A U.S. Air Force C-17 cargo plane flew from Germany to Indianapolis on Sunday carrying not troops nor military equipment, but a load of European-made formula for infants and toddlers. It was a mercy mission to heal a self-inflicted wound.

America is struggling to feed its babies.

Shortages of formula, a periodic nuisance during the pandemic, became acute in February, when Abbott Laboratories recalled Similac and other brands made at its factory in Sturgis, Michigan, after four infants developed serious bacterial infections.

The crisis has put a spotlight on the warped market for a crucial infant foodstuff. Shortages are expected to continue for weeks, bedeviling caregivers, rattling Chicago-area corporate giant Abbott and costing President Joe Biden more points off his dismal approval rating. We’re hopeful the embarrassment of having failed some of our country’s most vulnerable citizens will bring about necessary changes.

Robert Ford, chief executive of Abbott, recently published an apology in The Washington Post. We were relieved to finally see the CEO pay attention to this important local employer’s reputation, however belatedly. Abbott needs to keep the message coming that its products are safe and it’s taking action to relieve the shortages, assuming it can live up to those and other commitments that Ford made in his mea culpa.

Ford is not the leading villain in this crisis. The wanted poster really should feature a faceless bureaucrat. The current shortage has less to do with the immediate problems at Abbott’s factory and more with the over-the-top regulation and centralized planning that govern the U.S. market for infant formula.

For starters, government trustbusters over the years have allowed excessive market concentration, leaving Abbott and a couple other companies with a huge domestic market share. Compounding that problem is overconcentration on the other side of the ledger: The Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children — better known as the WIC nutrition program for low-income families — is the biggest buyer of infant formula, and federal rules require each state to award all its WIC business to a single manufacturer. The goal of this market manipulation is to secure a low price, but obviously competition is limited when only a few big vendors vie in winner-take-all fashion for a few massive orders.

Trade protectionism also has hurt competition, as capable vendors from Europe and elsewhere have been blocked from the U.S. market by tariffs as high as 17.5%, on top of nit-picky rules about ingredients and labeling that do more to promote political interests and discourage competition than protect babies. It’s appalling to think of the cost and effort required for the Air Force to bring in perfectly safe formula manufactured by Swiss-based Nestle that would otherwise be barred from entering the country. It’s similarly appalling to subject baby formula ingredients to the overused Defense Production Act, a step the Biden administration has taken, evidently to show it’s doing “something” even if that something isn’t likely to amount to much.

Given the government meddling in this industry, it’s mystifying how sluggishly the Food and Drug Administration responded at the key moment in September 2021, when state-level health authorities said they had traced an infant’s infection back to the Abbott plant in Michigan. The agency inspected the facility and found unsanitary conditions. Between September and December, it received additional reports of infections and subsequent inspections noted more contamination problems at the Sturgis facility. A whistleblower complaint alleging violations languished at the FDA for months until someone woke up and alerted the agency’s head of food safety.

During this long stretch of dithering, the agency raised no public alarm and waited until Feb. 17 for Abbott to voluntarily recall its formula, a step that kicked off the shortage in earnest. Abbott has said that testing determined its products were not responsible for the four reported illnesses in children, and it’s possible a wiser course for the FDA would have been to allow the plant to keep operating but carefully test its inputs and outputs. Wasn’t to be.

Instead, Abbott shut the plant and entered into a 33-page consent decree with the FDA, agreeing to a long list of demands before the Sturgis facility could return to full production. The plant is scheduled to restart June 4, though replenishing store shelves could take weeks beyond that.

Infant formula is a uniquely sensitive business. Its marketing needs to be regulated so those who can breast feed are not diverted from that healthier option. The government also has a legitimate role in protecting the youngest Americans from deadly bacterial infections and other potential manufacturing disasters.

Until now, though, we assumed that federal regulators and the large, reputable companies making the product would have a good grip on ensuring a safe supply. Anyone who’s been in the same room with a hungry baby understands that practically nothing could be more important. America needs to do whatever it takes to feed her children.

Join the discussion on Twitter @chitribopinions and on Facebook .

Submit a letter, of no more than 400 words, to the editor here or email letters@chicagotribune.com .