EU bureaucrats run amok
A greengrocer in the UK town of Bristol has fallen afoul of strict European Union regulations on the size of kiwi fruit. He ordered a batch of Chilean kiwis from an importer and started selling them from his shop. Eurocrat inspectors whooshed in, measured his fruit, and pronounced them one millimeter too small. Strict European Commission laws governing the size and shape of fruits and vegetables forbid him from selling or even giving away these kiwis. His only recourse is to pitch them into the trash.

Every time I start to think that New Jersey intrudes far too much into our daily lives I come up short when encountering a story like this one. The bureaucrats in Trenton could only dream of commandeering so much power over the size and shape of fruit. If we think this state has too many government employees we can be comforted that European Commission bureaucracy is vastly more over-arching. They have a full-time department assigned to the task of establishing standards for kiwi fruit. And, they have other groups of government employees dedicated to specifying the minimum curvature of bananas or the size and shape of carrots. Then every little hamlet across the continent has an Inspectorate, whose job is to ensure compliance with the regulations promulgated from Brussels.

The inspection of this gentleman's kiwi fruit took 2 hours. Two hours!

The bozos in Trenton wouldn't dare to try something like this, would they? There are people in this country who think that the US needs to be more like Europe. Does that mean we have to worry about an invasion of the kiwi inspectors?

Posted at 12:05 by Chris   []   | | | Email | del.icio.us | Digg | Stumble It! | Reddit | Link