Archives for the 'deregulation' tag
Canada’s Dollar and Sense Stronger Than Ours
I was excited to see The Grinder taking on food regulations in a short post this morning titled Canadian Food: Now with Less Regulation!. But then I read the post, and found it’s nothing more than just your standard no such thing as a bad regulation hogwash so blindly followed by many in the media and public alike.
It somehow conflates labeling* with inspection. It fails to acknowledge that large industries tend to like firm regulations because they create often insurmountable barriers to entry. It’s anti-food. It sucks. End of story on that.
But in terms of the post’s topical issue, I’m getting a very strong sense that something revolutionary is afoot with food deregulation in Canada. It’s not just the elimination of these useless labeling requirements so beloved by The Grinder. (And it’s not like Canada doesn’t have–from the same article The Grinder cites–”hundreds of frontline inspectors to review labels on store shelves.”)
But there have been small-but-important baby steps like Quebec’s recent legalization of margarine. (For those of you who think that margarine is truly legal in this country, try buying a tub less than one pound in size.)
And there have been big steps, like the province’s lifting of the ban on raw-milk products–a ban that had forced the mostly disappointing Montreal writer Taras Grescoe to document his quest for perfectly legal raw-milk cheese in France. (Note that, in spite of the subhead on the Quebec-ban article, raw-milk cheeses like queso fresco are perfectly legal in Mexico, which last time I checked was part of North America.)
So Canada’s doing some pretty cool stuff up there, eh? If only I wasn’t a student, and the exchange rate wasn’t so terrible, me and my appetite would pack up the car and head north of the border for good eats this minute.
*Speaking of labeling, Jacob Grier, guest blogging at The Agitator, had a nice post last week on NYC’s menu labeling fiasco.
Beer: Kegs, Not Regs
MSNBC has up an excellent survey of various state beer deregulation efforts. While deregulation here (as everywhere) is good for consumers, writer Lew Bryson notes that deregulation might harm the clever souls who fashioned their business practices to live just on the edge of many a stupid state law.
Some of those businesspeople worked hard within the system to bring Pennsylvania a variety of beer that is second to none. The six-pack-shop guys went deep in pocket for a more expensive bar license so they could sell us the single bottles we craved. The laws were ridiculous, and I’m glad to see them disappearing. But these guys were our beer comrades, they fought the revolution with us, and now we’re going to send them into exile, saying essentially, work harder or starve.
I’d feel worse, but I suspect they’re going to land on their feet. They were, after all, the men and women who were beating the hell out of the system already. The beer-store owner I talked to was one of them. “I’ll have to put in shelves, and I maybe won’t be able to carry as many beers,” he said. “But I’ll do it.”
More here. I grew up with these dandy alcohol regs, which are also slowly going the way of the dodo, even when good changes are shot down at the ballot box.
