Support the Florida Food Freedom Act

Unlike many Americans who live in other states, Floridians are decades behind when it comes to getting fresh, locally-grown food. It’s because the Florida Food Safety Act, passed in 1939 and amended over the years, has placed burdensome regulations and fees on all food producers regardless of size or style of food distribution.

amongst other issues Current Florida statutes under 583.01 make it nearly impossible for Florida farmers to sell eggs or chicken directly to the consumer. By adopting the USDA regulations, which many other states have already adopted, small producers will be allowed to supply eggs and poultry directly to consumers.

for example with current regulations, I would have to have a $25,000 egg production facility in order to sell a few dozen eggs to local consumers. with 4 hens and selling eggs for $3.00 a dozen that would take a hell of a lot of eggs.

farmers are having to label their eggs "for pet consumption only" in order to avoid prosecution by the Dept of Agriculture.

It's not just eggs, any type of home made processed food, jams, jelly, pies etc. The regulations make it almost impossible for anyone to sell locally produced food unless they have a huge bankroll.

Support the bill and your local small farms.
here is a petition from Gainesvillefarmfresh.com
http://www.gainesvillefarmfresh.com/MachForm/view.php?id=1

supported and learned something new today never knew things were like this down here might explain why you dont see too many famrers market stalls along the roadside. Now if only we could get them to repeal the "right to work state" we would probably be much better off with the unemployment rate somebody needs to smack somebody upside the head and bring them into the reality of the 21st century

Yep, I didnt realize it until just the other day. I sent an email to the local Ag. extension agent about selling fresh produce and he sent me some regs and there was section in there about poultry which basically said in order for anyone to sell chicken or fresh eggs they need to have a processing facility which would probably cost about $25k to build.

you can sell raw produce without a license or anything but if you do anything to it, cook, freeze, dry, etc you would be in violation. So if I were to sell dried herbs I would be in violation unless I would have an approved facility with commercial sinks, restrooms, a sealed concrete floor and washable paint on walls and ceilings, separate hand wash station, waste and fresh water facility...and on and on.

after all that it has to be inspected, everything must be labeled with ingredients, weights and a nutritional panel.

so yeh that explains why you dont see much processed food or fresh eggs and chicken for sale outside of grocery stores, nobody can afford to follow the regs and make any kind of a profit.

Speaking of the right to work state, I work in the airline industry so the Railroad Act supersedes the right to work regs. A few weeks ago The Teamsters were voted in to represent us and within a few days the company announced that they were contracting out ground handling in 7 cities, we weren't one of them but we have a feeling that it's on the way. The right to work state regs say that if the employee group is unionized you dont have to join, but because of the railroad act you still have to pay union dues.

I could see forming a union if you're a specific , specialized group like pilots or mechanics but they can train a monkey to load luggage, looking at it from a business perspective we're easily replaced by some $8/hr no benefit contractors why keep payin us $21/hr and full benefits?

I dunno, anyway, they may have just voted us out of a job.