The Shareable Food Movement Meets the Law

[marmar]

from Civil Eats:



The Shareable Food Movement Meets the Law

July 20th, 2011
By Janelle Orsi


When San Francisco’s Underground Market got started, the city’s health department recognized it as a private event where people exchanged (albeit, with money) homemade foods. Interested participants simply had to sign up on the Web site of the event’s host organization, Forage SF, and they became “members.”

Soon the market became one of San Francisco’s most popular phenomena–a place where hip, mostly young food entrepreneurs could get their brands out there and foodies could gather, socialize, and discover bafflingly delicious items such as “bacon brack.” The whole point, said founder Iso Rabins, was to create opportunities for food entrepreneurs who could otherwise not afford to operate out of certified commercial kitchens.

When the event swelled to accommodate the hundreds and soon thousands of people who would line up to attend, the market became an undeniably public. Then, earlier this summer, the San Francisco Health Department put a halt to the whole delicious operation. At present, the market is in limbo and Rabbins, the Health Department, and many others are chewing on the question: What makes an event or club private?

The realm of shareable food is flourishing; there’s community meal sharing, potlucks, gift-economy restaurants, community food growing projects, food swap events, pop-up stores, stone soup gatherings, food-buying cooperatives, goat-sharing, chicken cooperatives, and events like The Big Lunch. A handful of start-up companies are also creating peer-to-peer platforms to help people feed each other. Check out Grubly, Munchery, Gobble, and EatWithMe, all of which connect chefs with foodies and/or catalyze community food events. .............(more)

The complete piece is at: http://civileats.com/2011/07/20/the-shareable-food-movement-meets-the-law-2/

[Warpy]

1. Around here, they've managed to shut down all street food

and without the food, there is no street life beyond a few crazed alcoholics screaming at the traffic.

It sucks.

While it's nice to have rules for commercial kitchens that serve hundreds of people a day, common sense would seem to dictate somewhat different rules for the old lady who bakes 20 pies a day for a local diner or the women who bake box mix cupcakes for school fundraisers. But no. Not here.

Common sense has just left the laws that apply to people. It's the same thing that sees 13 year old girls charged with drug dealing for giving a classmate with cramps a Midol, TSA agents patting down toddlers' crotches looking for bombs, and the complete ban on small scale, home produced foods.

I'm sick of it. Especially the food.