http://www.theselc.org/cottage-food-laws/

California Homemade Food Act, AB 1616, introduced in State Assembly!/hanks Sustainable Economies Law Center
Our bill, AB 1616, the California Homemade Food Act, has secured a bipartisan list of co-authors, in addition to Assemblyman Mike Gatto, who authored the bill. Assemblymembers Jared Huffman, Bob Wieckowski, V. Manuel Pérez, Allan Mansoor, Brian Nestande and Senator Mark DeSaulnier have all signed on as co-authors. You can read more about the bill here.

AB 1616 will be voted on in the Assembly Health Committee on April 17 so please contact your Assemblymember before then and ask them to sign on as a co-author if they haven’t already!

This is critical: the more co-authors we have at this early stage, the greater the chance the bill will pass and be signed by the governor this year!  Visit our Take Action page to find out who your Assemblymember and Senator are, how to contact them and read a sample letter.

As part of a growing movement to localize food systems and stimulate small-scale food production, we are proposing that the California State Legislature allow for the sale of certain home-made food products, namely: baked goods (but with no cream or meat fillings), jams and jellies, granola and other dry cereal, popcorn, waffle cones, nut mixes, chocolate covered non-perishables (such as nuts and dried fruit), roasted coffee, dry baking mixes, herb blends, and dried tea, dried fruit, honey and candy.








April 18, 2012

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

 

"California Homemade Food Act" Passes Assembly Health Committee

 

Contacts:  Christina Oatfield, SELC Food Policy Director, (415) 828-5627; Mark Stambler, Los Angeles Bread Bakers, (323) 913-1667; Irene Pena, Executive Director, Proyecto Jardin, (323) 774-7824; Taylor Giroux, Assemblyman Mike Gatto, (916) 319-2043

 

The California Homemade Food Act, AB 1616, passed the Assembly Committee on Health yesterday afternoon. Supporters of the bill are rejoicing about the strong support the bill received in this first committee vote. All 15 votes cast were in support of the bill. Assemblyman Mike Gatto (D—Los Angeles) introduced the bill in February and has been joined by the following co-authors: Assemblymembers Jared Huffman, Bob Wieckowski, V. Manuel Pérez, Brian Nestande and Senator Mark DeSaulnier.

 

The following 60 organizations and businesses have written to the California Legislature to express their support for the bill, with many more expected to follow suit as momentum for the bill continues to build.

 

·       49 Farms

·       American Federation of      State, County and Municipal Employees, AFL-CIO

·       Anne Hamersky Photography

·       Aunt Ems Urban Inn + Farm

·       Bay Localize

·       Berkeley Food Policy Council

·       Buried River Ranch

·       California Food and Justice Coalition

·       California State Grange

·       Center for Urban Education about Sustainable Agriculture

·       Central Coast Alliance United for a Sustainable Economy

·       City Grazing

·       CommunityGrows

·       Cultivate SF

·       Design Ecology

·       East Bay Urban Agriculture Alliance

·       Eating Dirt

·       Ecology Center of San Francisco

·       Episcopal Diocese of California

·       Feel the Earth

·       ForageSF

·       Friends of Alemany Farm

·       From the Ground Up

·       Future Action Reclamation Mob

·       Garden for the Environment

·       Global Exchange

·       Green Earth Gardens

·       GrowCity

·       Grubly

·       Hayes Valley Farm

·       Heartbeets

·       How to Homestead

·       Ideation Incubator

·       Itty Bitty Farm in the City

·       La Cocina

·       Little City Gardens

·       Los Angeles Bread Bakers

·       Master Gardeners

·       Mission Community Market

·       Mission Vertical Farming

·       Oakland Food Policy Council

·       People Organized to Win Employment Rights

·       Pesticide Watch

·       Produce to the People

·       Proyecto Jardin

·       Rainbow Grocery

·       Recology

·       Saint Vincent de Paul Society

·       San Francisco Bee-Cause

·       San Francisco Green Schoolyard Alliance

·       San Francisco Landscapes

·       San Francisco Urban Agriculture Alliance

·       San Francisco Permaculture Guild

·       Slide Ranch

·       Slow Food Santa Cruz

·       Sustainable Economies Law Center

·       Tenderloin People’s Garden

·       The Free Farm

·       The Garden Community

·       Whole Foods Northern California

 

 

 

An online petition that Sustainable Economies Law Center set up at change.org called “California State Legislature: Enact a Cottage Food Law in California” has gathered over 4,300 signatures.

 

Mark Stambler, who identifies himself as a serious home bread baker and co-founder of the Los Angeles Bread Bakers, one of the leading organizations supporting the bill, testified at the Assembly Health Committee meeting this afternoon. “In Southern California, we’re surprised at just how widespread support for the bill is. We look forward to working with all the groups, including the health departments and the legislature, to make sure that California has the best possible cottage food law, one that will serve as a model for such laws across the country” he said.

 

Buzz Chernoff, a member of the California State Grange, another supporting organization of the bill, which has over 10,000 members and 206 chapters around the state—mostly in rural areas—also spoke at the Health Committee meeting. Chernoff explained his support this way

 

At our last Annual Meeting, the Grange adopted a Resolution that called for local food sovereignty, in which local farmers could directly sell their products off the farm for home consumption, a concept embraced by AB 1616.

 

Like thousands of small farmers throughout the state, my wife and I have gardens, orchards and berry patches.  At the height of the season we give some of the excess away, sell some at the local farmers markets and food exchanges, and we preserve some for longer-term storage.  Since these preserved products are prepared in our home kitchens rather than a certified kitchen, we cannot sell them to our friends, neighbors, and community members.  AB1616 would allow us to do that, thereby providing our communities with healthy home-grown food products, and the small farmer with a supplemental source of income to boost our local economies.  It’s a win-win situation.

 

The bill is set to be voted on by the Assembly Appropriations Committee on May 2 before making its way to the full Assembly for a vote, and then onto a similar process in the Senate.

 

 

 

Please also see:

www.cottagefood.org (main campaign website with more information, updates, etc.)

www.theSELC.org

www.meetup.com/Los-Angeles-Bread-Bakers/

www.asm.ca.gov/gatto