Good news – but more calls needed

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Thank you to everyone who called their Texas State Representatives to support HB 1686, the Home Food Security Act!  The bill passed the Texas House almost unanimously last week, by a vote of 143-1!

HB 1686 would protect people’s right to raise food for themselves on their own property, preventing cities or HOAs from banning front yard gardens or up to 6 backyard chickens & rabbits.  The bill also prevents HOAs from banning cottage food operations.

While this is great news, the bill has run into problems in the Senate – and time is running short to get it passed into law. Can you take a few minutes and make two more quick phone calls to help it move forward and become law?

And if you have a few minutes more, please make a 3^rd phone call, to support the Farmers’ Market bill.  All the details are below. 

Your calls truly make a difference – thank you for supporting food freedom and local food producers!

ACTION # 1: Call your Senator to support the Home Food Security Bill

Please call your State Senator and urge him or her to support HB 1686 and to co-sponsor it to provide a public statement of that support.

Look up who represents you at: https://secure.everyaction.com/p/PMQqTY6SpEWms_5V2M-O3Q2  You want to call your State Senator.

Sample call script:

 “Hi, my name is _____ and I am a constituent. I am calling to ask Senator ____ to support HB 1686, the Home Food Security bill, also known as the chicken bill.

Add just a sentence or two about why the bill is important to you. Be concise – shorter is better, you just want them to know this matters to you personally!

I hope my Senator will sign on as a co-sponsor and help move this great bill forward in the Senate.

More info: HB 1686 would protect people’s right to raise food for themselves. It allows cities and HOAs to adopt reasonable restrictions, such as banning roosters or to prevent odor or pest problems, as long as the restrictions don’t reach the level of effectively banning the gardens, chickens, rabbits, or cottage foods. You can download a Fact Sheet from the Farm and Ranch Freedom Alliance to learn more about the bill.

ACTION #2: Call the Lieutenant Governor to support the Home Food Security Bill

Then call Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick and ask him to help pass HB 1686, the Home Food Security Act, aka “the chicken bill”.  He represents the whole state, so you can call no matter where you live in Texas!

Message line: 512-463-5342 (you’ll just leave a voice mail)

Sample message:

“Hi, my name is _____ and I live in [town]. I am calling to ask the Lieutenant Governor to support HB 1686, the Home Food Security bill, also known as the chicken bill.

Add just a sentence or two about why the bill is important to you.  Be concise – shorter is better, you just want them to know this matters to you personally!

I hope that Dan Patrick will help move this bill through the Senate as quickly as possible.

Or you can send a comment online at https://www.ltgov.texas.gov/contact/contact-general/

ACTION #3: Help get the farmer’s market bill through the Texas House

Another local food bill has unexpectedly run into problems and needs calls.  SB 617 is a simple clean-up bill, that protects farmers’ market vendors from excessive permit fees.  The Texas Legislature already passed permit fee caps last session, but a few local health departments have not properly applied them because of some regulatory definitions. 

SB 617 simply provides legislative definitions for “producer” and “farmers market” so that producers selling food at markets all over the state are protected from improper fees.

The bill has already passed the Senate, so this call is to your State Representative.

Look up who represents you at: https://secure.everyaction.com/p/PMQqTY6SpEWms_5V2M-O3Q2   This time, you want to call your State Representative.

Sample call script:

 “Hi, my name is _____ and I am a constituent. I am calling to ask Representative ____ to support SB 617, the Farmer’s Market bill.

This is a simple clean-up bill that ensures that the laws passed in the last session, to protect farmers’ market vendors from excessive permit fees, are fairly and consistently applied across the state.

I hope Representative ____ will support the small businesses who sell food at farmers’ markets by co-authoring the bill and helping it move forward quickly.

More info: Last session, the Texas Legislature passed two bills to reduce the burdens on famers and other people selling food at farmers’ markets, limiting the permit fees that could be charged and allowing sampling of food without a permit.  Most jurisdictions have complied since.  But Harris County, Galveston County, and Smith County have not – they continue to charge excessive permit fees and require frequent renewals for some vendors.  As their explanation, those 3 county health departments cite the use of the word “producer” that appears in the section title of the 2019 law. They then refer to an old and obscure definition of “producer” from the state health department, of which the authors of the 2019 bill were unaware. That definition limits the word to mean “farmers” only, which even in its original context makes no sense.

SB 617 would fix this problem by providing legislative definitions of “producer” and “Farmers market” that match what farmers’ market organizers and consumers around the state understand them to be.  This would save local kombucha makers, kettle corn producers, and many others from paying hundreds of dollars in improper permit fees.

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