[tomp]

this comment makes no sense.

You're at the same time arguing "meat producers had to adapt to external guidelines to be able to continue selling their products"

and "government imposing external guidelines for producers to be able to continue selling their products would be inefficient".

Or am I misunderstanding your point?

[DoreenMichele]

Temple Grandin supplied a superior solution. A very influential company adopted it because it works better. They voted with their dollars. No one was told "You will go to jail."

She provided a better method. Market forces took care of the rest.

A gun to someone's head doesn't magically make them capable of coming up with better solutions.

[tehwebguy]

What does the market having a standard higher than the legal minimum have to do the law enforcing a minimum?

In your example, for instance, even if the law said Ronald McDonald would face the firing squad if their beef didn’t meet the legal minimum standard it wouldn’t matter because they are already exceeding it. The stick is not causing the carrot any trouble.