San Francisco Department of Agriculture officer cannot read "Manufactured in USA"

When we flew back to San Francisco from a recent trip to Hong Kong, we had the misfortune of being selected for x-ray screening by the Department of Agriculture. It was annoying enough to see the less-than-courteous officers (none of whom seemed to speak comprehensible English) just stood there arms crossed while we struggled to load our heavy luggage onto the conveyor belt; but the truly irritating and puzzling experience was yet to come...

The screener pointed out that one of our four bags had a can inside and had to be hand-searched. A Filipino-American officer asked me whether I had a can in the flagged duffel bag and I said no. Then, he proceeded to opening my bag and removing things. He was unable to find any can but did focus his attention on something else: several bags of cat treats (which we bought from Walmart to give to my wife's relatives, but since we bought too many bags, we decided to bring some back to San Francisco with us).

Everything seemed normal, until he had trouble finding out on the package where the bag of cat treats was made. Seriously, he spent a long, long minute trying to figure that one out. I could see clearly that he was struggling. Finally, he asked two other colleagues, one of whom pointed out to him the telltale signs that the product was made in the U.S. -

1. "Manufactured in XXXX XXXX XXXX, USA"
2. "Distributed by MasterfoodsUSA"

I guessed he was pretty upset and embarrassed after that, as he did not say a word and went on to search someone else's bag. I was left to re-pack all the stuff spread out on the "search area", not knowing whether to feel mad or amused.

Seeing discourteous officers upon arrival is a bad enough first impression for foreign tourists (and even for returning Americans). Having a Department of Agriculture officer who cannot read the English label off a package reflects even more poorly on the nation. If an officer has that much difficulty reading the package label written in English, how is anyone to have any confidence that he knows or understands the complicated government regulations (written in English, presumably) on imported agricultural goods? And these are the people enforcing the laws?

As we waited for our ride home, we considered ourselves lucky that the cat treats were made in the U.S. If they were made somewhere else (and much cat food is made in Thailand or Europe), I don't know how I would prove to DoA that they were bought in the U.S.