PIERRE, South Dakota - August 16, 2020 - In 2017, South Dakota passed one of the best food freedom laws in the country. It allowed small-scale food produced in a home kitchen to be sold to the public. This was especially helpful to small farmers and rural or lower income people looking for a side income. Not to mention that it introduced high-quality food products like pickles, pies, bread, canned goods, homemade meals, jams, and even fresh entrees into far-flung, underserved markets across the state.
No one became sick from consuming products from this cottage food industry.
Then at the start of 2020, South Dakota Health Department regulations went into effect, which essentially gutted the law, and heavily restricted what could be sold.
Cottage foodies sued, challenging the regulations’ legality. The Health Department responded by attempting to have the lawsuit dismissed, and force the food producers to appeal to the Health Department.
Luckily, the courts refused to dismiss the lawsuit.
It’s great that these people’s rights weren’t entirely trampled by the court. But they now have to waste valuable time and resources just to fight the State to be able to exercise basic freedoms. Freedoms that were codified into law, no less.
But a handful of unelected bureaucrats have the power to change laws.
Seriously, who are these psycho bureaucrats with the energy to harass homemakers who just want to earn a living or a side income? It’s really pathetic when you think about it. So many people are lurking out there, just waiting to step in and tell two adults that it is illegal to sell food to one another.
