Since globalization, China is quickly moving to the forefront as the manufacturing capitol of the world.  For decades, China’s government has violated human rights.  I am not political, but it’s a well known fact.  As many people lost their beloved pets to needless contamination, few of us thought beyond the current crisis. 
A few weeks after the pet food recall, children’s toys (also manufactured in China) were being recalled for lead poisoning.  According to the report I watched, there was nothing we could do.  Pollution controls and manufacturing standards in China and many other countries are typically lower than ours.  Last year, I read an environmental report that said the mercury poisoning of fish in northern Minnesota was primarily caused by Chinese pollutants. 

We’ve stood by too long and watched jobs go overseas because the playing field is unequal.  With the loss of manufacturing and call center jobs, we’ve seen a disappearance of the middle class and experienced a frustrating loss of service and accountability.  Sure, the price of retail goods is lower, but do we really need more shirts or shoes?  Of course businesses can produce products cheaper in other countries and create larger stock portfolios.  But in exchange, we as a world are allowing more pollution, less regulation, and less safety for workers.  Is this the legacy we wish to leave behind?  

Since we cannot regulate other countries, we need to urge our Congressmen and Senators regulate imports.  Any country we buy from should be held to the same standards of safety, quality and pollution controls as our country.  By doing this we will not only help America and equal the playing field, but it will help workers in other countries who are being exploited, and it will help protect wildlife and the environment. 

And here in American, we can continue to look for and support reduction of oil dependency by using several systems already in place; urban bike trails, mass transit, wind and solar power.