Harvey – you ask me all these questions like I know exactly how the market would emerge if the USDA disappeared. I don’t. Neither does the USDA. Neither do you. You make it sound complicated and you seemed worried about you having to rework the system. In actuality, all these transactions happen within the meat industry itself as a part of business and the needs of the consumer really would drive how the inspection certification would work.
I think that is really what bothers most about the idea of removing government agencies – the uncertainty of how a replacement would emerge, probably because such replacements won’t be designed by a single, central agency or person. It has never bothered me because I’m not a control freak. I’m OK letting lots of little decisions between individuals bring about solutions instead of entrusting one government official, who – if he is wrong – screws over millions of people in one fell swoop.
Likely many different solutions would be tried and the cheapest, most-effective would remain. I would guess that the consumer would still want to see some sort of stamp or certification on the meat that comes from somewhere that they can trust. If the meat industry is stupid enough to make consumers check a magazine every time they buy meat, then they go out of business. And I agree that it would be best for the consumers or retailer to pay for the inspection fee.
In some sense, the consumers would have to be less complacent and insist on a workable solution, which I think is a good thing. Your response above is screaming “complacency” Here your health is on the line and you just want the government to handle it for you. Really ? Wouldn’t you want more control of who, exactly, is in charge of this?
(As a side note – why should vegetarians pay for the USDA to inspect meat? makes no sense. That should be funded only by meat buyers, I think. )
Another role of government I see is to provide information to consumers, rather than dictate what the consumers can and cannot do.
The existence of the FDA and the fact that they approve or disapprove products doesn’t bother me so much as the fact that you can’t sell something until it has FDA approval. In other words – if we had products on the market that were FDA approved and other products that were not FDA approved (clearly labelled, of course), I’d be fine with that.
Or, if they issued reports on who is putting problematic products out there.
