The farmers market bill, HB 3387, has run into trouble in the Senate, and we need your help to get it passed. This bill addresses many of the problems that farmers and local food producers have faced due to overly burdensome and inappropriate regulation of farmers markets. The bill does not completely de-regulate farmers markets, but it reduces the level of regulation for sampling and for temperature controls and clarifies areas of confusion.
TAKE ACTION
Call your State Senator and urge him or her to vote YES on HB 3387, the farmers market bill.
You can call the Capitol Switchboard at 512-463-4630 and ask to be connected to your Senator's office, or you can look up who represents you online at http://www.fyi.legis.state.tx.us
If you are a farmer or know a farmer or food producer who has had problems with the state or local health authorities at farmers markets, please share that story with your Senator. Several of the Senators do not realize how regulated farmers markets already are and the problems our farmers face with the current laws.
MORE INFORMATION
HB 3387, the farmers market bill, is designed to address the problems facing farmers and local food producers at farmers markets around the State. The situation is complex and confusing because the existing state regulations are ambiguous and convoluted. Multiple different local governments have interpreted the current state regulations to impose serious burdens on farmers markets that did nothing to truly address food safety, but simply served as a barrier to the growth of the local foods movement.
Here are some of the requirements that have been imposed by local governments based on their interpretation of the state regulations:
* a complete ban on offering slices of fruits or vegetables as samples
* where samples are allowed, requiring a 3-basin sink for washing utensils, including chlorine baths
* mandating mechanical refrigeration for cold foods, so that the farmers must run a generator in their truck for the entire drive to and from the market and throughout the market – regardless of whether the farmer would be able to keep the foods at the required temperatures with a simple cooler and ice packs
* limiting the ability of chefs to obtain permits to 14 days out of the entire year, even though many markets are open 52 weeks.
HB 3387 would address these issues. The bill establishes reasonable sanitary standards for providing food samples at an open-air farmers market; authorizes permits for hot food preparation without limitation on the number of days during the year; and bars state or local authorities from mandating how vendors must meet the temperature requirements.
Read our fact sheet
Read the bill
(There are some changes being proposed in the Senate. The main substantive change would be to require that anyone providing samples take the 2-hour food handlers course that people working in restaurants and other retail food establishments must take. This change is being proposed to prevent local health authorities from killing the bill.)
Please call your State Senator and urge him or her to vote YES on HB 3387, the farmers market bill.
For more information, go to www.FarmAndRanchFreedom.org