27 Jul 2007

Who Pays the Cost of Regulation?
Insights from corporate income tax incidence

by Richard Belzer

in Regulatory Economics

Regulation is widely understood as a tax on the activity or person being regulated. Where these activities repair genuine market failures, benefits from regulation may result. If there are benefits from, say, automobile safety regulation, one would expect the beneficiaries to be persons who otherwise would have been killed or injured at the pre-regulatory safety level.

But what about the costs of regulation? Who bears them? More...

20 Dec 2006

"Generic HAACP Plans for Regulatory Analysis"
Do federal HACCP regulations meet HACCP standards?

by Richard Belzer

in Regulatory Economics

An important element of Monday's post on E. coli and irradiation was the recognition that years of federal regulations had failed to significantly reduce foodborne illness risks. Conducting research for the post brought back memories of having reviewed the Food and Drug Administration's and Food Safety Inspection Service's initial regulations implementing the Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points (HACCP) inspection regime.

Those reviews led to a presentation and a food safety conference, and the presentation led to a paper that was published as a chapter in a book on the economics of HACCP. (Amazon ranks the book #2,020,211, but hurry: as of Monday night they had one copy left.)

18 Dec 2006

E. coli and Irradiation
Would irradiation have prevented the recent outbreaks?

by Richard Belzer

in Regulatory Policy, Regulatory Science

Last fall's E. coli O157:H7 outbreak in spinach has now been followed by an outbreak in lettuce used by certain fast food enterprises. Today's Wall Street Journal includes an editorial criticizing "E. Coli's Enablers," by which they mean activists who oppose irradiation.

Would irradiation of produce intended to be consumed raw have prevented these outbreaks?

16 Oct 2006

Pathogens in Fresh Produce:
Is zero risk feasible?

by Richard Belzer

in Regulatory Science

Investigators have found the cattle ranch that appears to be the source of the E. coli O157:H7 bug that infected a spinach farm a mile away But they haven't figured out how the bug traveled the mile between the two locations.

Industry and food safety experts alike are encouraging the public to expect fresh produce to have zero microbial risks. Is that feasible?

More...

13 Oct 2006

Source of Spinach Contamination Found:
Cattle ranch a mile away from the spinach fields

by Richard Belzer

in Regulatory Science

USA Today reporters Elizabeth Weise and Julie Schmit say the E. coliO157:H7 bug responsible for the recent spinach outbreak has been positively matched to a farm in the Salinas Valley. Although the farm has not been identified, the story provides enough information to suggest that, at a minimum, federal Good Agricultural Practices are too vaguely defined to be useful. Making them mandatory, which Earthbound Farms implies government should have done to prevent the outbreak, is unlikely to help. More...

8 Oct 2006

Botulism in Organic Carrot Juice

by Richard Belzer

in Regulatory Science

More problems for Earthbound Farms and its parent company Natural Selection Foods. Now its organic carrot juice has been identified as the culprit in an outbreak of botulism. More...

4 Oct 2006

The Market for Pickers and Packers:
The market for agricultural labor isn't really different

by Richard Belzer

in Regulatory Economics

Sonya Geis reports in today's Washington Post that there is an acute labor shortage in California's Central Valley. There are not enough workers to harvest and pack the tree fruits that are ready to go to market.

Growers and packers interviewed by Geis blame the shortage on a combination of intensified immigration enforcement, competition for unskilled labor from other industries such as construction, and the complexities of the federal government's H-2A visa program. None apparently have considered the possibility of solving the labor shortage by raising wages.

29 Sep 2006

Federal "Good Agriculture Practice" Guidance:
What does the guidance say about the use of manure?

by Richard Belzer

in Regulatory Policy, Regulatory Science

It is said that federal "Good Agricultural Practice" guidance ensures that fresh produce does not transmit pathogenic foodborne illness. Is this a reasonable inference? More...

19 Sep 2006

Agency Responses to NAS Questions on Risk Assessment Practice

by Richard Belzer

in Information Quality, Regulatory Science

In June, the ad hoc National Academy of Sciences committee empaneled to review OMB's proposed risk assessment guidance asked several affected federal agencies to provide comments.

Neutral Source has copies of these comments in our Library.

16 Sep 2006

What's Wrong with Spinach?
Government-promoted organic production practices may be the culprit

by Richard Belzer

in Regulatory Science

The Food and Drug Administration has identified the source of most or all of the E. coli O157:H7 contamination that has sickened dozens and caused at least one death: Natural Selection Foods, otherwise known as Earthbound Farm, a California producer of organic fruits and vegetables.

The Darwinian name of the company does not appear to have been intended as ironic.