Hi there,

If you're at all active on social media and follow cottage food pages, surely you've heard the big news that Texans can now use their new law!

Everything is bigger in Texas, so perhaps it should come as no surprise that this law improvement is a HUGE step forward for them.

Recently Texas' cottage food leader Kelley Masters (whom I deeply respect) posted that this is "the most expansive Food Freedom bill ever passed in a major state".

Initially I was a bit skeptical of that claim, since Texas' law, although excellent, is certainly not the best in the nation. For instance, Arizona's food freedom law is better, and it seems like a pretty major state (to me at least). Also, Texas' law contains a glaring hole in that it does not allow in-state shipping, whereas the laws in most major states (CA, FL, NY, PA, IL, OH, GA, NC) do allow shipping.

However, I eventually came to agree with Kelley, if we define "major state" as any state with a 10M+ population. Texas now has the best food freedom law of any of the top 10 most populated states. Even though Arizona's law is better, Texas has over 4 times more people, and it's honestly amazing that a state of this size was able to pass such a liberating law, despite massive opposition.

So what does Texas' new law do? It does a lot, but most importantly it:

• Greatly expands the allowed foods, letting Texans sell all non-perishable foods as well as many types of perishable foods
• Enables indirect sales (via stores, restaurants, etc) of non-perishable foods
• Triples the sales limit to $150k/year
• Let's producers remove their home address from labels, if they register
• Prevents local government officials from restricting cottage food businesses

That last point is one of the most interesting aspects of their bill. Texas becomes the first state to potentially punish regulators. Virtually every state's law specifies what can happen if a producer doesn't follow the law. But Texas's law also specifies what can happen if a regulator knowingly doesn't follow the law (they will get fired). It is quite surprising how many regulators in our nation knowingly don't follow their cottage food law because they don't personally agree with it, and it's been even more common in Texas. Given that they now could lose their job if they do that, I assume that this new law language will stop this behavior in Texas once and for all.

So the question is: is this a food freedom law? Although there's no definitive answer as to what food freedom actually means, I define it as a law that frees people to make and sell food without government oversight.

Ultimately I'd say that Texas's law sits right on the border of food freedom and cottage food. On one hand, it has many food freedom aspects, such as allowing many types of perishable foods, enabling indirect sales, and preventing government oversight. On the other hand, it's still regulated (albeit very loosely) by limiting sales, creating registration requirements, and preventing shipping.

I still can't get over the fact that Texas doesn't allow shipping, especially since 35 states now allow it. That greatly limits the reach and business potential for cottage food entrepreneurs in Texas, especially given the size of their state. Also, it's very strange that their law doesn't allow ice or ice products. So for instance, it now allows custard, but not frozen custard. Does that make any sense?

But I digress. Overall, Texas has an excellent and impressive law, which now ranks among the best in the nation. Congrats Texas!


Forraging ahead,

David