When businessmen and the politicians who work for them talk about regulations, they always talk about them as job-killers, as costly and a drag on the economy. And for businesses, regulations do come with an up-front cost. It costs money to operate a safe workplace, to keep pollutants out of the environment, to make sure the products you’re sending to market aren’t contaminated with deadly bacteria.

This summer, a listeria outbreak traced to a Boar’s Head meat production plant in Virginia led to dozens of hospitalizations and nine deaths, including a Holocaust survivor. Can you imagine surviving the horrors of the Holocaust and then dying because of a piece of lunch meat?

At the site of the listeria outbreak, government inspectors found 69 instances of “noncompliance,” including instances of mold; insects; liquid dripping from the facility’s ceilings; and meat and fat residue on walls, floors and equipment. Those aren’t things that happen overnight; this wasn’t a one-off issue or a few pieces of incorrectly filed paperwork. The outbreak at this plant was months, if not years, in the making.

I don’t know why no alarm was sounded earlier. I don’t know why the USDA inspectors who saw the filthy conditions didn’t bring down the hammer. I hope that investigations – either congressional or journalistic – answer those questions. But if I had to guess? It probably wasn’t
a priority up the chain of command. Spend long enough painting government regulation as overinvolved nanny-staters trying to ruin the American economy, and people just might start to believe it.

The idea that businesses will magically regulate themselves is a nice one, but we have a long history that shows they will not. The purpose of a business is to turn a profit – ideally, as much profit as possible. The importance of profits and the drag of quarterly returns causes corners to be cut. Small cuts at first, usually; maybe cutting the janitorial staff from two daily shifts to one. Reusing old equipment instead of upgrading. After all, money needs to be made pronto – owners, shareholders, investors all demanding their cut.

Rather than invest in safety or take the long term view of a company – snip, snip, snip. Until the corners have been cut so bad that you have a multistate foodborne illness on your hands. Boar’s Head’s search for a quick buck resulted in an economic and public relations disaster for the compant. Who’s going to buy liverwurst that might kill you? (I was surprised that this many people were buying liverwurst in the first place.)

The company recently announced it was closing the plant that started the outbreak. That’s 500 union jobs lost, an enormous blow to the local economy. Jarratt, Virginia, is about an hour away from where my brother lives. It’s rural, small-town Virginia – not entirely down and out, but not exactly a thriving metropolis. It’s a place where 500 jobs really packs a punch. The workers aren’t making money. The owners aren’t making money.

Obeying food safety regulations would have saved the lives of nine people and the jobs of 500. Regulations could have saved those jobs and the profits they generated by taking the long-term view. Clearly, the argument that regulating business is important for public safety isn’t working. We’ve been arguing this for decades – “Erin Brockovich” came out in 1993 (I’m sorry if this detail makes anyone feel old).

Pacific Gas and Electric Company was dumping chromium into a town’s drinking water over 30 years ago. Last year, we had a devastating train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, dumping chemicals all over the town because the company had relentlessly cut and cut and cut safety under the banner of “precision scheduled railroading.” The last decade saw explosive, fatal carnage in the rail disaster in Lac-Megantic, Quebec, a cross-border regulatory nightmare.

No matter how many times lobbyists try to argue otherwise, the record shows that businesses cannot and will not regulate themselves. That’s not to say that blanket rules are the way to go. Regulations designed for large companies can be particularly onerous for small businesses; a 500-person Boar’s Head plant doesn’t have the same needs or risk factors as Pat’s Meat Market, for example. It’s important that rules be written fairly. But more than that we need a society-wide reconsideration of what those rules are for.

We should speak the only language that businesses understand: money. Government regulation is there to protect not only the public but the businesses themselves from the consequences of their short-sighted decisions. Safety regulations, properly followed, serve as an investment in a company’s future. After all, you won’t have repeat customers if you kill those customers.

Victoria Hugo-Vidal is a Maine millennial. She can be contacted at:
themainemillennial@gmail.com
Twitter: @mainemillennial