A Small, Tasty, Nutritious Victory Over Idiot Regulations

Brian Doherty | November 12, 2008

The European Union will be dropping its aesthetically based bans on the marketing of oddly shaped vegetables and fruits--at least for 26 varieties of foodstuff.

Just because they are the E.U., they'll be keeping this intrusive and bad-for-consumers standards for 10 others, including apples and strawberries. But lovers of odd onions, baroque Brussels sprouts, and twisted chicory can rejoice.

Comments

jj|11.12.08 @ 1:37PM|#

This is a tragedy. These past ten years I've felt safer knowing that the men in brussels were protecting me from inadvertently purchasing straight bananas. (True story.)

Damn you Doherty. How can you applaud the deregulation of weird fruit.

|11.12.08 @ 1:39PM|#

Attempting to restrict trade in humourously shaped fruits and veg is a clear sign that the EU has been anti-British.

Hogan|11.12.08 @ 1:43PM|#

"The demise of the ban means the EU can shed 100 pages of rules and regulations."

Abdul|11.12.08 @ 1:50PM|#

So the EU at one point was against me selling my sweet potato that looks exactly Virgin Mary? No wonder my E-bay auction got so few bids.

|11.12.08 @ 1:53PM|#

The demise of the ban means the EU can shed 100 pages of rules and regulations.

No worries, they are quickly writing new regs to fill those blank pages toot sweet. Nature abhors an oddly shaped vacuum.

Lefiti|11.12.08 @ 1:54PM|#

You insane dengerous market fundies are just blind to the effects that deregulation will have on anti-oxidant consumption. BLIND, I tell you!

Lefiti|11.12.08 @ 1:55PM|#

ARRRHGGG Im Eating my oWn FeCes!

Jozef|11.12.08 @ 2:03PM|#

According to a friend of mine who happens to be an EU bureaucrat based in Brussels, the ban drop came after intense lobbying from former French colonies, who tend to produce bananas inferior to those in South America, which are thus in higher demand despite the import taxes slapped on them. Dropping the ban on ugly fruits and vegetables is aimed at allowing the importation of more produce from favored nations.

|11.12.08 @ 2:07PM|#

Flagrant EU bashing with no reason!!

The EU ain't the EU. There is the Commission, the Parliament and the member states. The Commission was originally conceived as the executive that would work for a common market with less barriers and anti-market regulations. And it still does this!

Such as the EU did for oddly shaped vegetables regulation...

It are the member states who are against the abolishment of those kind of rules. Luckily there IS the EU which does push for liberalisation and abandoning those kind of rules.
http://uk.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUKL2440065120080624
http://www.jonworth.eu/barroso-in-commission-not-trying-to-control-cucumbers-shocker/

Imagine a Europe where there would be different standards in every country regarding the shape, colour, taste or whatever varying hugely and broadly...

I bet vegetable selling producers would just loooove it...

I'd say: act upon your name "reason.com" and do some country-bashing instead of EU bashing

zoltan|11.12.08 @ 2:07PM|#

toot sweet

LAWL.

too damn early to start|11.12.08 @ 2:15PM|#

I'd say: act upon your name "reason.com"

Wait for it... drink!

|11.12.08 @ 2:20PM|#

now British "metric martyrs" can rejoice - the curvature of cucumbers was regulated in milimeters per 10 cm.

Citizen Nothing|11.12.08 @ 2:38PM|#

"too damn early"?
What, are you on Hawaii time?

|11.12.08 @ 2:48PM|#

the ban drop came after intense lobbying from former French colonies

Thank you, Jozef. I honestly didn't believe they were lifting the regulations until you reminded me of that potential explanation. The EU would only get rid of such regulations in response to (a) France or (b) some other more insidious industrial policy being obstructed.

I mean, it isn't as if irregular cucumbers suddenly became safer to the consuming public.

still too damn early to start|11.12.08 @ 2:49PM|#

What, are you on Hawaii time?

Nah, PST. No drinking before noon except on game days... (and unless you're still up from the night before of course).

Kaiser|11.12.08 @ 2:55PM|#

This is an outrage! What about the parents who are trying to protect their children from ugly fruits and veg. What kind of message does this send to out children?!

Mike Laursen|11.12.08 @ 2:56PM|#

Well, I'll be canceling that European vacation now. Next thing you know they'll cancel the regulations requiring the town squares to be charming and the women to go topless at the beach.

|11.12.08 @ 4:42PM|#

I've heard there's a study that says that eating oddly shaped fruits and vegetables will affect the fertility of your 4th generation descendants.

|11.12.08 @ 7:20PM|#

I heard the same thing Hazel. I wish Green Peace would put together a study on it. That would be proof and they could call for the banning of all odd shaped food world wide.
(They can skip the study. Why bother. It's going to prove what Green Peace says. Period.)

|11.12.08 @ 7:51PM|#

Exactly right, Bob. It doesn't matter that we can't postulate a mechanism. We don't really understand fruit well enough to rule out the possibility. Precautionary principle. Until a fourty year study of the effects of straight bananas on health is undertaken, we have to act under the assumption that it could do harm.

cunnivore|11.12.08 @ 10:35PM|#

The ban on straight bananas and ribbed cucumbers had nothing to do with aesthetics -- it was put in place by men fearful of female sexuality.

Lefiti|11.12.08 @ 10:59PM|#

Oh, this matter has weighed on me. Eurpoe is a gulag, I tell. A gulag!

Hogan|11.13.08 @ 12:04AM|#

The ban on straight bananas and ribbed cucumbers had nothing to do with aesthetics -- it was put in place by men fearful of female sexuality.

precisely

|11.13.08 @ 12:51AM|#

The hyper-enlightened and progressive EU always brings a tear of joy to my eye.

|11.13.08 @ 10:30AM|#

Brandybuck, the EU frequently brings a tear to my eye as well.

economist|11.13.08 @ 2:16PM|#

Lefiti,
Geez, what the hell is wrong with you? I don't remember anything on this thread about Europe being a gulag. A bunch of sissy socialist Euro-pansies, yes, but not a gulag.