Hi there,
Is it July already? This is the time of year when I recap what's already happened in the cottage food industry, and give you my foresight for the rest of the year.
And I'm not going to lie.
2023 has been a disappointing year for our industry.
Which isn't to say that I'm about to write off 2023. Many
last-minute surprises last year taught me that you never know what can happen!
And 2023 has had plenty of potential. Not counting Texas' 4 redundant mini bills, there are
22 bills this year -- almost as many as last year, and more than what we saw pre-pandemic.
But if I'm being honest, I thought I'd have more good news to report in this recap.
Instead, I have a list of
very promising cottage food bills that have gotten hijacked by political weirdness. And that's what makes this year especially disappointing.
I've already explained
Arizona and
Texas in detail, but Minnesota and New Hampshire are on that list too:
- Most of Minnesota's bill was inexplicably removed at the last minute by Rep. Vang -- the same politician who authored (and advocated for) their cottage food improvements in 2021
- One of New Hampshire's bills was a simple and straightforward sales limit increase that seemed destined to pass until it was overrun by a completely different agenda (an attempt to allow the sale of uninspected bison, elk, and deer meat)
2023 is definitely not all bad though!
I have a few wins to report:- Oregon's major law improvement
- California just passed a bill that significantly raises the limits for micro-restaurants (it's now waiting on the governor's signature)
- A few other minor improvements (WA, WY, MN, & UT)
And considering that Washington has struggled for years to pass
any improvement to their cottage food law, their modest sales limit increase this year is actually pretty significant.
Looking forward though,
there aren't many remaining bills that show much promise. Despite the political games, New Hampshire's bill might still pass. And I continue to have my eye on
Massachusetts' bills, hoping that one of them might finally come through.
Once again, with the exception of CA, legislatures seem to be turning a blind eye to micro-restaurant bills.
Almost a third of this year's bills were for micro-restaurants, and all but CA's have been largely ignored.If there is a silver lining, it's that
the politically strange issues that we've seen this year are pretty random. With the exception of Arizona, I wouldn't necessarily say that this year's results are likely to affect next year.
And who knows? Maybe like last year, the latter half of 2023 will surprise me!
Until next week,
David