Raisin Outlaw Takes on Raisin Monopoly?

NPR’s Planet Money recently ran an interesting story about Marvin Horne, a raisin producer who is taking on the Raisin Administrative Committee, a government agency that controls the production of raisins. The dispute gave rise to the recent Supreme Court case of Marvin D. Horne, et al., Petitioners v. Department of Agriculture.

Here is an introduction to the story: 

In most industries, competitors getting together to restrict the supply of a good would be illegal. But in the raisin world, it’s the opposite. Competitors have to work together. They all decide as a group how many raisins to release to the public. What can get you in trouble in raisins, is going against that group.

Raisin farmer, Marvin Horne, is a raisin rebel, a raisin outlaw. He refused to follow the rules of the Raisin Administrative Committee and found himself under surveillance by Rocky Pipkin’s detective agency. Now he’s being sued by the federal government for hundreds of thousands of dollars.

On today’s show, the upside-down world of raisins.