Illinois

Kathleen, you’re right… it is strange that sales are allowed at farmers markets and not from home, and yet, a number of states have restrictions like this. Fortunately most allow sales from home too.

From what I’ve seen, it takes just one person to activate a cottage food law, or an amendment, in a state. Usually it involves finding a representative from Congress and then working with them to propose a bill in the next session.

You’re in a better position than most… Illinois’ had their law since the beginning of last year, so assuming that all has gone well, it would be reasonable to propose an amendment now. At least you don’t have to start from scratch like you do with your cakes! You have the advantage of being able to see who proposed the initial bill — contacting them would be a good first step. Also get in touch with the Illinois Stewardship Alliance… they are your friends.

A word of caution… don’t be surprised if you get a bit of pushback in Illinois. They are one of the only states (Texas is the only other one I know of) that actually had a county use a loophole in the law to avoid implementing it. This was because the head of their health department didn’t agree with the law. Fortunately that backfired on them and they probably got more registrations than if they had never received the negative publicity by trying to disallow it. Anyway, the point is that there will be opposition to an amendment, but it’s not something other states haven’t dealt with and worked through.

You also might try checking out Texas: they have faced a lot of opposition and just passed a great amendment to their severely limited law. Ironically enough, their problem was that they could ONLY sell at home! Funny. But Kelly Masters has been the main driving force behind the progress of that law… if you reach out to her on Texas’ Facebook page or website, she’ll probably respond and could give you some good advice.