from 
whom they obtain ingredients for ALL the food products they manufacture. 
Knowing what may be permissible in that other country, it is then THEIR 
responsibility to first ORDER only those ingredients that meet US standards 
and not just the standards of the other country an then to FOLLOW UP by 
having IN PLACE a testing regime to verify that they have indeed been sold 
what they paid for.  To bury their heads in the proverbial sand, trusting 
that an emerging country's bureaucrats and/or business executives will 
never screw up and always do the right thing, is the height of 
irresponsibility.

Again, if the insecticide story is true, the responsibility for this 
disaster falls ENTIRELY on the shoulders of those at Menu Foods who failed 
to protect the integrity of their products.  Someone earlier made a remark 
about US wheat being too expensive.  Well, if you make a corporate decision 
to eschew an expensive local product in favor of a cheaper, 3rd World 
lookalike, you know or should know that the cheaper product cannot be 
exactly the same as the expensive one.  You KNOW that one of the reasons it 
is cheaper is that it is not subject to all the controls in place for the 
local product and that YOUR COMPANY needs to TEST THE CHEAPER PRODUCT 
ACCORDINGLY.  Such testing will add to the cost of the ingredients perhaps 
so much so that cheaper turns out to be not cheaper but that again is a 
CORPORATE decision.  It is no different than when Cosco has recalled cribs 
assembled in a foreign country.  It is Cosco, not Korea or China, that is 
responsible for being sure that the products sold under their label meet US 
health and safety standards.  It is not the obtaining or use of a cheaper 
product that is wrong.  What is wrong is turning a blind eye to any 
possibility that the cheaper product is also inferior, possibly to the 
point of being dangerously inferior.

And THAT is the responsibility of the American manufacturer, or in this 
case the Canadian company, NOT the responsibility of either the US 
Government or any foreign country of origin.


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