Businessman Arrested in Pet Food Scandal

With the arrest by the Chinese government of a local businessman for allegedly contaminating pet food ingredients with the industrial chemical melamine, the current food safety scandal has taken another turn--from the assumption of accidental contamination to growing evidence of deliberate behavior, from contamination of pet food to possible contamination of human food.

Ever notice how a particular story--like the melamine scandal or the death of Anna Nicole Smith--will keep showing up in the news? Journalists call this a story with legs.

In this case, the melamine scandal continues to resonate because it taps a growing fear of food that has become a hallmark of our globalized age. There was a time when food couldn't travel far without spoiling. Now fresh fruit from South America can fill the plates of North America out of season and for little cost.

Eating fruit is, of course, a very good thing. I wouldn't want to have to depend on all my food coming from local farmers and ranchers.

And yet, we're growing increasingly concerned about the long distances our food has to travel before it gets on our plates. What do we really know about the food we eat? Is shipping all this food long distances contributing to global warming?

In a sense, the many pets that have died from melamine contamination have served as the canary in the coal mine--an early warning system of something that has gone wrong.