Proposal could help farmers sell homemade products - Bonita Oehlke

Boston Business Journal - August 18, 2000by Jill LernerJournal Staff

Massachusetts farmers currently can sell their produce and homemade products directly to consumers at more than 400 farm stands and 102 farmers' markets.

If they want to reach a larger customer base, however, many small manufacturers are out of luck under current state law.

The Massachusetts Department of Public Health wants to change that.

Current state regulations governing food production prohibit wholesale distribution of products made in a family kitchen. That means growers who make "value-added" or processed products from their produce--such as applesauce or jams--can sell directly to a consumer, but cannot sell their product to a store. By extension, residential kitchen operators are less likely to receive large orders for their product.

With the loss of 90,000 acres of farmland during the past decade, state agriculture officials say value-added products are an increasingly important mechanism through which growers pump more than $530 million in annual cash receipts into the economy.

Proposed regulations by the DPH would allow farmers and small manufacturers with residential kitchen licenses to wholesale their products. Farmers with a commercial kitchen license can already wholesale, but are held to more stringent requirements.

A public hearing on the regulations is scheduled for Aug. 29 at the state DPH laboratory in Jamaica Plain.

"One of the ways that can help growers stay viable is by adding values to their product," said Bonita Oehlke, program coordinator for the Massachusetts Department of Food and Agriculture, whose agency is leading the push for new regulations.

"In general, it's more lucrative to sell applesauce instead of apples. In general, it's more lucrative to sell pesto instead of basil."

While Massachusetts growers and specialty food manufacturers have been allowed to retail their homemade goods since the mid-1980s, according to Richard Waskiewicz, director of the DPH food protection program, residential kitchen operators never have been allowed to wholesale their goods.

Waskiewicz said a primary reason is that federal regulations prohibit the interstate sale of products made in residential kitchens. While manufacturers still will not be allowed to sell across state lines, Waskiewicz said his department proposed the changes in response to the status of farming in the state, an industry that could use as much of a boost as possible.