North Dakota’s path to a cottage food law resembles a roller coaster ride, but not necessarily a fun one. In 2017, North Dakota passed the country’s second food freedom bill (HB 1433), modeled after Wyoming’s. Since then, the health department tried multiple times to restrict the new law, and were ultimately successful in implementing restrictive… [read more]
2020 was not just a year full of changes for the nation and world.
It was also a year which changed the cottage food industry… sometimes for the worse, but mostly for the better.
There were a number of important storylines this year, and surprisingly, many of them were not pandemic-related.
In this year-end recap, I’ll give my take on the major events of 2020 that related to the cottage food industry.
5 plaintiffs, along with help from the Institute for Justice, successfully sued the ND Health Department for undermining the food freedom law. The judge determined that the health department had intentionally ignored and undermined the law when they published their rules. After the judge’s ruling, the original food freedom law was restored.
It’s July 1st, 2020, and for the first time in over 7 years, I’ve added a new rank to Forrager’s map. I named it “freedom”, and Wyoming has the honor of being the first state to reach this status!
As of today, Wyoming’s new amendment (HB 84) to their food freedom law takes effect, and it’s a big one. Because although their 2015 law has always been the best food freedom law in the country, truthfully, it still lagged behind some of the best cottage food laws in some ways.
Erica Smith from the Institute for Justice sheds light on how the coronavirus pandemic affects cottage food businesses, which laws they’ve worked on recently, and how people can improve their laws.
After multiple unsuccessful attempts to restrict the food freedom law, North Dakota’s health department bypassed the legislature and passed rules that undermined the law. They restricted most perishable foods and added labeling requirements.
North Dakota’s first law that legalized the sale of homemade food. This was the second food freedom law to be passed, and allows producers to sell all non-meat foods directly to consumers. The biggest restriction is that products must be consumed in private homes. There is no licensing or inspection needed to sell.