Wisconsinites can sell more than baked goods from home, judge rules

WISCONSIN (CBS 58) -- A Madison judge recently ruled that people in Wisconsin can now sell a wide range of homemade goods without a commercial license or certified kitchen. 

The recent ruling marks the second victory for three Wisconsin women farmers who have been fighting for years to be able to sell non-hazardous food items from home.

Wisconsin was one of very few states that had banned virtually all sales of homemade food, requiring that people instead pay to utilize an off-site commercial kitchen.

Dane County Circuit Court Judge Rhonda Lanford changed that this past week. 

Lisa Kivirist, 56, Claudia Dela Ends, 69, and Kriss Marion, 54, won their first lawsuit against the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection back in 2017. They successfully argued that a state ban on the sale of home-baked goods to the public was unconstitutional.

"We all were farmers growing produce, but we also had bed-and-breakfasts so, the interesting thing about us was we had inspected kitchens," Marion explained to CBS 58 News.

In February 2021, thousands of others, alongside the Wisconsin Cottage Food Association (which represents people who make homemade foods for sale in the state) filed a follow-up lawsuit arguing that Wisconsin residents should be able to sell other shelf-stable goods out of their homes, like roasted coffee beans, hot cocoa bombs, fried donuts, and candy, in addition to cookies, cakes and bread. 

Wisconsin had previously only allowed private residents to sell items like cider, honey, maple syrup and popcorn, as well as jams, jellies and pickles.

State lawyers however, argued, in part, that food safety was the issue.

"Nonprofits could sell baked goods at fundraisers, so, this wasn't a matter of safety or a concern that home bakers didn't know how to keep their kitchens' clean, it was literally just to protect bigger business from startups," Marion added.

She said that for those who live in the countryside, the requirement of acquiring a commercial license or certified kitchen was nearly impossible.

"It really was a big investment for anyone to, to build one of these kitchens, you could also rent a certified kitchen if you can get to a town...in addition to taking care of my animals, hosting my guests and managing a crew that was harvesting veggies, the expectation was that I was going to then go drive somewhere and pay money to rent a certified kitchen to bake a couple hundred cookies that I would sell at a market in a town of 800, the numbers don't add up," she expressed.

The decades-long process might have come to an end, but Marion said there is still a lot more to be done for farmers.

"This is a great New Year's gift," she said."We really believe that Wisconsin should be the leader in local food; I think the time is right to keep pressing into this, we'd love to get it out of the courts and into the legislature, we'd love to have a bigger dialogue and get a Cottage Food law in place that helps people, safely, exercise their freedoms to sell directly to consumers."