The libertarian mindset seems to believe that food safety will happen on a voluntary basis, and that willful misconduct can be managed after the fact. The former is a pipe dream but I suppose the latter can work, but only after the fact when many people have died. I've worked in the food industry for 30 years now, and I can say that, for the most part the industry is populated by ethical, moral and conservative people. Even so, I am regularly shocked by what some companies/individuals will do, and how they willingly place others at risk, to increase profits. This applies to manufacturers, distributors, and retailers.
I also love the argument against a federal approach to food safety. Again, this mindset is for people who don't understand the industry. I'm sure if Jimmah in Georgia is processing peanuts into peanut butter, and the local regulatory agency finds salmonella, because Jimmah isn't following the proper food safety guidelines, that it would be easy to look the other way because, after all, Jimmah is the top employer in the community. So when someone gets sick in Minnesota from his peanut butter, how will the separate agencies ever find the source of the poisoning, or do something to stop it. They won't.
As you point out, it would require a great deal of sophisticated equipment, and the training in how to use it, to ensure your food supply is safe. Yeah, one family producing their own food can probably control things to the point that poisoning is rare. But you gotta love an argument that doesn't see any difference in feeding one family vs. 300+ million people.
What's comical is that these same people will demand manufacturers provide endless information about their products on the label so they can make "informed" decisions. Prior to government regulation, there would be no indication on a label regarding allergens. "Allergic to tree nuts? Sorry about that anaphylaxis, we didn't mean to make breathing so challenging. Too bad you're not carrying an EpiPen."
And let's not get started on pharmaceuticals. How many traveling salesmen were hawking their own elixer just a few generations ago? They killed and injured a lot of people. Sulfanilamide in diethylene glycol, anyone? Yeah, requiring toxicity testing of pharmaceuticals is such an overreach of federal powers. Good grief. But the process worked, the company was punished, but not until more than 100 people had died - mostly children. The company never notified anyone that the product was deadly, only that they should return it. Makes you wish for the good ol' days, huh?
More than 10% of all pharmaceuticals in the world today are counterfeit. Great, we should let everyone buy drugs from whatever source they can find on the internet, because government regulation of drugs is unconstitutional. I'm sure our libertarian friends believe organized crime cares about their product, but if they don't, that market forces will force them out of business. Rolling eyes.
Doctor: "Your symptoms are getting much worse. Why didn't you take the medication I prescribed?"
Patient: "I did. I bought it from some Canadian pharmacy because it was so much cheaper. I've been taking it just like you told me."
Doctor: "The drugs you purchased were nothing but dextrose and coloring. If only you had purchased the drug locally, where the FDA was ensuring efficacy, I might have been able to help you...."
Again, and in my humble opinion, the FDA and the USDA are behemoths of regulation and inefficiency, and have become much more intrusive and influential than they should be. That said, we are much better off today than we were before they were created, and the arguments against their constitutionality are absolutely mind-boggling.
Thank you for the support.
While I fully understand the libertarian philosophy, it depends on people being uniformly honest, and on people having an expert knowledge on just about anything. Since neither of those are very likely, libertarianism will remain a romantic ideal that just isn’t practicable in the real world.
I completely agree that federal agencies, in general, have become too bloated, bureaucratic, and heavyhanded, and desperately need trimming. That doesn’t mean we can do without the public health functions provided by the CDC/FDA/EPA/USDA/NIH/etc., because we can’t. Could those agencies be made more efficient and focused? Probably. Could their functions be streamlined? Probably. Are they performing constitutionally mandated functions? Absolutely.