The subject of Colorado’s ‘Food Freedom’ bill has been changed entirely

The Colorado General Assembly has its own routines. One allows a bill to change its spots.

Take SB24-026, for example. It was one of the first bills heard during the current legislative session about “accountability and food freedom.”

It was heard by the Senate Agriculture and Natural Committee on Jan. 18 and was paired with SB24-043, a bill allowing direct sales of raw milk.

No less than House Speaker Barbara McLachlan was among the sponsors.

If you go looking for SB24-026 today, you will find it has been Engrossed and ReEngrossed and is now about the Water Resources and Agriculture Review Committee.

It does not appear that anything is happening about “Food Freedom” or raw milk sales, at least in this session of the Colorado Legislature.

It is worth noting that one month remains before this session of the Colorado Legislature adjourns for the year, and the system allows the Majority Party to bend the rules, so anything can, and usually does, happen.

But for now, “food freedom” and raw milk sales are gone and replaced with this; “The bill renews the public engagement requirement for the members of the parks and wildlife commission in the Department of Natural Resources who are appointed by the governor and adds the same public engagement requirement for members of the state agricultural commission and the Colorado water conservation board which the governor appoints. The bill requires public engagement meetings to be held in person. Commission and board members subject to the public engagement requirement are entitled to reimbursement for their reasonable costs in public meetings. Status updates on the commission and board members’ compliance with the public engagement requirement must be reported to the chair of each member’s respective commission or board and included in each member’s respective executive department’s annual “SMART Act” presentation to the general assembly.”
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