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  • From: bob ford <bobford79 AT yahoo.com>
  • To: homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: [Homestead] "Brussels and the Cucumber "
  • Date: Sat, 22 Nov 2008 09:48:10 -0800 (PST)

More(less) gov't 'protection'. I had no ideas that rules this silly
existed, anywhere. From today's WSJ


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REVIEW & OUTLOOK NOVEMBER 22, 2008

Brussels and the Cucumber

Accepting that vegetables can be imperfect, too.Article


It's a "new dawn" in Brussels. So declares Mariann Fischer Boel, the European
Union's commissioner for agriculture and rural development, so let's cue the
drumroll. As of next July, the EU will lift longstanding rules dictating the
appropriate size and shape of 26 different kinds of fruits and vegetables,
from apricots to walnuts. Goodbye, red tape; hello, curvy cucumber.

For decades the EU has spent much of its time issuing minute rules that
govern the use of mayonnaise, the definition of an egg, the diameter of a
peach. All this was in the name of "consumer protection" -- as if European
grocery shoppers might just drop dead at the sight of a misshapen carrot. It
also kept an army of bureaucrats in business, and even a few editorial
writers.

But rules like these also cost consumers billions in higher grocery prices
and taxes that support Europe's notorious Common Agricultural Policy. Ms.
Fischer Boel cites the revised regulations as an example of the European
Commission's drive to cut administrative costs and respond to high food
prices and economic distress. "We simply don't need to regulate this sort of
thing at the EU level," she says. "It is far better to leave it to market
operators." What a thought.

Still, this little triumph in deregulation isn't total. The new rules met
stiff resistance from 16 of the EU's 27 member states. The EU will also
continue to set standards for 10 other fruits and vegetables that account for
75% of the value of EU trade, including apples and tomatoes. The days of
"bonkers Brussels bureaucrats," alas, are far from done.


http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122731072330249285.html






  • [Homestead] "Brussels and the Cucumber ", bob ford, 11/22/2008

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