262422
1 • Wednesday, May 17, 2017 - The Independent-Register
Brodhead
Independent• Register 608•897•2193
www.randrautosales.net
608-934-5400
SHOPPING NEWS
922 W. EXCHANGE STREET, BRODHEAD, WI 53520
WEDNESDAY, MAY 17, 2017
W2620 State Rd. 11/81 •Juda, WI. Auto Detailing Available
Cookie law constitutionality ruling likely just weeks away By Tony Ends
CORRESPONDENT
Judge Duane Jorgenson has summoned three women to circuit court May 31 to decide their challenge to Wisconsin’s law against home baking sales. That notice follows an Institute for Justice court filing last year and a single hearing in Lafayette County just weeks ago. Yet it reflects years of the trio’s unsuccessful attempts with Wisconsin Farmers Union (WFU) to bring to Wisconsin what 48 other states freely permit. Each local plaintiff made her way from a farmstead, variously from rural Brodhead, Blanchardville and Browntown, last month to appear before Jorgenson in Darlington’s historic courthouse. About 25 people, mostly women and family members, some driving as far as 3 hours, made the early-morning trip to court, too. Press was among them April 27 from three local papers, a state farm publication and community radio station WORT. That contrasted sharply with CBS Sunday morning show, online magazine and big city daily coverage of the lawsuit to-date. What seems novel in the nation’s eyes is a bread-and-butter issue close to home. It pits rights of anyone, everyone inclined to bake and sell from home against manufacturers, lawmakers and a state agency charged with enforcement. “Plaintiffs Dela Ends, Kriss Marion and Lisa Kivirist are all farmers and avid bakers who want to help support their families by selling their delicious baked good,” argued attorney Erica Smith. “Plaintiffs must decline the requests of potential customers, however, because in Wisconsin, selling even a single home-baked cookie risks up to $1,000 in fines and up to 6 months in jail.” Defending Wisconsin against legal challenge from Smith’s national non-profit institute, Assistant State’s Attorney Gabe Johnson-Karp served up complex interpretations at issue. He deflected citizen claims of protectionism, irrationality and unfairness compared to a number of exemptions
TONY ENDS PHOTO Brodhead Independent-Register
Dela Ends, Kris Marion, and Lisa Kivirist – cookies and bread in hand – flank their Institute for Justice attorneys Erica Smith and Michael Bindas at the railing atop the steps to Darlington’s courthouse. With them are some women and family members who turned out for the trio’s constitutional challenge to one of only two states that bar families from selling what they bake without commercial licensing.
Wisconsin allows. He deflected or demurred as to pressure on state lawmakers from big food manufacturers, and he pressed their food safety claims. While much of the court hearing was taken up with sparring over admissibility of late-filed “evidence,” mostly photos from Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection inspections of licensed food manufacturers as interpreted second-hand by a former state inspector, Judge Jorgenson directed most of his prodding toward the defense. “There has to be a rational basis for legislation,” he said, “and that rationale has to be rational,” noting that two plaintiffs, Kivirist and Marion, operate bed and breakfast establishments in which they routinely feed customers, yet are forbidden to sell the same baked items from the same ingredients, recipes and kitchens to the same clients to take home, or to neighbors in farmers’ markets. If the stated purpose of Wisconsin’s laws and regulations is safety, how
does the statute allow some to consume this home fare, but not others in a community farmers’ market, Jorgenson asked? “Separate regulations allow people to open their homes, engaging in a different economic relationship,” Johnson-Karp replied. “It makes sense for them to provide food for their guests, but it makes senses that this is different than people they would meet on the street.” Given opportunity to respond to that argument, Smith told the judge it makes no sense for Wisconsin to require the hefty expense of B&B own-
ers building a second state-licensed kitchen, costing tens of thousands of dollars to meet separate sets of rules. “The only reason we have this law is because of the lobby efforts of commercial bakers,” she said. Renting a licensed kitchen can be pricey, too, and it frequently requires travel for people away from their neighborhood or rural community. One licensed facility provided to the public in Madison charges $25 an hour. Just 10 hours of baking a week at that rate would amount to $13,500 a year, plaintiffs argued, in their 46page constitutional challenge to Wis-
consin’s law. From that plaintiffs’ written legal challenge, Judge Jorgenson also drew particular attention to non-profit baking that Wisconsin allows among nine exempted classes. Free from state regulation, all of the exemptions (from home cider, to sorghum, picked products and eggs) could easily be deemed less safe than baked goods out of a home kitchen oven. So many exemptions made for so many small home producers, Smith argued, seems hardly fair or reasonable. Wisconsin Bakers Association, for example, the nonprofit trade association for bakeries that has lobbied against three citizen and WFU legislative attempts to add home-baking to the exemptions, is allowed annually to sell 400,000 cream puffs at the state fair in West Allis. “Meanwhile, a home baker cannot sell even one cookie if she is doing it to support her family,” Smith told the court, even though there has never been a documented case anywhere in the nation of anyone being sickened from home-baked cookies and breads. For the state, Johnson-Karp admitted there exist no reports of homebaked goods having ever sickened anyone, anywhere, but he said health and safety concerns are still real. Wisconsin citizens’ third attempt with WFU to pass a bill exempting home-baked good sales in face-to-face transactions without food processing licensure is presently before the state Legislature. Assembly Speaker Robin Voss, himself a licensed owner of a popcorn business, has refused comment repeatedly to the press as to why the bill never makes it out of his key committee to a floor vote.
Sign up for Teen Battle of the Books The seven public libraries of Rock County are once again putting together the Rock County Teen Battle of the Books, a friendly reading competition for teens ages 11 to 15. For the third year, teens will have the opportunity to read six great books and represent their library in a battle between teams from Clinton Public Library, Beloit Public Library, Eager Free Public Library (Evansville), Edgerton Public Library, Hedberg Public Library, Milton Public Library, and Orfordville Public Library. Last year, 57 people witnessed six teams answer a variety of questions. Orfordville’s Team BOO won and was able to proudly display the traveling trophy at their library. Registration for the 2017 Rock County Teen Battle of the Books will be from May 15 to June 16. Individual and team registration can be done at any of the Rock County public libraries or online at http://rockcountybattleofthebooks.tumblr.com. Teams can consist to 2 to 4 players; individual registrants will be assigned a team by library staff members. Teens can join any library’s team that they wish as they don’t necessarily need to play for their home library. Team members
will meet periodically at their home library and will have the opportunity to make t-shirts for the Final Battle. The Final Battle will be held at the Beloit Public Library on Thursday, July 20, at 6 p.m. For the majority of the Final Battle, questions will be answered using Kahoot, a game-based classroom response system. Teams will be issued iPads and will see immediate scoring results. However, new to this year, various rounds will consist of written and oral answers. The battle is expected to take at least an hour and a half and will end with a pizza party for all participants. This year, the booklist includes: “Hidden Figures (Young Readers’ Edition)”, by Margot Lee Shetterly, “The Inquisitor’s Tale,” by Adam Gidwitz and Hatem Aly, “The Iron Trial,” by Holly Black and Cassandra Clare, “It Ain’t So Awful, Falafel,” by Firoozeh Dumas, “My Hero Academia (Vol. 1),” by Kohei Horikosh, and “QB1,” by Mike Lupica. Copies of the books are available at all the participating libraries. For more information, please visit http://rockcountybattleofthebooks. tumblr.com. Let the battle begin!
281795