August 25, 2010 8:45AM 

# Egg Farming and the Salmonella Recall 

By [Walter Olson](https://www.cato.org/people/walter-olson) 

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The *New York Times* invited me to contribute to its “Room for Debate” [feature](http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2010/8/24/why-eggs-became-a-salmonella-hazard) on the big egg recall and here is an excerpt from [my reply](http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2010/8/24/why-eggs-became-a-salmonella-hazard/the-salmonella-panic-will-subside):

> …Advocates cite the current outbreak, at last report limited to two related Iowa egg farms, as reason to enact pending legislation that would intensify federal regulation of food-making in the name of safety. Large food and agribusiness companies have generally signed off on most of the new proposals as acceptable. Many smaller producers, on the other hand, suspect there will be less room for them, and for local variety generally, in this reassuring new world of business and government cooperation.

I go on to cite the [CPSIA](http://overlawyered.com/tag/cpsia/) debacle, in which a safety enactment devastated small producers of children’s goods while entrenching some of the dominant industry players.

Read the full *New York Times* post [here](http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2010/8/24/why-eggs-became-a-salmonella-hazard/the-salmonella-panic-will-subside). Some other perspectives worth checking out: [Ronald Bailey](http://reason.com/archives/2010/08/24/egg-recall-hatches-more-regula), [Ira Stoll](http://www.futureofcapitalism.com/2010/08/the-egg-recall-and-the-fda), [Ann Althouse](http://althouse.blogspot.com/2010/08/government-is-pushing-these-food.html).

##### Related Tags 

[Constitutional Law](https://www.cato.org/constitutional-law), [Regulation](https://www.cato.org/regulatory-studies), [Robert A. Levy Center for Constitutional Studies](https://www.cato.org/robert-levy-center-constitutional-studies) 

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