right to farm.

[mopinko]

from my farm blog-
i'd be so sunk without the hive mind. the things i learn.
from a discussion on the advocates for urban agriculture message board about sales of produce from gardens and farms-

I have always thought that state law made it very clear that sales are completely permissible and even the idea that you can only have incidental sales as part of zoning is actually illegal so long as you are on private property. The following is the text for the IL Farm Products Marketing Act, the law goes back to the late 1800s and there is only one court case related to it in which the courts ruled that the state could still charge a sales tax but in a way affirmed the rest of the law.

(505 ILCS 70/1) (from Ch. 5, par. 91)
Sec. 1. Every farmer, fruit and vine grower, and gardener, shall have an undisputed right to sell the produce of his farm, orchard, vineyard and garden in any place or market where such articles are usually sold, and in any quantity he may think proper, without paying any state, county or city tax, or license, for doing so, any law, city or town ordinance to the contrary notwithstanding: Provided, that the corporate authorities of any such city, town or village may prohibit the obstruction of its streets, alleys and public places for any such purpose: And, provided further, that nothing in this Act shall be so construed as to authorize the sale of spirituous, vinous or malt liquors, contrary to laws which now are or hereafter may be in force prohibiting the sale thereof.
(Source: P.A. 84-1308.)

that pesky old home rule thing might be able to trump this. but the city laws def do not comport with this.
later in the discussion it was noted that every state has some sort of right to grow, right to sell law.

i had no idea.

[fasttense]

1. The right to farm and sell

That's the real issue - being able to sell to retail customers. The right to sell your produce. Here in TN we are required by law to wash eggs. My mother, who use to work on a huge egg farm in Maryland many years ago, said she never washed and egg in her life. But here in TN we have to wash our eggs in order to sell them. Not only that but we had to have a special egg washing room to wash the eggs in. A dedicated special room for a totally unnecessary act. And one of the requirements was that you couldn't have any goldfish in the house that the special egg washing room was in. We regularly failed our inspection of our special egg washing room because our wall surfaces were not easily cleanable, or the floor need vinyl or tile and not concrete, and because we had my daughter's goldfish in her bedroom upstairs, 3 floors away from the special egg washing room. Thank God they repealed that stupid law.

But now they have created a new stupid law. You have to have a special room for the freezer you are going to put meat in. We get our meat slaughtered, vacuum packaged and flash frozen at a USDA inspected slaughtering house. We pick up the meat and temporally store it in a freezer. But Now you have to have a special room to put a freezer in that will hold meat that you will take out of that freezer and put into a cooler and take to the market to sell. We are currently working at building a special room to put a meat freezer in. Now we know the walls have to have cleanable surfaces (not wall paper). We know the floor can't be concrete and we just wont tell the inspector about the goldfish 2 floors up. All of this costs us $59 every year plus the cost of building a special meat freezer room.

Here in TN the local government is constantly putting up barriers to prevent farmers from selling their produce at retail prices. I guess Wally World is getting nervous.