Hi there,

Now that my kids are back in school, I'm still catching up on all the legislative changes that happened over the summer, so this "news" is a month and a half old, but certainly worth celebrating!

Congrats to Georgia, who now has one of the best cottage food laws in the country!

Surprisingly, this is the first time Georgia has ever passed a cottage food bill! Their initial law was created back in 2012 by the ag department using their rulemaking authority.

Georgia actually tried to pass this exact same bill last year, but it failed to make it through their Senate. That's a good reminder that just because a bill doesn't pass one year, doesn't mean it won't pass the next. Georgia also tried to pass a bill in 2022, but that was a micro-restaurant bill that gained no traction.

Back in May, I mentioned that Georgia's new law might get held up in a rulemaking process, but I'm happy to report that that didn't happen. Georgians can use their new law right now, and in instances where there's a gray area, the ag department will fall back on the previous law until their new rules are created. Fortunately most things are spelled out clearly in the law itself.

So what does their new law improve? Most importantly, it:

• Allows wholesale in certain cases
• Allows almost all nonperishable products
• Allows interstate sales
• Largely deregulates cottage food sales
• Removes the home address label requirement

Georgians used to have to go through a relatively complex process to get a cottage food license, including getting a kitchen inspection. They also had to pay $100 per year for a license.

Now that has been eliminated, and producers only need to take a basic food handler course before they can start selling.

The law also prevents local governments from prohibiting cottage food operations, but they included a unique section which allows local governments to prohibit third-party sales in their area. It's honestly a small concession to make to get indirect sales into the law, since we can assume that most areas won't create an ordinance to prohibit this, and even if they do, cottage food operators can still sell to third-parties in counties that allow it.

The only thing missing that prevents this from being a full-fledged food freedom bill is the fact that producers cannot sell perishable products. Maybe someday they will add that, but for now, we can be grateful for this major improvement to Georgia's law!

Click here to check out Georgia's new law


Forraging ahead,

David