So… why exactly does the government even have the power to control what varieties farmers grow? I’d understand if the potatoes were diseased or something, but banning farmers from growing something simply because it’s hard to harvest? That seems completely absurd and (knowing no more about this than this story) suggests to me that maybe those government departments have too much regulatory power.
I guess I could kind of see an argument for regulating what can be grown to some extent, like a government might want to have domestic food production in case of loss of access to imports, and might therefore have reason to make farmers grow food crops rather than some inedible crop that might have more value, but that still doesn’t explain regulating individual varieties of potato, particularly for this reason. If they clog machinery when harvested, won’t that by itself incentivize farmers not to grow them?
So… why exactly does the government even have the power to control what varieties farmers grow? I’d understand if the potatoes were diseased or something, but banning farmers from growing something simply because it’s hard to harvest? That seems completely absurd and (knowing no more about this than this story) suggests to me that maybe those government departments have too much regulatory power.
I guess I could kind of see an argument for regulating what can be grown to some extent, like a government might want to have domestic food production in case of loss of access to imports, and might therefore have reason to make farmers grow food crops rather than some inedible crop that might have more value, but that still doesn’t explain regulating individual varieties of potato, particularly for this reason. If they clog machinery when harvested, won’t that by itself incentivize farmers not to grow them?
ikr? Makes me want to send them a few bucks to buy a few seed potatoes to grow myself.