Your local Harris County farmers markets are in need of protection!

Harris County has claimed for years that the rapidly expanding farmers market scene necessitates finding a permit category under which to inspect farmers market vendors as no such category existed.

Harris County acknowledges that their code needs to be updated, yet the only change made to the Harris County code regarding farmers markets has been to add additional categories of vendors. This, of course, allows them to collect even more in fees. Farmers selling meat, eggs, or dairy--already highly regulated by the state--are now expected to pay $225 per year. Food artisans selling temperature controlled foods are expected to pay $335 per year, plus $125 set-up fee for the new “Sampling Permit.”

The health department has offered their new $335 per year “Sampling Permit” to vendors who wish to offer samples of their products. The Texas Department of State Health Services Code already allows sampling to take place at farmers markets and even states in the 2013 Farmers Market Bill that local health authorities may not require permitting for sampling.

The county has determined vendors preparing food for consumption at the market are actually “Temporary Food Events,” permits for which cost $80 per 14 day “event” period.

Vendors preparing food to order at MVFM pay $2080 per year for 4 hours per week of service within a 100 square foot inspection space.

A restaurant in the same jurisdiction pays $300 per year for as much as 70 hours per week of service, for thousands of feet of inspection space.

This farmers market is anything but temporary, having been in the same location and under the same operating guidelines every Saturday since October, 2015.

Harris County Health Department justifies this by claiming the nature of the market increases health risks--yet inspections are few and far between. Collecting $80/2 weeks due to increased risk to 'public health' but not inspecting proves it isn’t about public health but about fee collection.

Under the current Harris County Health Department permitting fee structure, the vendors are expected to pay over $20,000 per year in permitting fees--and this is just for the Memorial Villages Farmers Market. There are other markets in the county similarly targeted as being ripe for fee generation as fees paid for one market are not transferable to other area markets. Your market vendors cannot survive such heavy-handed permitting fees.

Our recommendation is a single permit to cover the entire market: farmers, food artisans, and prepared food. We suggest a yearly permitting fee of $500 paid by the market. There are alternate approaches, but we feel this provides the most consistency and protection for vendors and protection for customers.

The county has had half a decade of claiming the need to pigeonhole markets into a category. It is time to write code that accurately addresses the unique aspects of a farmers market. To not do so fails to take the needs of the community into account and abuses the public trust.

It is time for the county to show that it cares about farmers, small businesses, and you the consumer by overhauling the health code in order to implement a reasonable and affordable market inspection and permitting system.