Wisconsin Farmers Seek End to Ban on Sales of Home-Baked Goods
Mariana Barillas /
Three Wisconsin farmers have filed a lawsuit against their state’s agriculture agency to overturn a ban on the sale of homemade baked goods.
Erica Smith, a lawyer with the Institute for Justice, a public interest law firm representing the farmers, told The Daily Signal that she sees the lawsuit as a way to “raise awareness in this country about government overreach” and give consumers “the right to buy and sell the food that they want.”
Smith said her clients—Lisa Kivirist, Dela Ends, and Kriss Marion—have pushed to get the burdensome regulations changed, but “the political process wasn’t working, so a lawsuit was the only option.”
According to the Wisconsin Legislative Reference Bureau, all potential pastry entrepreneurs must obtain a state license, which includes a requirement for a commercial kitchen in a separate facility.
Although the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection states that the so-called Pickle Bill allows for the sale of home-canned goods, Wisconsinites can be punished with $1,000 in fines or six months in jail if they do the same with their baked goods.
Ends, who runs the USDA-certified organic Scotch Hill Farm with her family, said in an Institute for Justice video that investing in the required kitchen would “easily cost $50,000 or more.” She added:
In the rural community, people work really hard and they don’t make a lot of money. … It’s really disappointing to realize that you can’t sell something that you know your customers want.
“This is one of scores of laws adopted by states aimed not at protecting consumers from harm, but protecting businesses from competition,” said James Gattuso, a senior research fellow in The Heritage Foundation’s Roe Institute for Economic Policy Studies.
“There is no justification for baking this regulation into the marketplace,” Gattuso said.
Smith says current Wisconsin law “has nothing to do with safety and everything to do with politics and protectionism.”
“The reason this ban exists is commercial food groups like the Wisconsin Bakers Association have fought to keep this ban in place,” the farmers’ lawyer said.
“The safest place to make food is in our home kitchens,” Kivist said in the Institute for Justice video. It’s the place we feed our family, our friends, our community, and we need to connect that more with our local economies.
SB 330, the so-called Cookie Bill, passed the Wisconsin Senate last week. It would allow home bakers to sell their products without the current requirements for a commercial license or kitchen.
In a petition opposing the Wisconsin Assembly version of the bill, AB 471, the Wisconsin Bakers Association said current regulations are “all designated to assure the prevention of foodborne illness through cross contamination within the regular home environment.”
The Wisconsin Bakers Association declined to comment for this report.