North Dakota’s Excellent Food Freedom Act Is Under Attack Yet Again: New at Reason

North Dakota’s legislature passed a food freedom law in 2017 that deregulated many direct-to-consumer sales of food grown by farmers and prepared by home cooks. By any measure, the law has been a great success. Thanks to industrious entrepreneurs who share knowledge with each other, as well as host and attend workshops on topics like how to safely can and pickle fruits and vegetables, the residents of North Dakota can legally buy an array of locally grown, raised, and made food items right from their neighbors.

But the busybodies in Bismarck have been working on rules that would water down the law.

Last year state health department regulators proposed onerous rules that would have neutered the law. The Bismarck Tribune editorial board egged on the health department. But a backlash from Food Freedom Act supporters forced the health department to back down.

Now, some lawmakers in the same legislature that passed the law in 2017 are trying to kill it. Those efforts kicked into overdrive this month, writes Baylen Linnekin.