green living local
LAWMAKERS SUPPORT
Local Food and Sustainable Agriculture
L
egislation headed to Governor J.B. Pritzker’s desk will make Illinois more delicious, reduce food waste and improve local farmers’ bottom lines. In May, the Home-toMarket Act (ILStewards.org/policy-work/illinois-cottage-food-law/home-to-marketact) passed with unanimous support in the general assembly. The bill enables farmers like Ann Chaney, of Woodstock, to reach new customers. Chaney, who owns and operates Grace Farm Studios (GraceFarmStudios.com) a three-acre vegetable farm and raspberry U-pick farm, sells a unique raspberry tea that she makes in her home kitchen from raspberries leaves and dried raspberries. She uses imperfect raspberries that customers haven’t picked and sells the tea at the Woodstock Farmers’ Market under Illinois’ Cottage Food Law, but she can’t sell those cottage food items in other places, like on her farm’s website. Illinois is just one of three states in the nation that limits cottage food sales to farmers’ markets, with few exceptions. The Home-to-Market Act would expand sales avenues for certain non-potentially hazardous food produced in a home kitchen to include fairs, festivals, pick-up, delivery and shipping. If signed by the governor, Chaney’s customers will be able to buy her raspberry tea online and at Woodstock’s annual Autumn Drive festival in October. “People from all over the Midwest come,” Chaney says. “I would like to be able to sell my jam and jelly during Autumn Drive to lots of people who 38
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are coming here, but who don’t normally come to my farm during the regular farm season.” With the proposed law change, small farms, women-owned businesses and low-income entrepreneurs will have the ability to grow their businesses and shoppers will have more options to buy local food. The Home-to-Market Act is among a dozen legislative initiatives supported by Illinois Stewardship Alliance (ILStewards. org) to expand local food and sustainable agriculture. The statewide nonprofit is an alliance of farmers and eaters that use their voices and choices to shape a more just and regenerative food system. “I’m one of the farmers, and I talk with the eaters that they also have with the Alliance,” Chaney says. “We work things out—what’s the most efficient way to get from where we are now to the place where we want to be in the future.” Members like Chaney use their voices to educate policymakers on the barriers and opportunities in agriculture. These are some results of the Alliance’s farmer-led, eater-powered campaigns. Grace Farm
Photo credit Real Woodstock
Photo credit Ann Chaney
by Liz Moran Stelk
