regulation vs artisanal food

[isiscolo]

This article from The Economist on California's over-regulation of artisanal food vendors reminded me a bit about Joel Salatin's criticisms of regulation that is designed for large companies and ridiculous for small ones: Beware of the yogurt.

Comments

[misslynx]

That's pretty depressing. :-(

I understand the desire to have standards for food safety, given all the cases of contamination of various sorts in recent years, but they're going about it in a really counter-productive way.

[small_chicken]

Note to government: when we said we wanted a consumer protection board, we meant about corrupt credit cards, sleazy mortgages, and bogus banking practices.

[isiscolo]

I think that ensuring safe food is also a reasonable purview of government. But if someone wants to, e.g., make yogurt out of already-pasteurized milk, it's stupid to make her follow regulations for raw milk. And mandating practices instead of results (that is, specifying materials and procedures instead of contaminant-free outcomes) favors the big corporation over the little guy.

[name_tba]

I think the idea is that if the procedures are in place, the outcome will be safe. I am supportive of government regulation, and often times regulation comes from consumers asking for it (thinking of Organics especially) but the way it works out isn't always what we would like.