The New York Times ran a good story last week on the regulatory burden experienced by apple growers. It focuses on a family operation in New York, but the story will be familiar for Washington growers and other businesses.

This is life on the farm — and at businesses of all sorts. With thick rule books laying out food safety procedures, compliance costs in the tens of thousands of dollars and ever-changing standards from the government and industry groups, local produce growers are a textbook example of what many business owners describe as regulatory fatigue. . . .

Now, a new rule is going into effect that will significantly expand the oversight of one regulator, the Food and Drug Administration, at the farm. And aside from the government, major retailers like Costco and Walmart mandate extensive food-safety planning and audits for their suppliers, all at a cost.

The new rule is part of the Food Safety Modernization Act, which was signed by President Obama in 2011. The rule for the produce safety provisions of the act was effective Jan. 26, 2016. Very small businesses must comply by Jan. 26, 2020; small businesses must comply by Jan. 26, 2019; and all other farms (those with more than $500,000 in average annual produce sales) must comply by Jan. 26, 2018.

The Times story presents a few estimates of the magnitude of these regulations:

Researchers at the Mercatus Center, a conservative-leaning economic think tank at George Mason University, say apple orchards are facing a growing federal regulatory burden. Quantifying that burden is difficult, but using a computer algorithm that analyzes regulations through keyword searches, researchers from the center’s RegData Project estimated the federal regulatory code contains 12,000 restrictions and rules on orchards, up from about 9,500, or an increase of 26 percent, from a decade ago.

Many of those rules apply to other businesses as well, and some restrict the actions of government regulators, not the orchard owners. Using the Mercatus Center data, and screening for such exceptions, The New York Times identified at least 17 federal regulations with about 5,000 restrictions and rules that were relevant to orchards.

As the story notes, while many regulations are beneficial, “The grievances relate largely to the sheer amount of time and money that it takes to comply.” Further, the many rules can be difficult to understand: “To keep up with the panoply of changing rules, farmers are left with little choice but to seek schooling.”

In Washington, agricultural production is valued at about $10.6 billion. Apples account for $2.4 billion of that.