Homestead mailing list

[bob ford <bobford79 AT yahoo.com>]

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


----------------------------------------------------------------------

 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