Michigan Regulates Cucumber Pickling; Does Size Really Matter?

For all of you who think our government is not too big and does not get involved in almost every aspect of our lives, I give you the following.

The Michigan Capitol Confidential is reporting that the state of Michigan actually regulates cucumber pickling, not only the size of a cucumber that can be pickled but the actual quality of the cucumber.

Size of anything is easily measured but quality?  State rules require that cucumbers must be the color that:

is typical of cucumbers for pickling

free of

any injury or defect which materially affects pickling quality

and

not materially curved, materially tapered . . . or otherwise materially misshapen for pickling purposes.

Could you follow those “state rules”?  Apparently you can be criminally punished if you violate a bureaucrat’s interpretation of those rules.

How does the color or shape of a pickling cucumber protect the health and safety of the people who purchase them?  Also wouldn’t the market punish the producer of the misshapen and oddly colored pickled cucumbers if they did not want to eat them?  That punishment would be “we the people” simply not purchasing them.

Does size really matter?