As noted earlier today at
Reason 24/7, The City of Madison, Wis., is considering whether
to require food trucks serve vegetarian options. Based on the
Wisconsin State Journal’s
reporting, it doesn’t look like a decision is pending or even
likely, but you never know with those government types:

The city’s Vending Oversight Committee, as part of its annual
review of food carts, on Wednesday will discuss whether carts must
offer vegetarian menu items.

Although the idea is on the agenda for discussion, there is no
formal proposal for the requirement and the committee will not be
voting on the matter Wednesday.

The suggestion came from a city food cart reviewer who is a
vegetarian, street vending coordinator Warren Hansen said.

“I always tell new applicants to include at least one vegetarian
item because there’s a demand for it,” Hansen said. “It’s just good
business.”

But actually requiring the option is probably impractical,
Hansen said.

Well, if only practicality were a consideration with most
government regulations. A shame Hansen doesn’t realize it’s also
inappropriate, and if there were enough market demand for
vegetarian items from food trucks, the food trucks wouldn’t need
the government to tell them to provide them.

To me, the more remarkable part of the story is that the city
has food truck “raters” to score the carts on some
point system based on “food, apparatus, and originality.” This
is not a health code score or something that serves any sort of
government function. The city is scoring the quality of food served
by food trucks and then advertising a rankings list. The City of
Madison is essentially in the food review business. There are even
bonus points for “seniority” to provide that extra
government-at-work touch.

(Hat tip to Reason 24/7 reader Matthew Begemann)