Hi there,

A couple months ago, Kelly Phillips, a Virginia-based cottage food bakery, had her business mostly shutdown overnight.

Just as she was finishing dozens of custom cake pops for a holiday popup event, she received a letter from the ag department saying that she could not sell at that event, nor any other popups.

And to make matters worse, the letter clarified that she would need to stop advertising her business on her website and social media!

It didn't take long for the Institute for Justice to get involved, and they sent a sharply-worded letter to the ag department threatening legal action and stating that the department's actions violated the First Amendment.

When I first heard the news, I was quite surprised. It's true that Virginia's basic cottage food law is one of the most restrictive in the country, and it does technically prevent cottage food businesses from selling at popups/events other than farmers markets (although this has previously not been enforced much).

But it says nothing about restricting advertising online. What it says is that products cannot be "offered for sale" online. The ag department said that they interpreted "offered for sale" to include advertising online.

Fortunately, after receiving IJ's letter as well as a lot of bad local press, the ag department has now stated that advertising online is allowed, and they've thoroughly clarified that on their guidance document.

Kelly has been selling at popups for many years and never once had an issue with the ag department, so she suspects that a competitor of hers might have complained and put pressure on them to enforce the rules.

But the irony is that this pressure might cause the law to change this year! There is now a new bill (HB 759) in the works that would allow popups, explicitly state that advertising is allowed, and improve other aspects of the law as well. It has already passed through the House with a near-unanimous vote.

Once again, a big thanks to the Institute for Justice for all they are doing to support our industry, and thanks also to Kelly for taking action to help change things. Hopefully this will lead to Virginia's first cottage food law improvement in over a decade!

Forraging ahead,

David