USDA does a great job administering the rural development loan program. People in the more sparsely populated areas get a chance to own a home with lower startup requirements than most other programs. Although USDA is already in the housing business of sorts, my focus in asking whether the government department would benefit from HUD acquisition has nothing to do with housing.
HUD provides transparency in transactions to consumers when they buy or sell a home. The disclosure requirements and the other behavior mandates through RESPA keep the housing and lending industry above ground and over the table in exemplary fashion.
Now let's look at USDA. With its key positions often staffed by puppets of the major chemical manufacturers, is it a wonder that they manage to allow questionable practices and additives in our food? Maybe you like pink slime in your ground meat, but its existence should at least be acknowledged in the packaging. When you buy meat that is treated with carbon monoxide, or made safer through the addition of ammonia or some other chemical, shouldn't you have the right to be informed of the adulteration before you choose to buy it?
Today governors of the meat factory states are touring a Nebraska hamburger factory, and they all plan to extol pink slime's virtues. Maybe pink slime is one of the basic food groups, and maybe it is a wonderful way to keep America from starving. But maybe its existence should be acknowledged by adequate labeling.
If HUD took over USDA and forced disclosure and behavior standards in the food production similar to what RESPA does in real estate, maybe we would all be better off.
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