User:Zpippin/essays/Privatize Food Regulation
From Free Talk Live
This is an essay written by Zach Pippin for a class at the University of South Carolina.
It has been suggested that essays are best posted on the forum, because they have a single author but can be commented on by others. You can then link to those forum threads from appropriate wiki articles, like Food and Drug Administration.
Essay
Like most government programs, the Food and Drug Administration was started with the most noble of intentions. In 1906 the food processing industry, in particular the meat processing portion of it, conditions were in utter squalor. The Jungle, a book exposing the big dirty secrets of the meat processing industry, enlightened many Americans to this horrible truth. In reaction to this, President Theodore Roosevelt pushed through legislation that created a government agency that we know today as the Food and Drug Administration or FDA.
Since its inception the FDA has grown in size and power. Today the main function of the FDA is the testing and approval of new pharmaceutical drugs. The FDA also regulates much of the food industry. Among its regulations on the food industry are manufacturing and processing standards, packaging and label requirements, and banning specific ingredients.
Some people might look at the regulations and think that they are saving lives. Those same people also believe that the FDA is good and is an important government agency. When a closer look is taken it is clear that this is not entirely true. In reality the Food and Drug Administration is a large inefficient government agency that needs to be abolished and replaced with voluntary, free market alternatives.
That’s ridiculous. The FDA is a necessary organization that keeps people safe from the evil food and drug companies. Is this actually true, though? Is the FDA really this great protector that its defenders claim it is?
Actually, as stated before the FDA is a large inefficient government agency. In addition to inefficient, the FDA is also a monopoly. Monopolies are usually thought of as evil because with no competition they are not motivated to improve their services, lower costs, or please their customers. But the if the monopoly is a government agency people have no problem with it. What makes the government monopoly even worse is that they have the power to force people to use their services.
Many times the regulations that the FDA makes either fail to keep people safe or directly harm them. Despite these failures the FDA continues to operate because, as a government agency, it does not have to do its job well in order to stay in business. Some of the failures of the FDA include the following. Strict regulations on imported items have prevented lower cost medicines to be purchased in America keeping prices high for many of the low-income people they seek to help through other government programs. The long waiting periods the FDA requires before approving a new drug prevents dying people from obtaining potentially life saving medicine. Sometimes FDA inspectors take bribes and give substandard businesses approval. A more recent example is the recent spinach scare. Despite FDA regulations on crops, spinach contaminated with E. Coli managed to be sold in stores. Possibly one of the most ridiculous examples is the recent news that the FDA has banned the popular Australian food Vegemite.
Some people would certainly not be keen on the idea of completely abolishing the FDA. They claim that people would be dying because of the lack of federal regulations. However, these people are under the false assumption that without the FDA there would be no regulations whatsoever on food or drugs. This is highly unlikely especially given the current mindset of people aware of what is being put into their bodies. One of the division of the current health fad is the organic one. Some people believe that food made completely natural are safer and healthier. How do they know that their food is organic, though? There are already private organic certification companies. These companies compete for the business of companies that want their food to carry organic certification seal. This competition leads to lower prices better service, and better quality in testing. People that are concerned about health pay attention to the labels and look for certification seals from credible certification organizations.
There is no reason that the same services these companies offer solely for organic foods could be applied to all food. If the FDA were abolished people would certainly be concerned about the safety of their food. If a consumer is not sure if the food being sold at his local supermarket is safe or healthy he will be less likely to buy it. Food companies know that this would happen, and since they are in business to make money, the food companies will do whatever is necessary to put the consumers minds at ease.
There are some large advantages to privatizing the food certification process. Currently people are falsely confident in the competency of the government. If the FDA were suddenly nonexistent people would be forced to pay attention and be responsible for what they are putting into their bodies. They be attentive to the standards of the private certification companies set, and the result that the produce.
Unlike the government bureaucracy, if a private food certification company makes a blunder that leads to the death of many people that company will be trusted much less and therefore less likely to be used by food companies. Certification companies would be aware of this fact and would surely implement testing standards and regulations to prevent such mistakes. Food companies would also make sure that their food was certified by a credible company that is trusted by the public. These factors would create rigorous competition because all of the companies would be in business to make money and the way they make money is by pleasing their consumers. In addition, no company will want to be known as the company to manufactured the dangerous food or the company that certified it.
The Food and Drug Administration is absent of all of the regulations of the free market. Since it will be in business whether it is pleases the people that use its services or not, there is no incentive for them to improve. It is the same as the monopolies that the government claimed it was protecting us from in the nineteenth century. Abolishing the FDA and allowing the market to replace it with voluntary private alternatives would greatly improve the food industry. The costs of certification and regulation would come down and those savings passed on to the consumer. Regulations and standards would also be enforced better and less likely to succumb to corruption.
