The Farm and Ranch Freedom Alliance is asking the Texas Department of Agriculture (TDA)(click to read PDF) to remove agency rules that impose time-consuming permitting and fee requirements on small farmers selling eggs.

Locally raised eggs are in high demand, but existing regulations on “grading” create unnecessary barriers for farmers. The effects of this are glaring now with the national egg shortage and were also particularly visible during the COVID-19 pandemic and following the recent winter storms.

Grocery store shelves were empty, but local farmers who had eggs to sell were unable to help fill those shelves because of the grading requirements.

“Grading” eggs involves weighing and measuring each egg, sorting them by size, and obtaining a license from the Texas Department of Agriculture, which includes monthly reporting and fees based on the number of eggs sold.

Grading is a marketing issue and provides no benefits from a health or food safety perspective.Texas farmers can legally sell ungraded eggs directly to consumers, and you can find ungraded eggs being sold at farmers’ markets all over the state.

An Open Records Act request to DSHS indicates that there has not been a single suspected foodborne illness linked to ungraded eggs in the last 20 years! But regulations prohibit restaurants and retailers from buying ungraded eggs, preventing farmers from selling their eggs to chefs or grocers unless they get a license and grade their eggs.

This requirement is a significant barrier for many small farmers, because eggs have a very small profit margin, and the additional expense and hassle cannot be justified by many farmers.  

What about those farmers who sell both to restaurants or grocers and to consumers? TDA’s regulations provide that even though farmers can sell ungraded eggs directly to consumers, if they also sell eggs to restaurants or grocers, not only do they have to grade those eggs being sold wholesale, but suddenly they lose the right to sell ungraded eggs directly to consumers.

This means more reporting and more fees, for selling the exact same eggs to the exact same consumers!

There is no logical reason for these requirements, they simply help Big Agribusiness by imposing barriers and fees on small farmers and make it harder for consumers to access the foods they want.

In addition to urging TDA to change its rules, FARFA is also tackling this issue through legislation in the 2023 Texas legislative session.

Keep an eye on our Legislative Priorities page and sign up for email action alerts!