Baylen Linnekin on Virginia Efforts To Expand Farm and Food Freedom
A bill introduced by Virginia Delegate Robert Bell that would dramatically expand the state's Cottage Food and Right-to-Farm laws is now before the Virginia House agriculture committee. The bill would expand the list of covered foods that can be sold from the home or the farm and permit the direct-to-consumer sale of foods like meat that have been viewed by regulators to be potentially hazardous. Critics may moan about food safety risks, but, writes Baylen Linnekin, anyone who's read Joel Salatin's Everything I Want To Do Is Illegal knows that the link between inspection and food safety is tenuous at best.