Due to the exponentially increasing popularity of artisan, small-batch foods, governments everywhere had to react quickly to control these horrifying and hazardous-to-our-health voluntary market transactions that were taking place everywhere. Michigan, for instance, is a state where wonderful and unique artisan and local products are easily obtained – there’s Detroit Eastern Market, the zillions of local (suburban) farmers markets, rural farmers selling products on property food stands, and small, specialty stores that are just about everywhere. This represents, to me, the true spirit of the free market. Foraging and gathering great products right from the person(s) who created the recipe and/or put their time and capital at risk to bring unestablished products to the public. Thanks to the availability of these great foods – in spite of the crackdown on free selling and free choice – I have not spent much time in standard grocery stores in many years.
The government solution was to put up another considerable impediment to free choice that purports to protect us all from harm – the Michigan Cottage Food Law. This law essentially means that, as a cottage foods seller, you will not have to meet most requirements outlined in the Michigan Food Law (exemption from licensing requirements and routine inspection). Yet the Cottage Food Law is a zillion-page decree that spells out what kind of products you can sell to others, where and how you can prepare it, what you must wear while preparing it, how you must package and label it, etc., etc.
The Michigan Department of Agriculture makes it known, in its Cottage Foods FAQ, that “not all food products can be sold as Cottage Foods. They must be non-potentially hazardous foods that do not require time and/or temperature controls for safety.” A PHF/TCS food (Potentially Hazardous Food / Temperature Controlled for Safety) is a food that meets the following requirements: Contains moisture (water activity greater than 0.85). Contains protein. Is neutral to slightly acidic ( pH between 4.6 and 7.5).
PHF/TCS food examples are homemade salsa and vegetable sauces. To churn out these bad boys one must “must meet significant federal and state training and licensing requirements.” In other words, barriers to entry have been erected that will deter most potential sellers. The Michigan Department of Agriculture website says this about its mission:
The Cottage Food Law allows food entrepreneurs to operate small food businesses and produce a variety of food products that are low risk from a food safety standpoint, if prepared properly in an unlicensed and uninspected kitchen, while protecting public health to the greatest extent possible.
Throughout the document, the words “safety,” “protect,” and “public health” appear repeatedly. The same old story, I know. If you want to sell vanilla bean extract, you must “obtain a license from the Michigan Liquor Control Commission by completing License Form LC-687, Application for new licenses or Application of Buyers for Transfer of Owner or Interest in License,” and this is because vanilla bean extract has an alcohol content. And then there are the labeling and packaging requirements, which are many pages long – and that’s just to label a cookie. And there are also income limits (under $15k annually), otherwise you need to be subjected to the same rules as the big, industrial sellers.
Yet when this law passed, the Michigan media celebrated the newfound “freedom” signed into law by Governor Granholm. Yes, the masses tend to think that government laws allowing us to act along specific lines – as long as we play by the rules – does indeed free us from an apparently inherent state of non-freedom. In fact, this bill was described by many in the media as a state law that “celebrated entrepreneurship” by allowing creative sellers to freely transact with willing buyers as determined by the narrowly-defined state regulations.
And when you think that is all beyond belief, check out the Food Safety Authority of Ireland. The US does not have a monopoly on deterring human freedom while initiating food safety insanity.
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Rip the capitalists from their roots! Destroy the prospects of budding entrepreneurs.
Sorry kids, bake sales and the lemonade stand are “against the law.” It is dangerous to the public health without licenses.
I’d tell you kids to whip out the shoe shine box… but the polishes are dangerous chemicals, there are child labor laws…business licensing…zoning… Just give it up kids.
… “prospects of budding entrepreneurs.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Budding
Budding is a form of asexual reproduction in which a new organism grows on another one. The new organism remains attached as it grows, separating from the parent organism only when it is mature. Since the reproduction is asexual, the newly created organism is a clone and is genetically identical to the parent organism.
What does that have to do with entrepreneurs ? LOL
“It is dangerous to the public health without licenses.”
So if you bake with a filthy government piece of paper, that makes your cookies safe and healthy but if your piece of paper is passed renewing date, your cookies magically become dangerous until you pay your license ?
What if you don’t sell those cookies ? What if you have a large extended family of 50+ people and you all give them your cookies ? Are they dangerous without a license ?
Now, since they are not dangerous without a license, what if you decide to charge a dollar per cookie, what makes them dangerous now ?
What if you sold fake cookies or ready to bake yourself cookies kit with a free cookie cutter ?
It’s amazing, and then there’s also federal law, which also regulates every eatable thing.
This law in particular reminds me of an Alabama youth employment law enacted recently, said to smooth the way for young people to work – and yet it does exactly the opposite. It created a whole new class of unemployed.
The thing I find interesting is the focus on commerce. That is, if somebody sells me a pie they have jump through all these hoops. But if they invite me over to their house and share the pie with me (and pour me a glass of milk to boot) they can ignore the hoops.
Now, as near as I can tell I only have one stomach. The pie goes to the same place regardless of whether I paid for it or not. But being uneducated perhaps I’m unaware of a second “commercial grade” stomach somewhere else in my body.
It’s even worse. While they may some day regulate what your friends can offer you to eat, they still wouldn’t be regulating what you prepare and eat on your own! Refrigerators would have to be the first on the ban list, since they can be used to store all sorts of illicit substances that can be harmful if not handled properly: meats, eggs, milk, and even fresh fruit and leftovers. This risk is unacceptable to burden the average person with.
Yes, they are still restricted in some ways to “commerce” and I’m sure it frustrates them no end. But rest assured, I’m sure some day in the not too distant future they will break that nebulous “constitutional” barrier. When that day comes the annihilation of our civilization will be complete. What will they do when there is nothing left to regulate, nothing left to steal?
In that case, they can sell another product, let’s say a cheap USB key and promote it by saying “free pie” with every purchases, LOL
But then again, there must be a law for that.
Most of the legislation aimed at “food safety” just end up increasing the prices for real food. When a truly healthful food like raw milk is a black market commodity with prices in the $7-8 per quart range, it’s no surprise that people prefer to kill themselves by eating potato chips and margarine.
It’s perverse that the government makes it so difficult to obtain healthful food such as raw milk, grass fed beef, fresh organic vegetables, etc. The US is supposedly the wealthiest nation in the world and it’s harder to obtain real food than it is in a lot of third world countries.
In a lot of third world countries, high quality fresh produce is dirt cheap and available at local roadside markets.
“Food Safety Authority of Ireland.”*
I will never ever accept to do business in a line a work that requires me to deal with an entity that calls itself “Authority”.
I refused to do business in insurance and financial planning because it was mandatory to obtain a license from a securities market AUTHORITY !!!!!
The Authority can go F itself and sell their own cookies and insurance but since I can’t sell, I will no longer buy either !!!
The classic big government approach, either initiated or encouraged by big industry is to make the cost of entry into a market too expensive for the small participant. In classic government “double speak” Michigan purports to exempt small participants while making the regulation impractical for anyone except a big sized organization to know and comply with the law. Farmers’ markets and boutique food vendors will go the way of manufacturing, farming, banking, financing, and medical care – and it won’t be limited to Michigan.
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