It’s not hard for a small chicken farmer to get caught in it, as we find in this Jesse Walker account. The food safety bill passed last year similarly carves out a little exemption for small producers who sell directly to consumers at farmer’s markets and the like, while not exempting those who sell through intermediaries — even though the intermediary in such a case may be simply a neighboring farmer who is headed in to the city market.
Related: India’s ingenious dabbawallah lunch-distribution system, which could probably never get past health codes in this country [37 Signals via Market Urbanism]
Tagged as:
agriculture and farming,
food safety,
India,
small business
Lawmakers in at least three states have proposed new laws criminalizing the taking of photos on farms without permission of the owner — and sometimes going much further than that, too. The idea is to stop animal-welfare activists from compiling unauthorized footage of allegedly inhumane conditions. I comment on that — and on some related photography and farm issues — at Cato at Liberty.
Tagged as:
agriculture and farming,
animal rights,
photography,
privacy
- Schumer: ban gun ownership by persons arrested but not convicted of drug offenses [Jeff Winkler, Daily Caller]
- Urban-farming pioneer in Oakland may come a cropper for selling produce without license [SFGate via Perry]
- Harvard-trained Obamanauts’ revenge? Feds investigate Yale for alleged sexually harassive environment [Zincavage] Related: strings attached to federal money for university “sexual assault prevention” include mandatory student sensitivity-training attendance [TBD, more]
- Trade dumping law as competitive shakedown mechanism [Tabarrok]
- “Forwarding a Sentence-Long Message from a Listserv = Copyright Infringement?” [Volokh]
- “Product Defect Case Over Ear Candle Cleared for Trial” [OnPoint News, McConnell/D&D, Abnormal Use]
- Oh, Title IX, couldn’t you at least leave our booster club alone? [Saving Sports] Wrestling team axe is just the start for men’s sports cuts at Liberty U. [same]
- “Wal-Mart v. Dukes [Lawyers] Ask Courts To Fix The World” [Dan Fisher, Forbes] Liptak/NYT on use of “social framework” evidence in case [Mass Tort Prof] Rhetoric about “day in court” tends to obscure actual stakes [Daniel Schwartz] More: Hans Bader, and Jon Hyman with many links.
Tagged as:
agriculture and farming,
colleges and universities,
free trade,
guns,
hostile environment,
Title IX,
Wal-Mart v. Dukes
“The Department of Agriculture said on Friday that American farmers could resume growing genetically engineered sugar beets that had been barred by a federal judge.” The ban had led to fears of sugar shortages and steep price hikes. [New York Times, earlier]
Tagged as:
agriculture and farming,
environment
- Thomas Sowell on EPA dairy-spill regulations [NRO, earlier at Cato here and here] It’s the miracle federal agency: “What doesn’t the EPA do?” [ShopFloor]
- President’s State of the Union medical malpractice gesture, cont’d [PoL, more, Ted Frank/Examiner, NJLRA, related, earlier here, here, here, here, here, here, here, etc.]
- Fired minor-league Yankees mascot files wage-hour suit [ESPN]
- Ohio sheriff prepares criminal complaint against reporter for asking him questions [WHIO via Balko]
- It all happened so suddenly: Henry Waxman now disapproves of the use of subpoenas for fishing expeditions [Mark Tapscott, Examiner; earlier]
- Should hospitals ban cameras from childbirth? [NYT "Room for Debate" with contribution from Jim Harper, Cato Institute]
- Non-”flagrant” trespassing OK? Tort liability shift in Third Restatement [PoL]
- Nope: “At this time, I would like to formally accuse Walter Olson of having an intern or something.” [Ron Miller]
Tagged as:
agriculture and farming,
Barack Obama,
baseball,
Environmental Protection Agency,
Henry Waxman,
hospitals,
medical malpractice,
Ohio,
privacy,
trespassers,
wage and hour suits
Sponsored by Reps. Jared Polis (D-Colo.) and Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah), it would OK some now-banned health claims about food. “A few years ago, for example, the Food and Drug Administration sent warning letters to orchards that had boasted that tart cherries contained antioxidants, anti-inflammatory agents and other beneficial properties…. All such activities, in the FDA’s words, ’cause your products to be drugs.’” [Vincent Carroll, Denver Post]
Tagged as:
advertising,
agriculture and farming,
FDA
As the Associated Press reported recently, the school nutrition bill to be signed by President Obama today includes provisions giving the federal government authority to regulate (among much else) the frequency of school bake sales. Following a public furor, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack now says he has no intention of using the authority to do that — which may or may not signify much over the long term, since cabinet secretaries depart regularly and his successors will be free to revisit the issue. [ABC/KBOI, Kyle Wingfield/Atlanta Journal-Constitution] Local governments in places like New York City and even Iowa have lately been regulating or abolishing bake sales on nutritionist grounds. I joined Ray Dunaway on Hartford’s WTIC NewsTalk 1080 this morning to discuss the update.
Tagged as:
agriculture and farming,
Iowa,
obesity,
on TV and radio,
schools
“Court decisions that have suspended the planting of genetically modified sugar beets could result in a sharp decline in American sugar production in the next two years, leading to possible price increases for consumers and food processors, according to experts and farmers.” A judge recently ordered crops uprooted after finding that the planting of genetically altered seed stock had not been accompanied by a proper environmental impact statement. [N.Y. Times, The Recorder, earlier]
Tagged as:
agriculture and farming,
environment
