[www.huffingtonpost.com]

That's our Free Market Economy at work, fresh.: ) Thanks for posting this; all the more motivation to start planning that backyard Victory Garden for Spring . . .

Hey Tamukha,

A little bit of analysis before you jump to any conclusions might be beneficial

From the text:

The Department of Food and Agriculture tested the product and determined that the claim was true, but didn't order the company to take its product off the organic market until January 2007. "As a result," according to the SacBee, "some of California's 2006 harvest of organic fruits, nuts and vegetables - including crops from giants like Earthbound Farm - wasn't really organic."

Once again, government is the culprit here, they perpetuated the situation, whereas in a free market, once the fraud is discovered, the situation is rectified almost immediately by the consumer.

The product was finally yanked for the vague violation of "improper labeling." The state chose not to pursue harsher penalties against California Liquid Fertilizer for violating California's organic product law, and also declined to refer the case to the attorney general's office for civil action as an unfair business practice. An agriculture department spokesman told the SacBee that "our priority was to remove the product from the market...More process would have delayed that."

Once again, government is in bed with business, creating the nice little corporatist structure which is the inevitable by product of big government. This of course has nothing to do with the free market. The government should not even be involved in these things, and that would eliminate all this secondary corruption.

This sort of incident perpetuates the notion that higher priced organic foods are some kind of scam, and vindicates the many small-scale sustainable farmers who've chosen to go "beyond organic" and opt out of the organic certification process altogether. Doesn't California's Department of Food and Agriculture have a stake in maintaining the integrity of the organic standards?

And this is absolutely right, the farmers should have every right to set up whatever label they so desire, without ANY government interference, or the government undermining their efforts. THAT would be closer to a free market. And THAT is what the best solution would be, not this centrally enforced label that is manipulated by the whims of government cronies and lobbyists.

In the UK, you might be surprised to learn that the Organic Farming "Regulator"is actually a charity, called the Soil Association [www.soilassociation.org] . It is completely voluntary, and they produce their own set of standards. Consumers think it is so good that it has become the de facto standard, but the point is that ANY other company or charity can come up with their OWN labels, and COMPETE with this charity, letting consumers decide which best suits their interests. THIS is a free market situation, with the government COMPLETELY out of the picture.

I hope you might reread the article in a different light now, since we are all best served in a free market, rather than this immoral system of big government intervention which we have now.

Cheers,
J





Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 12/29/2008 07:19PM by Jose.

Yes consumer watchdog groups are the most effective means of keeping companies in check. Our Government only makes very ill-informed decisions for show.