So PEI potato farmers found some potatoes with metal or other objects within. Obviously a big problem. They believe the dangerous potatoes can be traced back to a single farm, but somehow they don’t know who did it and they are offering $100k to anyone who gives them proof of who it is.
Anyway, now the farmers want metal detectors to make sure there is nothing harmful in their potatoes, which will cost around $2 million. So this is a business expense. But unlike real businesses with real businesspeople, farmers want everyone else to pay for their stuff. Whether or not you eat potatoes, money will be forcibly stolen from you by the government and given to these people.
Should any company looking to make a safer product just appeal to the government? If a car company wants to test out new airbags, should the government pay for the testing? If a circular saw company wants to make one that’s safer, should the government pay for the innovation and quality control? Most people would say no. Yet farmers have some kind of special status. They get special privileges that other businesses don’t enjoy and we are all forced to pay.
Potatoes are already extremely cheap and tens of millions are sold annually. PEI produces around 2.6 billion pounds of potatoes per year. If the average potato weighs 0.25 pounds, they produce around 10 billion potatoes. Spreading the $2 million price tag for the metal detectors to over 10 billion potatoes would increase the price per potato by just 0.02 cents!
Potato farmers need to stop being whiny babies and start paying their own expenses!
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