President Bush popularized the phrase “addicted to foreign oil” in his State of the Union speech a few years ago. It was and still is an accurate description of our energy policy.

Each year the U.S. imports billions of dollars in oil from other nations. Efforts to produce our own renewable fuel or drill for our own oil deposits have been met with controversy.

While we argue and bicker about how we should break our imported petroleum habit, forces are quietly at work that could lead to the next big foreign addiction: food. Imagine if the price of food started acting like the price of gasoline.

A mere 5 percent increase in retail food prices this past year produced some deafening whining from consumers and boisterous hand wringing from the media.

What would happen if we saw double-digit price jumps in grocery prices or actual food shortages?

The tip of the iceberg has been seen on the front page in recent weeks as imported food products from China have been recalled due to contamination. Headlines screamed that Oreo cookies, M&Ms and Snickers candy may have been produced with contaminated milk products from China.

British chocolate maker Cadbury was forced to recall chocolate products from several countries because of the allegation that tainted Chinese milk was used. The manufacturers are denying the charges, but U.S. consumers are nervous.

When you start messing with our cookies and chocolate, things can get ugly. Most consumers would be a lot more nervous if they realized just how much of their food is grown or manufactured in other nations. There is the perception that foreign food is not as good, safe or as high quality as U.S. produced food. This is not true. Many food items grown or produced in other nations are equal to or, in some cases, superior to U.S. products.

There are, however, those exceptions, and those are the ones that make the headlines. The basic reason we now have a Country of Origin Labeling law is because some believe this will give a competitive advantage to U.S. producers.

There is nothing wrong with most imported food products and nothing wrong with having a good mix of imported products in our food supply. What is wrong is farming the majority of U.S. food production off-shore and making our country dependent on other nations to produce our food supply?

That is just what will happen if animal rights and environmental activists are successful with their anti-agriculture agenda. Obsessive regulations, excessively restrictive zoning regulations, non-science-based restrictions on animal care, draconian tax laws on land transfers and investment, expensive labeling and inspection procedures, and limits on marketing and distribution will all serve to drive food production out of this nation.

Activist groups and special interests have used all of the above in recent years to make food production and processing more expensive and complicated.

I am not suggesting we have a food supply that is unsafe or harmful to the environment. But just as we let excessive regulations and emotional hysteria halt the building of oil refineries and nuclear power plants in this country and lead to our energy crisis, and just as we allowed lack of oversight produce the current credit crisis, not protecting our agricultural production system will lead to the next crisis: food.

In addition to some common sense domestic policies, we need trade policies that promote growth in agriculture and promote food safety. Trade agreements, which liberals and labor unions are so quick to put down, promote fair trade on food products and establish phytosanitary protocols that actually force other nations to improve their food safety standards.

So, as our leaders in Washington head home after successfully solving the credit crisis, let’s remind them that, when they return to work, they should get busy preventing the next big crisis, a food crisis.

Let’s also remind consumers that when they call for more burdensome control of the food production system, they drive more of that food production out of the United States.

The views and opinions expressed in this column are those of the author and not necessarily those of Farm World. Readers with questions or comments for Gary Truitt may write to him in care of this publication.