Barriers to Internal Trade in Farm Products

Excerpts from the report: This report reviews several types of marketing laws and regulations. Probably most of these laws are intended for purposes, the desirability of which no one would question, such as the protection of health, the prevention of fraud, and the conservation of future food supplies. In such cases the interferences with free trade are unintentional, or at least incidental. But some laws and some city ordinances seem to have been designed to protect nearby farmers by making it unnecessarily difficult or expensive for distant farmers or dealers to get their products on the local market. The number and variety of such laws and ordinances seem to be growing, and this publication will show that in recent years laws have sometimes been passed in retaliation against real or fancied discrimination in other States. This report does not include a quantitative estimate of the economic losses suffered by farmers, dealers, and consumers on account of laws and regulations that interfere with the free movement of agricultural products. On the basis of the survey that has been made of these measures and which is presented in the following pages of this publication, the authors believe that the economic losses caused by laws and regulations that unduly restrict commerce in agricultural products have been substantial.