The Case of the Catfish Cartel
23rd March 2016
When an industry demands that the government regulate it more strictly, you usually don’t have to look very far to find a barely-hidden agenda. A case in point: The catfish industry has pushed through tighter controls on catfish, citing alleged health and safety concerns. (Summarizing quickly, the revised rules classify catfish—unlike other fish—as “meat” and subject it to stricter inspections.) Patrick Mustain,writing in Scientific American, reports that (a) the industry’s health and safety arguments were weak, and (b) to the extent that those arguments had merit at all, they applied just as much to other sorts of seafood, yet the people pushing the regulations have had no interest in extending them beyond catfish.
“By now,” Mustain concludes, “you’ve probably figured out that consumer safety is not in fact the likely inspiration for this rule.” The actual target was farm-raised catfish from China, Vietnam, and Thailand. The businesses raising catfish in ponds in Mississippi have an easier time meeting the new requirements than the Asian exporters do, so the rules undercut the foreign competition.
Remember that the next time you hear of rich people wanting the government to increase ‘their’ taxes.