| Hi Friend,
On Monday the House Ag Subcommittee #1 reported on HB 1785 with changes.
The vote was Yea-5 (Knight, Poindexter, Orrock, Keam, Rodman) Nay-3 (Morefield, Bloxom, James). HB 1785 will now be heard by the full Agriculture Committee TOMORROW, Wednesday, January 16 at 9 a.m.
If passed, HB 1785 would increase local food options, consumer choice, and possible revenue streams for Virginians by legalizing the sale of homemade yogurt and homemade baked goods that need refrigeration, as well as increasing the amount of homemade pickles that can be sold.
Please take action now! See action steps below.
And please share this alert with your friends and family in Virginia! You can find the URL for this alert at www.farmtoconsumer.org/actionalerts
Thanks to Virginia Independent Consumers and Farmers Association (VICFA) for publicizing and pushing this bill forward.
-FTCLDF Team
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| | | TAKE ACTION #1
Ask your Assembly Delegate to sign as a co-patron for HB 1785 and help the bill move forward. If you don’t know who represents you, go to whosmy.virginiageneralassembly.gov
See all patrons of the bill HERE.
Remember, calls are far more effective than emails, and they can take just a couple of minutes! Keep your call or email short, polite, and clear—you can simply give your name, identify yourself as a constituent, and ask the Delegate to support the bill. If you have time, add a sentence or two about why this issue is important to you. See More Information, below, for some talking points that you can use.
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| | TAKE ACTION #2
If you’re a constituent of any of the members listed below who sit on the House Agriculture Committee, please let him/her know that you support this bill. If you're not a constituent, please skip this action item—committee members want to hear from their constituents, not people from all over the state. The House Ag Committee is hearing the bill tomorrow, Wednesday, January 16 at 9 a.m.
House Agriculture, Chesapeake and Natural Resources Committee:
Marshall, Daniel W., III (Chair)
14th District
804 698 1014
Poindexter, Charles D. (Vice Chair)
9th District
804 698 1009
Ware, R. Lee
65th District
804 698 1065
Wright, Thomas C., Jr.
61st District
804 698 1061
Orrock, Robert D., Sr.
54th District
804 698 1054
Knight, Barry D.
81st District
804 698 1081
Edmunds, James E., II
60th District
804 698 1060
Wilt, Tony O.
26th District
804 698 1026
Morefield, James W. (Will)
3rd District
804 698 1003
Ransone, Margaret B.
99th District
804 698 1099
Fariss, C. Matthew
59th District
804 698 1059
Bloxom, Robert S., Jr.
100th District
804 698 1000
Plum, Kenneth R.
36th District
804 698 1036
Bulova, David L.
37th District
804 698 1037
James, Matthew
80th District
804 698 1080
Keam, Mark L.
35th District
804 698 1035
Lopez, Alfonso H.
49th District
804 698 1049
Sullivan, Richard C. (Rip), Jr.
48th District
804 698 1048
Adams, Dawn M.
68th District
804 698 1068
Gooditis, Gwendolyn W.
10th District
804 698 1010
Rodman, Debra H.
73rd District
804 698 1073
Herring, Charniele L.
46th District
804 698 1046 |
| | TAKE ACTION #3
The House Agriculture Committee hearing on HB 1785 will be this Wednesday, January 16, 2019 at 9:00 a.m. in:
House Room 3
Pocahontas Building
900 East Main Street
Richmond, Virginia 23219 [directions]
Please call Anne Buteau from VICFA at (434) 260-4701 for more details about the meeting.
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| | | MORE INFORMATION
The bill summary as introduced:
Food establishment inspections; exemptions. Exempts from inspections by the Commissioner of Agriculture and Consumer Services private homes where the resident processes and prepares any yogurt that has an equilibrium pH value of 4.6 or lower or baked good, subject to certain conditions. Current law exempts only those baked goods that do not require time or temperature control after preparation. The bill removes the requirement that private homes where the resident processes pickles or other acidified vegetables sell less than $3,000 in gross sales in a calendar year in order to qualify for such exemption. This bill contains technical amendments.
You can read the original House Bill 1785 HERE. There will be a committee substitute, meaning a slightly different version of the bill will be heard by the committee, but we do not have that language yet.
Talking Points:
- HB 1785 would increase the sales limit on pickles from $3000 to $4000. Since home-made pickle sales were made legal in 2013, there have been no issues. Since the cost of living and of ingredients has increased, the sales limit should be raised.
- The bill also allows baked goods such as meringue pies, quiches, and pumpkin pies to be available for sale, (not just those baked goods that do not require “time and temperature control after preparation”). These are foods that many consumers are seeking out from cottage food producers, because they want to buy them from local producers.
- Last, the bill allows homemade yogurt to be sold to the end consumer. Yogurt is a nutritionally dense food that enhances the variety of beneficial bacteria in the gut and thus supports the immune system.
As Joel Salatin, famous Virginia farmer and long-time member of FTCLDF and VICFA, points out: “Refusing to appreciate the difference between a 500-employees 24/7/365 export-oriented processing facility and a neighbor’s homemade food craft is unnecessarily prohibitive to choice, innovation, and opportunity. Farmers and food shoppers need relief from these onerous and limiting regulations.”
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