While the Texas Legislature has already been called back into special session, the regular session is over, leaving us to assess the impacts.

Less than 15% of the bills filed made it to the Governor’s desk. It was by all measures a political bloodbath.

But the good news is that we succeeded in winning a major reform for small-scale meat processing! SB 691 will benefit small livestock farmers, and consumers who want to buy meat directly from farmers. The bill allows small farmers to sell any size “share” in a live animal to consumers and then use a custom-exempt slaughterhouse for processing. This will make local meat more affordable and available for many people!

Governor Abbott has until Sunday, June 18, to sign, veto, or allow our meat processing reform bill to become law without taking action. Then we will work with government agencies to set up the new policies while also educating livestock producers across the state about the new opportunities so that everyone can benefit.

While the big goal is always to pass the bills, the mark of success in a legislative session is measured by more than just that. This session, we continued to grow the reputation and impact of small farmers & regenerative agriculture in Texas:

• Our bills garnered dozens, sometimes hundreds, of written comments submitted to House Committees (where most other bills got two or three);
• Farmers and ranchers from all over the state – from the Panhandle to the Valley – testified at committee hearings;
• Farmers and consumers – regular people just like you — visited 178 legislative offices during grassroots Lobby Days;
• All 6 of our bills were approved by one chamber (House or Senate);
• We had in-depth meetings with dozens of key offices, both our champions and our opponents, developing strategies and countering opposition.

Unfortunately, power is still concentrated in too few hands at the Capitol, and entrenched Agribusiness lobbyists are always exerting influence, which resulted in most of our bills dying after passing one chamber. As with every session, it is infuriating seeing common-sense bills die that would have helped small farmers be better able to provide food for our local communities.

It often takes multiple sessions to pass a bill, and many grassroots organizations go years without passing any bill.

Our combination of grassroots power building, perseverance, and strategic relationships has now led to the passage of 13 bills in the Texas Legislature to help small farmers!

More on our other bills:

COTTAGE FOODS EXPANSION, SB 829

The Cottage Foods bill expansion came within a whisker of passing. It was unanimously  approved by the Senate and then by the House Public Health Committee. But it only made it to the calendar for a vote by the full House on the last day possible. Due to the fights between the House and Senate leadership, and between the Democrats and the Republicans, the voting moved at a snail’s pace that final day and the clock ran out eight bills before they would have reached SB 829. We had the votes to pass it — it was a victim of unrelated power fights.

HOME FOOD SECURITY, FAIR TAXES, TDA and UNGRADED EGGS

Our other four bills made it through the House, only to die in the Senate.

The Home Food Security (HB 92) and the Fair Taxes for Small Farmers (HB 3857) bills both passed the House with strong bipartisan support, and both were sent to the Senate Local Government Committee, chaired by Senator Bettencourt. He did not allow either bill to get a committee hearing. The Home Food Security bill’s death was due to the powerful HOA lobby in Austin, which made its opposition clear during the House proceedings, although they were only able to garner 11 “nay” votes in the House, while 137 House members voted for the bill. The death of the Fair Taxes for Small Farmers bill is more of a mystery, as its opponents stayed behind closed doors, but it’s a good bet that the Harris County tax appraisal district played a significant role in convincing Sen. Bettencourt (of Houston) to kill it.

The bill to rein in the TDA’s intrusive and overreaching inspections of small produce farms (HB 3373) passed the House unanimously, only to die because the Senate Committee Chair – in this case, Senator Perry – refused to give it a hearing. TDA kept insisting that limiting the agency to the parameters of the federal rule would somehow cause the federal government to come in and take over the program … a nonsensical claim, given that almost every other state is managing to implement the federal rule without these intrusive physical inspections of exempt farms! But the agency successfully managed to keep the bill from seeing the light of day in the Senate.

The bill to allow the sale of ungraded eggs (HB 2945) appears to have drawn the ire of the Lieutenant Governor, who never even assigned it to a Senate Committee. Presumably, this was due to the work of the Poultry Federation, which vehemently opposed the bill in the House. Like the HOA lobby, the Poultry Federation couldn’t win in an open fight (they only garnered 19 votes against the bill on the House floor), so they found a way to kill it behind closed doors.

FINAL THOUGHTS & CONTINUED HOPE

All of this is enough to make anyone cynical and discouraged. Go ahead and take a moment to feel that way. And then pick yourself back up and recommit to the fight! Remember that it took 4 years to stop the National Animal Identification System … 3 years to get the small farm exemption to the Federal Food Safety Modernization Act … and 10 years to get raw milk delivery legalized in Texas!

The problems with our agricultural and food system have been developing since the 1950s, and it is going to take determination, intelligence, and commitment to build the resilient, healthy food systems we champion.

We’re in this fight for the long haul.
Thank you for being in it with us!!!