Posted on 06/04/2010 4:31:40 PM PDT by Artemis Webb
CARMEL VALLEY, Calif. Extra virgin, light, with lemon, unfiltered, cold-pressed: the variety of olive oil on most supermarket shelves is dazzling. But what does it all mean?
These terms might be common currency among foodies and the farmer's market crowd, but they have never been enforceable, or legally defined in the United States until now.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture in April adopted scientifically verifiable standards for nomenclature such as "virgin" or "extra virgin," with extra virgin considered the highest quality because it has the best flavor.
(snip)
"It will put an end to marketing terms that are confusing to the consumer, such as light, extra light language that really doesn't meant too much," said Patricia Darragh, executive director of the California Olive Oil Council, a trade association of producers responsible for most US-grown olive oil.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
An oxymoron. Them's the rules. Don't like 'em, amend the Constitution and change 'em.
Now here's what would happen in the real world: You sue Acme and they dissolve the corporation, all their assets vanishing through the magic of bookkeeping. The principals take their ill gotten gains and set up another corporation and do the same thing. Repeat until you go broke suing them and getting nothing or they have too much money to bother perpetuating the scam.
I would love to have one of those bottles.
Who knows? It’s a fictional character.
The point of the FTC action is to make customary market standards enforceable by setting up objective scientific measures. Milton Friedman, who did more to revive free market economics after the New Deal than almost anyone, saw government as having an essential role in setting the “rules of the game” by which free markets operate. That means laws like the Uniform Commercial Code, Landlord-Tenant Acts, food and drug safety laws, and, yes, even rules on the composition and labeling of olive oil.
There's an off-color joke in there somewhere, fortunately, it's too early for me to think that way...
Excellent reply. That does happen and often, particularly in the vitamin industry or construction.
How does the market cope?
In the vitamin industry you have several independent sources evaluating vitamin content and testing for consumers. Look them up on the internet. You don’t have to blind buy.
In the construction industry having a license indicates nothing at all. To become a “licensed and bonded” contractor costs as little as $300.00. It is a highly regulated industry that is full of crooks.
How does the market cope?
People seek out recommendations or pick from narrow affiliations like the National Association of the Remodeling Industry (NARI).
What too many conservatives have forgotten is that humanity is messy. Through government schooling we’ve been trained to believe that government can solve our problems.
Nothing human is perfect. Seeking perfection is Utopian and liberal. It is nonsense to pretend that Caveat Emptor isn’t real.
If you don’t do your due diligence it is your problem in a government regulated market or not. The goal of conservatism is to conserve individual liberty, nothing more.
This is neither a weight or a measure.
LOL, how not? Defining grades of a commodity are certainly definable as both measures and elements of interstate and international trade. Clear, defined parts of federal authority.
A measure is ounces, inches, etc. That’s clearly what was meant by “weights and measures.”
To claim otherwise is to accept the federal Leviathan’s interpretation of Constitutional terms, like “the Commerce Clause means we can regulate anything and everything.”
By the way, there is nothing stopping a state from regulating this. But it’s not part of legitimate federal authority.
The anti-Federalists were right.
“But its not part of legitimate federal authority.”
In your mind.
Re #116:
My FRiend all I can say is that when I need an expert on “dolomitic limestone” I’m going to come to you first. :)
Well...I thought we were constitutionalists around here, mostly. I guess i was wrong.
Nope. Your delusional misreading of law and history fooled you, that’s all.
The word is not "control", it's "regulate". Requiring truth-in-advertising between the states is a legitimate form of regulation to me.
So if I sit down with my friends at a game of poker and bluff them out of the pot, you want the government to come after me for fraud. What a statist you are! Why should a private entity be governed by a another private entity on the definition of "extra virgin"? Since the feds usually aren't doing anything productive anyway, just have them define it and then no need for fraud civil trials all across the land because now there is no doubt what "extra-virgin" means, it's been defined by our representatives.
By the way I purchase EVOO and would like to know these companies are honest when they put EV on the lable...it's damned expensive.
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