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Comment by Zigurd | Hacker News Reader

> I'd love to walk into a large software company and document all of their inefficiencies to share with everyone

Many large software companies develop some of their software in the open, recognizing the benefits of such transparency. You only have to peruse Github and other repo sites. The idea of developing software in the open is widely adopted, and practically a requirement for some kinds of software, like cryptography and other security software.

It seems more natural to draw the exact opposite analogy: If proper handling of livestock and meat is critical to one's safety, meat production should be as easy to monitor as "git log" for a repo of crypto software.

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To be fair, I haven't met many farmers that wouldn't love to have you come tour their operation. In fact, its pretty common, at least where I reside, for farmers to host open houses so people can do exactly that. Certain species are prone to illness by human exposure, so there are some limitations on certain farms, but generally farmers are proud about what they are producing and love to show it off.

If you feel there is a lack of transparency, I would suggest it is primarily due to distance. When the nearest metropolitan area is hours away, you get a disconnect on several levels. If you don't already have connections to farmers, its difficult to find the connections to build the opportunities to learn more, granted. Especially when you consider that only 2-3% of the population are farming to begin with.

As someone who actually owns a few cows, many chickens, and a horse, my main complaint about the legal situation is how I am kept from selling a gallon of milk to a "close" customer: one that actually walks on to my land, hands me $16, sees the cow that I milked and comes again next week. Now that is transparency.

Although in many cases I can get away with selling the milk, if I were to butcher a cow an sell the meat (outside of a USDA approved slaughter house, etc) that would be pure unadulterated evil.

I would love to see a change in perspective that emphasized "local and small" = more self regulated, "farther and bigger" = more state oversight... oddly enough, in practice, it is the other way around.

Just let the small guys have more freedoms, and people will vote with their dollars.

This results in the rather brutal net result of "uncaring people will pay the least and demand the most abusive practices". But, honestly, I don't think we can get around this with legislation.

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