While at a farmers market up north recently I came upon a vendor of baked goods. He had chocolate chip cranberry cookies which were delightful, and carrot cake scones which were out of this world. I guarantee you I will seek out this baker the next time I'm in Hessel. Such small businesses merit our support.
Still, something unrelated to his wares caught my attention. It was the stickers which he apparently was forced to add onto each of his baked goods packages. The stickers warned me with an underlined emphasis, 'This product was produced in a kitchen unregulated by the Michigan Department of Agriculture'.
My first thought was, good. We need more of that. We need the government farther out of our lives.
Do you know that it never once occurred to me that I might have been in danger from this guy's baked goods? Why should I even have presumed such evil? A small business especially in a small community where it needs to treat people well or simply not survive has, inherently, my best interests at heart. Note: I did not die, nor was I harmed in any way by the cookies or scones.
I have however and on several occasions in my life been seriously ill from eating tainted foods which had indeed been and undoubtedly quite thoroughly inspected by my government. Department of Agriculture oversight did not save me from calamity then.
I say, more power to this little baker in Hessel working out of his own kitchen, and less to the bureaucrats who have no real hand in the actual satisfaction of consumer wants and needs. More power to the people who actually want to address consumer demand and less authority to the folks paid to look for wrongs to be righted. Such paragons of virtue will always find evil. Their jobs rely on it.
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