❌ URGENT ACTION NEEDED HB1169 WILL BE HEARD TOMORROW AT 4PM Please Oppose HB 1169 — Office of Small Farms
HB1169 Small Farms, Office, will be heard tomorrow at 4:00p.m. in the Agricultural Subcommittee. Call the Ag Subcommittee members and ask them to vote NO to the passage of HB1169. Write a comment on HODspeak or sign up to speak remotely tomorrow at 4p.m. at the committee meeting.
HB1169 Small Farms, Office, Patron, Delegate Nicole Cole. The bill creates a new,”Office of Small Farms” within the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services (VDACS), and to be headed by VDACS. The bill authorizes the Office to help with the growth and development of small farms, and as defined in the bill, to provide support and expand programs for such farms. The bill will be funded by VA tax dollars.
The growth and development sound great on the surface but the bill also gives the “Office” the authority to monitor, the development and expansion of small farms in the Commonwealth through data collection, tracking, measurement, and analysis. (see section 7 of the bill). Virginians do not need a newly expanded entity of the VDACS accompanied by more specific red tape to do what the farming community is already doing. There are already State and Federal small farm grants, help for farmers through the VA Cooperative Extension offices and a great deal of learning through Youtube “university?
Nor do we need to pay for it!
We have been working for 25 years to restore direct farm-to-consumer food freedom to the public, unfettered by government restriction. This year, our HB 699 and HB402 , if passed, will lower permitting requirements for small farms and food operators, helping more people start local food production businesses than ever before.
HB1169 is a Trojan Horse of a bill created to “help” the small farming community by enrolling it in programs that help the government keep better track of, educate on farming protocol, and enforce regulatory practices.
To get ahead of the burgeoning local food expansion, the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services HB1169, seeks to create a new tax-funded governing Office of Small Farms within VDACS. The bill intends to govern and capture small farms by integrating them into “leg up” programs that come with monitoring and red tape.
The Commissioner already has the jurisdiction to go after any food operation in the regulatory body, large or small. It is not necessary to create a new bureaucratic entity to data capture entrepreneurs and to police small farms. Virginians pay for it!
Call your representative and ask them to vote NO to tax-paid government expansion and small farm capture.
