How Much Gummint Do We Need?

Interesting story from today's Biz Journal.

The federal government shutdown, now in its eighth day, is disrupting Milwaukee-area food manufacturers’ operations and could delay new product launches slated for 2014, company leaders said Tuesday.

Ummnnhhh...yah.  Most of the 'delay' problem is summed up here:

...other federal functions regulating the food and beverage industry — like product label approval — have been suspended during the shutdown,...

"Product label approval."  Seems simple to me:  tell us who made the product, what it is, what's in it, when the shelf-life ends, and phone-contact would be nice, too.  Bar-code the sucker and out ya' go!!

Some twit has to APPROVE this?

Another interesting tidbit:

Food and beverage manufacturers are also flying blind right now when it comes to commodity prices, which the federal government quotes, Belke said.

“Essentially all commodities were frozen the day the government closed,” Belke said. “The private industry is trying to figure out how to come up with pricing without really having any communication source to realize the ebbs and flows within that part of the industry. We’re all sitting there scratching our head going, ‘We don’t know if we’re overpaying or underpaying for meats or grains or whatever the case may be.’”

Whatever happened to CBOE?  The daily farm reports (run on commercial radio in ag-dominated areas)?

Private enterprise would fill that slot in a second--if it weren't "Free" from the Feds, eh?