South of the Border

Imagine that driving your pet to the veterinarian required a certified medical card, a detailed car maintenance log, and a commercial license. Would you think you were having a nightmare? Unfortunately for Missouri farmers, the USDOT is considering big-brother style rules reclassifying agricultural transportation as commercial transport. The Southeast Missourian reports:

If approved, the guidelines would require even a pickup truck driver hauling a single cow to a local sale barn to have a federal medical card certified by a physician, to keep a detailed maintenance log book and possibly to have a commercial driver’s license.

The only major difference I can see between you taking your pet to a check-up and a farmer taking his cow to a sales barn is the farmer intends to sell the cow. Why is the government considering such stringent regulations? From the same article:

Federal regulators argue that because the grain or livestock that farmers are hauling could eventually end up across state lines, the farmer’s intent is interstate commerce and therefore, for uniformity, they should be subject to commercial transit regulations.

The federal government wants to bring agricultural transport into the category of commercial transportation on the odd chance that agricultural products will cross state lines. Yet history has demonstrated that agricultural transport works quite fine as is.

This is a case of government growth with no benefit to the citizens. Missouri would be better off without it.