Update on HB 1267

I received an encouraging e-mail from state Senator Greg Walker who is committed to personally going to bat for us against HB 1267.

Greg says he is 99% the bill is dead upon arrival in the senate after standing in on a conversation with the senate president pro tem and the chairman of the commerce and technology committee to which the bill was assigned.

Greg says it’s best to keep hush on the bill right now so as not to confuse senators (since the bill is currently not on any meeting agendas) and he will watch carefully to see if it resurfaces (and so will we!)

If you haven’t noticed, defeating this bill is very important to us because:

• It represents the wrong direction for Indiana in terms of food freedom,
• It hurts small farms that depend on restaurant sales in addition to direct-to-consumer and wholesales,
• It opens a bag of worms for all kinds of new regulations on *any* food for human consumption in Indiana, and
• It eliminates a possible supplemental funding source for Maple Valley Farm that we’d prefer to keep as an option.

We lost many hours of farm work last week to re-researching all the nuances of the law and administrative codes at both federal and state levels to ensure we are properly informed as we discuss this issue with our legislators.  We  also:

• made multiple phone calls to area representatives and discussed the issue at length with their legislative aides.
•  We sent e-mail after e-mail and made several social media posts, including some small paid ads.
• We called and spoke in person to area chefs and restaurant owners to understand their perspective and urged them to call the state house.
• Larry spoke to one house representative personally on the phone prior to the house vote (he actually called us back!)
• Larry spoke to three state legislators (Mark Stoops, Jeff Ellington and Matt Pierce) on the issue at the League of Women Voters meeting in the Bloomington Council chambers this past weekend.
• Tina spoke personally with Greg Walker’s wife and Larry sent Greg a detailed message on the subject and we exchanged follow up messages.
• Elena has written a piece of sample legislation that she will present at this week’s Teen Pact at the State Capitol on Friday that would restrict the state agencies from writing any regulations that conflict with the federal poultry slaughter exemption.

We want to thank those of you who took the brief moment or two to give your legislator’s office a call (and some of you took even more time sharing your views and getting the word out to others.)  It may seem amazing to you, but even just one personal phone call from you with a sincere or impassioned plea can make a huge difference!  Most meaningful to the legislators are real world examples of how the legislation could affect YOU.  Thanks and we’ll keep you posted!