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 “This is a really important step when it comes to supporting
farmers markets and community development, and a long time
coming. Farmers, farmers market managers and those that support
the burgeoning local food movement have been asking for and
working towards a number of the reforms included in House Bill
5657 for several years,” said Wes King Executive Director of
Illinois Stewardship Alliance. “These reforms will help to
support and sustain new and current farmers markets, the jobs
they create, the business they incubate and the farmers, young
and old that call them home.”
Illinois Stewardship Alliance has been working alongside the
Illinois Environmental Council, local health departments, the
Illinois Department of Public Health, and the Illinois Public
Health Association to develop HB5657.
The legislation, sponsored by Representative Mike Tryon
(R-Crystal Lake) and State Senator David Koehler (D-Peoria), who
first introduced similar legislation in 2009; includes a number
of provisions aimed at supporting and sustaining farmers markets
and the farmers and vendors that attend them:
Consistent Statewide Farmers Market Rules -
creates a timeline for Illinois Department of Public Health’s (IDPH)
Farmers’ Market Task Force to complete recommendations for
statewide rules and regulations for farmers markets and
strengthens that task force’s authority and process for
developing and finalizing said rules and regulations. The task
force was originally created in statute by the general assembly
in 2011. The bill gives the task force until December 15,
2014 to create their recommendations. Currently food safety
rules and regulations vary across the state from county to
county and city to city, sometimes dramatically, creating a
patchwork quilt of regulations for farmers and entrepreneurs to
navigate.
Statewide Sampling Program -
Sampling of products is critical to any food business including
those at farmers markets. HB 5657 authorizes and instructs IDPH
and the farmers market task force to develop a statewide
sampling certificate program that would allow a farmer or
entrepreneur to offer product samples at any farmers market in
the state under one certificate, and just as importantly, under
one consistent statewide set of rules. Currently related rules,
regulations and permits are highly variable from jurisdiction to
jurisdiction and few farmers market vendors offer samples.
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Product Origin and Transparency Provisions -
Consumers at farmers markets may assume that products sold at these
markets are locally grown, but there are some vendors that are
actually resellers selling the same out of state product as most
grocery stores. HB5657 requires farmers market vendors that sell
unprocessed produce to have a label that states the address where
their products were physically grown. If the vendor can’t disclose
that, the vendor must list where it was purchased from.
Cottage Food Operations
- Cottage food - or non-hazardous foods made in home kitchens - is a
growing business in Illinois. Caps the fee that local health
departments can charge cottage
food operations for registering at $25 per year to minimize costs to
these small businesses.
Illinois Stewardship Alliance is currently developing educational
materials to inform farmers, farmer’s market managers and the public
regarding the impacts and changes set in-motion by this new law. In
addition, Illinois Stewardship Alliance and the Illinois Farmers
Market Association will also be hosting webinars (TBD) later in the
summer to educate attendees about the new law.
Illinois Stewardship Alliance is a nonprofit organization that
promotes environmentally sustainable, economically viable, socially
just, local food systems through policy development, advocacy, and
education.
To keep up to date on various Illinois Stewardship Alliance policy
and legislative work, visit www.ilstewards.org.
[Text received; ILLINOIS STEWARDSHIP
ALLIANCE]
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