Tell House Local Government Committee Members to Vote YES on HB 1850
Support Local Food in Tennessee
House Bill 1850 (HB 1850) is legislation which would protect your legal right to grow your own food will be having a hearing before the House Local Government Committee on Tuesday the 26th at 130 p.m. Central.
HB 1850 would prevent counties and municipalities from adopting, respectively, any regulation or ordinance prohibiting (1) the growing of fruits and vegetables, and/or (2) the raising or keeping of up to six chickens or up to six adult rabbits on a single-family residential lot. A county or municipality would still have the power to impose reasonable laws on both the growing of fruits and vegetables and the raising of chickens and rabbits as long as such laws do not have the effect of prohibiting these activities.
Aside from protecting and strengthening your legal right to grow your own food, the purpose of the bill is to improve food security. HB 1850 will lead to an increase in local food production–something that is especially needed with hyperinflation in food prices, supply chain disruptions, rolling shortages of various foods, and deprivation of fundamental health freedoms throughout the U.S. over the past few years as well as an increasing lack of transparency as to what ingredients are actually in foods in the conventional system.
ACTION TO TAKE
Please contact the House committee members asking them to vote YES on HB 1850. Calls are most effective, so be sure to follow up by phone to speak to the Representatives or their staffers. If your Representative is on the House Local Government Committee (see phone numbers listed below), mention that you are their constituent. Further below are Talking Points and More Background.
Find your House Representative by entering your address online at:
https://wapp.capitol.tn.gov/Apps/fml2022/lookup.aspx
You may copy/paste this block to email all the committee members at once:
rep.john.crawford@capitol.tn.gov; rep.dave.wright@capitol.tn.gov; rep.rebecca.alexander@capitol.tn.gov; rep.jeff.burkhart@capitol.tn.gov;
rep.dale.carr@capitol.tn.gov; rep.clay.doggett@capitol.tn.gov; rep.michael.hale@capitol.tn.gov; rep.esther.helton@capitol.tn.gov; rep.john.holsclaw@capitol.tn.gov; rep.harold.love@capitol.tn.gov; rep.greg.martin@capitol.tn.gov; rep.sam.mckenzie@capitol.tn.gov; rep.larry.miller@capitol.tn.gov; rep.jerome.moon@capitol.tn.gov; rep.kevin.raper@capitol.tn.gov; rep.jay.reedy@capitol.tn.gov; rep.tim.rudd@capitol.tn.gov; rep.johnny.shaw@capitol.tn.gov; rep.william.slater@capitol.tn.gov; rep.robert.stevens@capitol.tn.gov; rep.dwayne.thompson@capitol.tn.gov; rep.todd.warner@capitol.tn.gov
Please call your Representative if s/he is listed here:
Rep Todd Warner (615) 741-4170
Rep Robert Stevens (615) 741-3830
Rep Dwayne Thompson (615) 741-1920
Rep Johnny Shaw (615) 741-4538
Rep William Slater (615) 741-2534
Rep Tim Rudd (615) 741-2804
Rep Jay Reedy (615) 741-7098
Rep Larry Miller (615) 741-4453
Rep Jerome Moon (615) 741-5481
Rep Kevin Raper (615) 741-1350
Rep Esther Helton-Haynes (615) 741-1934
Rep John Holsclaw (615) 741-7450
Rep Harold Love (615) 741-3831
Rep Greg Martin (615) 741-2548
Rep Sam McKenzie (615) 741-0768
Rep Michael Hale (615) 741-2192
Rep Clay Doggett (615) 741-7476
Rep Dale Carr 615) 741-5981
Rep Jeff Burkhart (615) 741-6804
Rep John Crawford (615) 741-7623
Rep Dave Wright (615) 741-6879
Rep Rebecca Alexander (615) 741-2251
TALKING POINTS
1. The cost of food is skyrocketing, making it more difficult for many to afford food adequate for their nutritional needs. It’s imperative that the state increase maximum possible legal protection for people to grow and produce their own food–a basic fundamental right.
2. The bill gives counties and municipalities power to prescribe reasonable requirements governing the growing and raising of food to ensure that these activities don’t interfere with neighbors’ enjoyment of their own property.
3. Passage of the bill will improve food security by increasing local resiliency and self-sufficiency leading to the development of stronger community food systems.
MORE BACKGROUND
The cost of food is becoming less affordable for many; according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, as recently as August 2022, the rate of inflation for food was 11.4%, the highest since May 1979. Many think the actual inflation rate was higher. The breakdown in supply chains over the past four years have made the conventional food system less reliable.
There aren’t as many Tennessee farms around to produce food for state residents. According to the 2022 Census of Agriculture, the number of farms in Tennessee declined from 69,983 farms in 2017 to 63,105 farms in 2022, a drop of over 10%. The number of farms in the U.S. during that time decreased by 140,000.
WAPF will send out future alerts on HB 1850 as events warrant.
LINKS
HB 1850 status –
https://wapp.capitol.tn.gov/apps/BillInfo/Default.aspx?BillNumber=HB1850&GA=113
House Local Government Committee
https://wapp.capitol.tn.gov/apps/CommitteeInfo/HouseComm.aspx?ga=113&committeeKey=890000
Find My Legislator –
https://wapp.capitol.tn.gov/Apps/fml2022/lookup.aspx
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BRENDA STEELE says
Please do not allow our right 2grow and save our own food and seeds.
BRENDA STEELE says
Please do not allow our right 2grow our own food and save our own seeds 2b taken away from us.
Barry K. Voorhies says
Who decided six chickens and six adult rabbits is adequate food production for a Tennessee Family? Anyone who has ever raised food for their own family knows six chickens will produce slightly more than five eggs a day. And two times a year they won’t lay at all for 2-7 weeks. This bill does not ensure the rights of Tennesseans to produce their own food, it limits that production to something that is unsustainable. I have been raising my own food for 25 years. This is laughable. Except it’s not funny. This legislation falls woefully short of helping Tennesseans. This simply interferes with food production while masquerading as something positive.