4 ms·
Food safety is more about barriers to entry than safety these days. The regulators have been captured by the industry and used to keep out competition.
by darkarmani 14y ago
Food safety is more about barriers to entry than safety these days. The regulators have been captured by the industry and used to keep out competition.
- roc 14y agoSure. There is no shortage of very real downsides to regulations, be they voluntary self-regulation by industry, 'reputation'-tracking done by consumers themselves or the wide variety of government regulations. I was simply pointing out the historic trend.
- rprasad 14y agoIt's really not about preventing competition. The primary barrier to entry for restaurants and food vendors is, and always has been, access to the capital necessary to get it off the ground. It turns out that buying physical goods and equipment is more expensive than a free AWS account and a laptop.
- darkarmani 14y agoI agree with your point about restaurants, but you are not acknowledging the current trend in agriculture. I'm talking about the small "organic-like" farms that want to slaughter on premise or sell homemade items. The meat industry in particular has captured the regulators and use them to keep out competition. The large packers want more regulation, because they can absorb the cost of compliance and the cost of fines for non-compliance when they get slapped on the wrist.