How did we get back to the point where people seriously worry about the safety of their food? (Well, except me -- I always knew that raw tomatoes were dangerous for you.) Paul Krugman suggests:

It started with ideology. Hard-core American conservatives have long ... wanted a restoration of the way America was “up until Teddy Roosevelt, when the socialists took over. The income tax, the death tax, regulation, all that.”

The late Milton Friedman ... call[ed] for the abolition of the Food and Drug Administration. It was unnecessary, he argued: private companies would avoid taking risks with public health to safeguard their reputations and to avoid damaging class-action lawsuits. (Friedman, unlike almost every other conservative I can think of, viewed lawyers as the guardians of free-market capitalism.)

Such hard-core opponents of regulation were once part of the political fringe, but with the rise of modern movement conservatism they moved into the corridors of power. They never had enough votes to abolish the F.D.A..., but they ... did ... deny... these agencies enough resources to do the job. For example,... the F.D.A. has ... a substantially smaller work force now than ... in 1994, the year Republicans took over Congress.

Appointing food industry honchos as heads of regulatory agencies hasn't hurt (the ideological cause), either.

Filed under :: Food & Drink :: Politics & Law
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