GMO: Not Free Market

Thanks to Jack Spiriko I now know about the latest Big-Ag attempt to protect themselves from the free market:

The provision was slipped into the legislation anonymously. It explicitly grants the U.S. Department of Agriculture the authority to override a judicial ruling stopping the planting of a genetically modified crop.

So, I used to think pretty little conservative and even libertarian thoughts about this stuff. I used to think the GMOs were fine and people were just grousing too much, but it keeps getting more and more obvious there is a fundamental issue here- the companies keep insisting on selling us something we don't want to buy.

This is most clear in the realm of labeling. If we want tomatoes we should be able to buy them- and distinguish between GMO or non-GMO. It is also clear in the constant use of government to secure for themselves power. They are basically using one part of government to neutralize another part of government- essentially the U.S.D.A will now be required (not just authorized but required. Listen to Jack's podcast for the sneaky details) to override courts.

So even if the fears about GMO are overblown, even if GMO is super wonderful for you, these corporations are still using the government to destroy our freedoms. They get to put their seed out into cropland even if a court says otherwise. They get to sue you if any of their seed gets onto your land. They get to lie to you and market their product to you as if were exactly the same as the products you used to get.

I see more and more libertarians getting this. I hope some of the bigger beltway types can pay attention here and realize there is a basic problem with this stuff. We need to back up and re-analyze how these corporations get to interface with individuals, preferably before some sort of heinous situation occurs. Well, one could argue a situation is already here, considering the massive size of a lot of people these days, but I'm guessing folks with this much legal protection are much more likely to cause the sort of situation in which a lot of people die- much like in Russia, while they were building that stupid railroad.

They've minimized the risk to themselves, so naturally they will engage in more risky behavior, just like the banks have done in this too-big-too-fail era.