Rethinking Food Regulation by AnthonyT

REAL WORLD EVENT DISCUSSIONS

Rethinking Food Regulation

POSTED BY: ANTHONYT
UPDATED: Thursday, September 1, 2011 20:40
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Wednesday, August 31, 2011 12:43 PM

Freedom is Important because People are Important

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/08/world/asia/08food.html?_r=2&pagewant
ed=1

Hello,

I used to think that certain types of regulation were unnecessary. Unhealthy food production practices, for instance, would result in sick and unhappy customers that would drive a company out of business.

Every time I read about China, however, I wonder if I have been mistaken. Would such atrocities visit us in the United States if we deregulated food and drugs?

Every time I turn around, I am faced with evidence that some government regulation and interference may do more good than harm.

(ETA: Hit Update Prematurely)

On the other hand, China is regulated ineffectively, even with executions as a possible toll to pay for violations.

What is the magic to successful regulation? Can a good balance be achieved that allows sufficient freedom while protecting the consumer?

--Anthony

_______________________________________________

“If you are not free to choose wrongly and irresponsibly, you are not free at all”

Jacob Hornberger

“Freedom is not worth having if it does not connote freedom to err. It passes my comprehension how human beings, be they ever so experienced and able, can delight in depriving other human beings of that precious right.”

Mahatma Gandhi

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Wednesday, August 31, 2011 1:04 PM

RIONAEIRE

Beir bua agus beannacht

I think it all comes back to moderation, as so many things do. Too many laws cause the people to hate their government and not have freedom. Too few laws mean corporations et al can get away with anything and harm the people.

Either way people get screwed.

And the answer to whether we could end up with dangerous food like China if we got rid of regulations is a resounding yes. We already have dangerous stuff in our foods with rules, so it would only get worse with less regulations. The only thing that might be better without food regulations is how they all make it really hard for farmers to get pure foods that aren't genetically enhanced. I don't approve of genetic alterations in foods of the splicing variety. Sure someone can breed plants naturally, but if someone is splicing and engineering then it isn't okay. I don't know whether its hard to get pure foods because the regulations favor the altered ones or if its because pure foods are hard to find anymore because they've all been tampered with. I'm a little conspiratorial about this situation.

"A completely coherant River means writers don't deliver" KatTaya

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Wednesday, August 31, 2011 4:50 PM

FREMDFIRMA

Well, common sense would be one.

Not allowing companies to use regulation as a bludgeon against each other to keep folks out of the market would be another...

Seriously, look up what happened to Rawsome foods, and others, or google "war on lemonade" for conduct regarding kids lemonaide stands.

And then consider that the resources WASTED there, could have been put to effective use regarding industries who have purchased a "blind eye" with political contributions.

-Frem

I do not serve the Blind God.

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Thursday, September 1, 2011 1:22 AM

DREAMTROVE

Some regulations are weighted to keep small players out, and there is some industry interference that leads them to not regulate things like the number of chemicals that go into food now which are not digestible.

That's what a ship is, you know - it's not just a keel and a hull and a deck and sails, that's what a ship needs.

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Thursday, September 1, 2011 2:05 AM

KWICKO

"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." -- William Casey, Reagan's presidential campaign manager & CIA Director (from first staff meeting in 1981)

For Frem and DT, I'd offer that it's not the REGULATIONS which are bad, but rather how they're being written and implemented.

When you have megacorporations lobbying for regulations that they KNOW will make it an order of magnitude harder for small companies to compete and comply, they are effectively shutting people out of the "free" market.

Look into what it takes for a farm to be certified "organic", for instance, and you'll see why more small family farms are simply unable to gain such certification.

"Although it is not true that all conservatives are stupid people, it is true that most stupid people are conservatives." - John Stuart Mill

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Thursday, September 1, 2011 8:40 PM

DREAMTROVE

Mike

Yes, but as long as there is an agency with that power, the result will be that industry will spend millions staffing it, and then using it to their advantage.

What we really need in independent consumer groups forcing companies to be honest through lawsuits, etc. until they are forced to not only disclose ingredients, but label their foods and non-foods, or perhaps switch to making foods or face local competition.

Govt. regulation eventually just becomes another mouthpiece of the corporate hegemony, and one with clout, that can crush competition.

That's what a ship is, you know - it's not just a keel and a hull and a deck and sails, that's what a ship needs.

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