Defending Capitalism vs. Defending the Status Quo
By Monica @ 2:02 PM   
FA/RM strongly defends a free market in food. That's our core mission: The group, Free Agriculture - Restore Markets (FA/RM), advocates agricultural and health policies based solely on the principles of individual rights. The protection of a person's basic rights to growing, producing, selling, buying, and eating the food of his or her choice -- which are applications of the fundamental rights to life, liberty, property, and the pursuit of happiness -- require a separation of economy and state. We support the right of producers and consumers to grow, sell, manufacture, and trade food supplies to mutual benefit without government interference. Based on objective fraud and tort laws, the courts can adjudicate cases of harm to consumers due to negligence or fraud. This is not anarchy. This is free-market capitalism.
Because we defend free-market capitalism, I feel that it’s important to write a few educational posts now and then on some of the shenanigans that are going on in our food supply, as Diana has recently done. She also made the excellent point in the comments line to her post that too many businesses have now sold out their own long-term interests for shorter ones, which is often an unintended effect of government regulations and/or the faulty epistemology so prevalent in our society today. That's particularly true for agriculture. I'll be writing on this issue of short- vs. long-term interests with regard to soil fertility in the future.
Educational posts about food are useful to free-market activism to the extent that such information reveals that people can't just sit back and hope that all businessmen will behave morally in the marketplace -- particularly those in foreign countries like China where corruption is rampant and universally accepted as the normal way to do business. People shouldn't assume -- with or without the existence of government regulations -- that every food product one can buy is safe or healthy. Furthermore, recognizing that some businessmen will cut corners for a quick buck -- and then criticizing them when they do it and adjusting purchasing accordingly -- isn't anti-capitalist. As a friend of mine recently wrote to me in an email, “Objectivists certainly ought to speak out about bad behavior on the part of businesses -- particularly fraud and negligence. We aren't pro-business; we're pro-capitalism and pro-freedom.” Precisely. Labels: "Safety", De-regulation, Individual Rights, Trade
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