GMOs and Fractional Reserve Banking

I recall a few years back being part of a Facebook discussion group supposedly dedicated to 'food and farm freedom.' In general discussion was related to reducing taxes and government regulation in agricultural production. However, there was a lot of anti-tech anti-biotech anti-corporate sentiment. The idea was that big business (like biotech companies) were conspiring with big government to control the food supply. The solution was...wait for it...more government regulation. Never mind this was a libertarian focused group and never mind that existing biotech regulations make production and release of biotech varieties 20x costlier than conventional crops despite being substantially equivalent in terms of risk (of course in-plant pesticides might necessarily require additional testing from an environmental standpoint).  So here was a free market discussion group with discussants arguing against government regulation of raw milk but calling for more stringent regulations if not actually banning biotech crops and other modern technologies in the name of safety and food access.

Changing subjects, recently George Selgin wrote an interesting piece regarding fractional reserve banking. Anyone familiar with libertarian and especially some Austrian leaning thinkers might have an idea of how much some abhor fractional reserve banking. The piece is a rather long historical look at fractional reserve banking and common law traditions going back a few centuries. But toward the end he notes:

"by encouraging people who might otherwise be inclined to oppose heavy-handed government regulation of private industries to favor, on ethical grounds, the outright prohibition of many ordinary banking transactions, the myth that fractional reserve banking is inherently fraudulent strengthens the hand of officials and others who want to hamstring bankers for quite different, but equally unsound, reasons, not excluding a general dislike of free enterprise."

I could not have put it better concerning raw milk drinking libertarians opposed to biotechnology:

by encouraging people who might otherwise be inclined to oppose heavy-handed government regulation of private industries to favor, on ethical grounds, the outright prohibition of many ordinary modern agricultural practices the myth that modern agriculture is inherently harmful or unsustainable strengthens the hand of officials and others who want to hamstring producers and others in the ag industry for quite different, but equally unsound, reasons, not excluding a general dislike of free enterprise.


References:

The "Bagging Rule" – Or Why We Shouldn't Arrest (All) the Bankers

BY GEORGE SELGIN SEPTEMBER 6, 2017 https://www.alt-m.org/2017/09/06/the-bagging-rule-or-why-we-shouldnt-arrest-all-the-bankers/

Henry Miller and Gregory Conko. 'Bootleggers and Biotechs.' Regulation. Summer 2003