Abolish The Food & Drug Administration

Posted: 9/25/2013

Too Radical?

Yes, it is a radical demand! However, most freedom minded people would probably already be very happy to see the FDA dismantled to a large extent.

Was this the agency, the presidential contender Rick Perry (governor of Texas) could not remember during the televised GOP candidate meetings for the 2012 presidential elections.

Trigger

Today (9/25/2013), I discovered this new Cato Institute article titled “Kosher Certification

as a Model of Private Regulation”. The title is well chosen.

Motivation

I am actively looking to find fine examples where private solutions are better or equally good compared to imposing crude government control and regulations to certain problems.

I don’t believe there is any significant evidence that the government can run food or drug certifications or inspections any better than private enterprises whether for profit or not.

Previously, I have written a blog post about the Law Of Merchant that existed before government took over/usurped marine law.

A Bit Of History

Legend has it that the FDA was implemented in response to muckraking journalists and Upton Sinclair’s fictional and debunked book “The Jungle” published in 1905 and 1906. This was only a Progressive Era excuse for more unprecedented expansion by Big Government.

Kosher Food Certificates?

The author of the above article also  wrote a book on this subject.

Here is what I take away from this article (emphasis added):

1. “... kosher food certification by independent private firms is highly reliable, assuring compliance with religious standards of food production and preventing deceptive marketing. The success of kosher food certification offers a model of independent, private certification that could improve food safety and labeling and point the way toward regulatory reform in other areas such as finance and health care”
2. “There are more than 10,000 kosher-producing companies in the United States alone, making over 135,000 kosher products for over 12 million American consumers who purchase kosher food because it is kosher. Only 8 percent of kosher consumers are religious Jews; the rest choose kosher food for reasons related to health, food safety, taste, vegetarianism, lactose intolerance, or halal. The U.S. kosher market is worth over $12 billion in annual retail sales and more products are labeled kosher than are labeled organic, natural, or premium.”
3. “Kosher food certification in America was not always so reliable. Fraud and corruption plagued U.S. kosher meat production from the mid-1800s to the mid-1900s. … Beyond consumer fraud, the industry was notorious for price-fixing schemes, racketeering, and even murder for hire.”
   [Even if the situation in this industry was as extreme as described that is no excuse for any government to step in and impose extensive oversight and regulations short of nationalisation. Had government applied strict criminal law to counter these illegal practices it would have most likely sufficed.]
4. “Several features of the market for kosher certification account for its reliability. First, sufficient consumer demand for kosher certification gives food manufacturers incentive to pay for reliable, independent inspection of their production facilities. ... Second, brand competition among certifiers based on reliability has led to increasing expertise and accountability. Efforts to build brand value in response to competition have led kosher certification agencies to provide professional training for their personnel in Jewish law as well as food chemistry and technology, … Agencies have also instituted new forms of quality control that include multiple layers of oversight and improved information management. Brand sensitivity has produced a culture of prompt and thorough responses to consumer complaints.Third, interdependence among certifiers gives rise to additional oversight. The value of an agency’s kosher certification of a food ingredient—for example, vanilla extract—depends on its acceptability to other agencies certifying products that include the ingredient downstream in the production process— for example, ice cream or cookies. This means that upstream certifiers must meet standards set by downstream certifiers. … Downstream certifiers carefully monitor upstream certifiers to ensure that their standards are acceptable and their inspection routines reliable. Since agencies typically certify different products at different stages of the production process, they operate both upstream and downstream relative to each other, creating a network of interagency oversight. Agencies are also interdependent in the sense that public scandal caused by one agency tends to undermine public confidence in kosher certification generally, which gives agencies additional incentive to monitor each other and exclude those that fail to meet industry standards. Fourth, concentration of market power in the hands of a few large certifiers makes it easier to coordinate the development and enforcement of industry standards. In kosher certification, a group of leading agencies known as the “Big Five” controls more than 80 percent of the U.S. market. They established a trade association as a forum for information sharing, deliberation, and standard-setting for the industry.Fifth, a corps of active and vigilant consumers provides additional oversight, gives certifiers quality-control feedback, and puts teeth in reputational sanctions. The 8 percent of kosher consumers who are religiously observant and eat only kosher food are highly motivated to monitor the reliability of certification. They call agency hotlines to report improperly labeled products”
5. “Kosher certification highlights a number of advantages of private certification over government regulation. Private certification can offer greater technical expertise. Government regulators have less expertise than private certifiers in determining how the traditional laws of kosher observance apply to modern industrial food production. …Private certification frequently provides better inspection and monitoring coverage of regulated entities. ...
6. Theoretically, government agencies could charge fees for inspection and monitoring. Indeed, government routinely charges fees for services such as permitting and licensing, but proposals to charge inspection and monitoring fees typically face stiff political resistance. Moreover, government fees are designed merely to cover costs, not increase profits, so they do not offer the same level of incentive as private fees to expand inspection and monitoring. Private certification is typically more proactive and prospective than government regulation. Private kosher certifiers actively seek out problems before they affect consumers and set new policies to avoid trouble later. They are more likely to act as soon as a problem arises and to be involved on an ongoing basis to correct it. By contrast, state officials are merely reactive to complaints …”
7. “A Directory of U.S. Private Sector Product Certification Programs published in 2001 by the U.S. Department of Commerce lists 180 nongovernmental organizations based in the United States that certify more than 850 types of products—ranging from adhesives, bananas, and cabinets, to valves, weatherproofing, and yachts. Private certification is common in professional services, such as dentistry and financial management, as well as institutions, such as hospitals and universities.”

Start Over

By abolish, I mean to start over from a clean slate. Of course a reasonable policing activity by government is necessary to prevent or indict criminals who try to sell contaminated food or medicine.

However, the approach chosen by Big Government beginning with the Progressive Era of the early 20th century to comprehensively regulate almost every aspect has gone way too far. I also strongly believe, that Big Government has contributed significantly to slow down innovation in food and medicine since that time.