NH Food Freedom - Tell E&A Committee to Vote YES on HB 1565 & HB 1685

Support Food Freedom

Tell E&A Committee to Vote YES on HB 1565 & HB 1685

The New Hampshire House Environment and Agriculture Committee (E&A) will be meeting Monday (Jan. 22) starting at 11 a.m. to consider two great food freedom bills, House Bill 1565 (HB 1565) and House Bill 1685 (HB 1685); the text of both bills is mostly similar. Both bills allow the production and sale of both non-potentially hazardous foods (i.e., shelf-stable foods) and potentially hazardous foods (i.e., foods requiring refrigeration). Under both bills there can be in-person sales, online sales, shipping, retail sales, and third-party sales of non-potentially hazardous foods; however, sales of potentially hazardous foods are allowed only for online sales, retail sales and third-party sales, including meat, poultry and dairy as long as the food is delivered by the producer to the consumer in person.

There are labeling and safe handling/transport requirements—with HB 1685 containing more requirements for labeling and transport. The text for HB 1565 is here; the text for HB 1685 is here. The committee could combine the two bills in an amendment or vote on one bill as currently written; for now, the action is to ask the committee members to vote YES on both bills.

ACTION TO TAKE

1. Email each member of the House Environment and Agriculture Committee asking them to vote YES on both HB 1565 and HB 1685. If you are a constituent of a committee member, it is also important that you contact them directly (some provide a phone number); see the list of committee members toward the end of this email.

You may copy/paste this email address block to reach all committee members:

Judy.Aron@leg.state.nh.us; creighton4nh@gmail.com; Barbara.Comtois@leg.state.nh.us; kevin.verville@leg.state.nh.us; arnidavis@gmail.com; Jacob.Brouillard@leg.state.nh.us; Matthew.Coulon@leg.state.nh.us; Kelley.Potenza@leg.state.nh.us; Lisa.Smart@leg.state.nh.us; Peter.Bixby@leg.state.nh.us; catherine4Ward7@gmail.com; Sherry.Dutzy@leg.state.nh.us; Nicholas.Germana@leg.state.nh.us; Linda.Haskins@leg.state.nh.us; Molly.Howard@leg.state.nh.us; Allison.Knab@leg.state.nh.us; corinne.morse@leg.state.nh.us; paige.beauchemin@leg.state.nh.us

Who represents you? To locate the House member for your locale, go to https://www.gencourt.state.nh.us/house/members/

2. Testify at the hearing in person or remotely. The hearing for each bill will be held at 11 a.m. for HB 1565 and at 1 p.m. for HB 1685; starting times may be delayed but will not begin before the scheduled time. You may submit your opinion online as a PDF or type it into a comment field at

https://www.gencourt.state.nh.us/house/committees/remotetestimony/default.aspx

If you want to testify in person, upon arrival at the hearing room, fill out a pink card for each bill you want to testify about. The hearing location will be:

Legislative Office Building (LOB) Room 301-303

33 North Street

Concord, NH 03301

visit website: https://www.gencourt.state.nh.us/

To review other testimony submissions, click here. You may view the livestream of the hearing on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/live/CwJbQKSzxN4?si=nvF3yjL3PY5h_rps

TALKING POINTS

1. Locally produced food, whether regulated or unregulated, has a great track record for food safety. There have been few illnesses attributed to producers operating under either cottage laws (which all 50 states have) or under food freedom laws similar to HB 1565 and HB 1685.

2. The two bills will strengthen consumer freedom of choice and help meet the growing demand for locally produced food. There will be more local producers producing a greater variety of foods if either bill passes into law.

3. The two bills will enable local producers to make a better living by cutting down regulatory compliance, expenses and by increasing the number of foods producers can sell.

WAPF will send out further alerts on HB 1565 and HB 1685 as events warrant.

COMMITTEE MEMBERS

House Environment and Agriculture Committee

Committee Assistant: Jami Wyman

Researcher: Kristin Grant

Location: LOB Room 301-303

Phone: 603-271-3125

Chairman: Judy Aron (R-4)

Judy.Aron@leg.state.nh.us

603.843.5908

VChairman: Jim Creighton (R-30)

creighton4nh@gmail.com