Support Food Freedom in Montana! Senate Bill 199 (SB 199), the Montana Local Food Choice Act, has passed out of committee with some minor amendments and could be up for a vote in the Senate at any time. It is crucial that you contact your state senator and ask him/her to vote for SB 199. The vote is expected to be close.

SB 199 allows the unregulated sale of homemade foods from producers to informed end consumers including raw dairy products if the producer keeps no more than 5 lactating cows, 10 lactating goats, or 10 lactating sheep on the farm for the production of milk. Producers can sell poultry under the bill if they slaughter and process up to 1,000 birds during a calendar year. Producers can sell meat and meat products under the bill only if the slaughter and processing took place at a “state-licensed or federally approved meat establishment.”

Producers must inform the end consumer that the homemade food they are selling has not been licensed, permitted, certified, packaged, labeled or inspected per official regulations.

Sales and delivery under SB 199 can take place at a farm, ranch, home, office, traditional community social event as defined by the bill or another location agreed to between the producer and the producer’s agent and the informed end consumer.

Under the bill a state or local government agency cannot require “licensure, permitting, certification, packaging, labeling, or inspection that pertains to the preparation, serving, use, consumption, delivery, or storage of homemade food or a homemade food product under this chapter.” SB 199 does not prevent a state or local health officer from inspecting a producer selling homemade food under the bill if the “officer is investigating a complaint based on an illness or an outbreak suspected to be directly related to that homemade food or homemade food product.”

Please see action steps below and share this alert with friends and family in Montana.