You did it.
The rule-writing bureaucrats at the Texas Department of State Health Services (DSHS) caved.
In an e-mail message “sent to a number of legislative offices” Olivia Garnett Walker, the Legislative Liaison for the Texas Department of State Health Services (DSHS), said that the department was withdrawing their proposal to regulate all farmers markets as food establishments due to the “number of comments expressing concerns about the proposed rule language.”
In our story last Friday, we pointed out how DSHS was pulling a bureaucratic move to undermine newly enacted legislation (SB81) designed to make it easier for farmers markets to operate. Instead of writing rules to enact that legislation, a DSHS proposed to classify farmers markets as “food establishments” thus subjecting them to pages upon pages of rules designed for restaurants and grocery stores.
And we asked our readers to support the request of the Farm and Ranch Freedom Alliance (FARFA) to let the department know how they felt. Apparently many of you did.
FARFA director Judith McGeary announced at today’s luncheon at the Texas Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association (TOFGA) conference in Mesquite today, that Kathryn C. Perkins, the Assistant Commissioner for the Division for Regulatory Services at the Texas Department of State Health Services alerted her to the change in the agency’s position.
“I’m really pleased the agency has dropped the proposed regulations. Their actions show that the grassroots can bring the pressure needed to change the regulatory process. I want to thank all of the people who let DSHS and their elected officials know of their opposition to the proposed rule.”
Even with the change of heart by the DSHS, the rules governing farmers markets remain inconsistent across the state and whether and how farmers markets can operate is subject largely to the whims of local municipalities and county health departments.
As the Department of Agriculture said in a response to our request for comment last week, “TDA wants to ensure farmers and ranchers have diverse markets in which to sell their products and that consumers have access to freshly grown Texas food. “
To achieve that wish, there needs to be significant changes not only at the state level but in every one of Texas’ 254 counties.