I have cows; I have butcher paper and I know how to kill, hang, cut & wrap. Same for the venison (thanks grandma! thanks mom! who’d of thunk your daughter with such advanced degrees would come full circle?). I am going to find a way to make chickens work without commercial feed. I will be planting a garden again, though in the high desert the season is short and the wildlife challenging. I will be picking fruits myself and freezing/otherwise processing it for winter. If I can’t find it locally or can’t confirm it is both grown/raised here AND done so in a manner that is safe (yes, there are americans who run the same damn scams the chinese do for profit), then it won’t be a part of my diet. I have done all of this before, and it is occuring to me that there is no reason why I can’t resume doing so (okay, getting older. But not that old).

What I am going to do to manage my risk is simply not practical for most people. And all it will do is lesson my risk, certainly in this day and age it will never eliminate it. But I will do as much as I can, and then just not worry about what I cannot change. I think to a lessor extent, everyone can try to manage risk to some degree or another - organic. Only buying from people you have reason to know you can trust. Growing something in your own backyard, so that not everything you eat comes from the god-knows-where via your grocery store. No more junk food - no more convenience foods. At all.

I will never find a way to change human nature, and this is just what humans do. Pick up any history book, or just sit back and turn on the history or military or the documentary channel. This isn’t the norm just here - this is the “norm” over recorded history. Some good periods; some dark periods. But there isn’t and never will be some magical time when we don’t have to look out for ourselves, when we can equally trust everyone and everything - only times when things appear so smooth on the surface, that we pretend that we can do so. I too chose to be lulled into assuming that trust really didn’t need to be earned. Reality check provided care of this food fiasco.

KASCO(R) (available in pet specialty stores nationwide)
— KASCO(R) Chunks (Dry Dog Food)
— KASCO(R) Hi Energy (Dry Dog Food)
— KASCO(R) Maintenance (Dry Dog Food)
— KASCO(R) Mealettes (Dry Dog Food)
— KASCO(R) Mini Chunks (Dry Dog Food)
— KASCO(R) Puppy (Dry Dog Food)
— KASCO(R) Cat (Dry Cat Food)

ST. CHARLES, Mo., May 11 /PRNewswire/ — Royal Canin USA is announcing today the voluntary nationwide recall of eight Sensible Choice dry dog food products and seven Kasco dry dog and cat food products.

i totally agree. can’t tell you how much time i’ve spent to make sure that my pets and i have safe food, etc. freakin’ insane, but can’t trust anything right now :(

Call me lazy but I think it is a very sad state of affaire when we have to question and research each item we buy in order to have peace of mind iether for our pets or our family.. All government exists by the grace of us taxpayers. It is totally unacceptable that we have to spent our valuable time to play Sherlock Holmes. The labeling should be sufficient to make a decision and what to buy or not to buy. The government should not be our enemy that we distrust to the inch degree. We have grown to accept this as norm over the years. Really, really very sad.

It may require a change in eating habits. I personally don’t eat many process foods, so I have been able to find sources for pretty much everything local/state. For the few items I can’t, I’m researching and still finding it possible for much of it to at least be from the US and certified organic. Supplements are the hardest, but still doable from organic whole food sources at least.

Except they cut our phones off after our question. It’s amazing he got to ask as much as he did.

One of my senators still thinks that only 16 pets have died. Despite the large amount of contaminated products recalled, it is still viewed as a small problem by those in power.