Compiled by multiple resources and Homesteaders of America. Please note that this may not be a comprehensive list of every state. Different states have different timelines for bills and laws. Check your state’s upcoming bills to be sure nothing has changed.
July 2026 Edition
We are starting something new, and we hope you enjoy it. So often we get asked “where can we see a complete run down of what’s going on with food and health in politics!?” We decided to start exactly that.
Most of what shapes your kitchen, your barn, and your medicine cabinet isn’t decided in Washington. It’s decided in your statehouse—often in a committee room with a dozen people watching. A single hearing, attended or ignored, can decide whether you can sell a loaf of bread to your neighbor, share raw milk from your own cow, or see the practitioner of your choosing.
This is our monthly watch of the bills that expand those freedoms—and the ones that quietly take them away. July is a turning-of-the-season month: most state legislatures have gone home for the year, so this issue is a harvest report. Here’s what passed, what died, what’s still alive in the states that meet year-round, and what to start watching for the 2027 sessions.
How to Read This
Every item is tagged so you can scan fast and know exactly where to put your energy:
- 🌱 OPPORTUNITY — a bill that expands freedom. Worth a thank-you to your legislator or support if still moving.
- 🛡️ THREAT — a bill that restricts freedom. This is where showing up matters.
- 👀 WATCH — introduced or developing; status not yet settled.
And the status of each:
- ✅ Signed into law · ⛔ Failed / died · 🔄 Still active
This Month at a Glance
- Food freedom kept its momentum. Virginia, West Virginia, Maryland, and Indiana all expanded cottage food access in 2026. This is a genuine bright spot for home-based producers.
- Raw milk is the fault line to watch. Michigan’s direct-to-consumer raw milk package is still alive in a year-round legislature. Iowa moved raw milk and cottage food bills this session.
- The federal Farm Bill cleared the House on April 30 — with a new soil-health match program for states and heavy emphasis on precision agriculture.
- Naturopathic access is being fought state by state. Florida moved to reestablish naturopathic licensure after 67 years; New York has a licensure bill in committee. Several other states saw these bills defeated.
- One quiet threat: a New Jersey bill would add a $12,500 sales cap where home-food producers currently have none.
1. Food Freedom & Cottage Food
The trend of the last few years held: more states are moving from restrictive “cottage food” rules toward broader “food freedom”—letting home kitchens sell more kinds of food, in more places, with fewer permits.
🌱 OPPORTUNITY · Virginia — HB 402 · ✅ Signed (effective July 1, 2026) Virginia cottage food producers can now sell over the internet or by phone and ship or deliver to customers by mail or delivery service—where before, sales had to be in person. Products still can’t be sold out of state or in retail food establishments.
🌱 OPPORTUNITY · West Virginia — SB 44 · ✅ Signed West Virginia created a dedicated cottage food section in its code for the first time, replacing the patchwork of farmers-market rules that governed home producers before.
🌱 OPPORTUNITY · Maryland — HB 535 · ✅ Signed (effective October 1, 2026) Maryland raised the cottage food business revenue ceiling from $50,000 to $100,000 a year — doubling how much a home producer can earn before losing the exemption.
🌱 OPPORTUNITY · Indiana — HB 1424 · ✅ Signed (effective July 1, 2026) Indiana shifts to a much broader food-freedom model, newly allowing time/temperature-control (TCS) foods — the refrigerated items that used to be off-limits — under new rules. (Verify specifics if in this state!)
🛡️ THREAT · New York — A5836 · 👀 WATCH / 🔄 Active This is the one to keep an eye on. New York home-food producers currently operate without a sales cap. A5836 (a proposed “Homegrown Foods Act”) would add a $12,500 annual cap. It was re-referred to the Assembly Agriculture Committee in January 2026. A cap where none existed is a restriction dressed up as a framework—worth watching closely.
👀 WATCH · Missouri — HB 3108 · 🔄 Introduced, not passed Would significantly expand homemade food sales. Introduced in 2026; has not passed. One to track into next session.
2. Raw Milk & Farm-to-Consumer
Raw milk remains the most contested corner of food freedom — the place where “your animal, your choice” runs headlong into state agriculture departments and the dairy lobby.
🌱 OPPORTUNITY · Michigan — HB 5217, 5218, 5219 · 🔄 Still active A three-bill package would allow farm-to-consumer sale of raw milk and other unpasteurized dairy directly to consumers, with an exemption from licensing for producers who meet safety standards. The bills advanced out of committee. Because Michigan runs a two-year legislative session, this package is still live — making Michigan the most actionable raw milk fight in the country right now. The Michigan Department of Agriculture and the Dairy Farmers of America have submitted opposition. (The three bills are “tie-barred” — none takes effect unless all three pass.)
👀 WATCH · Iowa — HF 2444 & related · 🔄 Session adjourned May 4 Iowa moved bills this session to expand raw milk sales and allow cottage foods to be sold in grocery stores. The 2026 session has closed. The bill was formally withdrawn in the House on April 29, 2026, but its provisions were advanced and subsequently passed through a successor bill, HF 2767.
👀 WATCH · North Carolina — Farm Act · 🔄 Verify current status — Prior versions of the NC Farm Act contained language to restrict raw milk herd shares and raw-milk-for-pet-food sales. Those sections were removed in an earlier Senate version, but because North Carolina’s long session can revive provisions, this is worth a fresh check each month it’s in session.
3. Regenerative Agriculture & Soil Health
A word on framing before the bills: a lot of “soil health” legislation is written in the language of carbon and climate. The underlying practices—cover cropping, no-till, rotational grazing, keeping living roots in the ground—are exactly what regenerative stewards already do. The opportunity is in cost-share dollars and technical help for those practices. The caution is in the fine print: watch for anything that ties soil programs to mandatory carbon markets, farm-data reporting, or land-use strings. Read the mechanism, not just the title.
Federal (affects every state)
🌱 OPPORTUNITY · Farm, Food, and National Security Act of 2026 — H.R. 7567 · 🔄 Passed House 224–200 (April 30, 2026) The Farm Bill cleared the House. For regenerative producers, the notable pieces: a proposed $100 million/year federal match for state and Tribal soil health programs, a new “state assistance for soil health” initiative under the Conservation Stewardship Program, and heavy emphasis on precision-agriculture practices within EQIP and CSP. It still needs the Senate—a live thing to track through the summer and fall.
👀 WATCH · Soil CARE Act of 2026 — S. 3820 / H.R. 7474 · 🔄 Introduced Would direct USDA to build a soil-health training program for NRCS staff and the third-party advisors who help farmers implement regenerative systems. Companion bills in both chambers.
State Level
State soil-health and healthy-soils programs (cost-share for cover crops, no-till incentives, grazing programs) exist in a growing number of states—Maryland, Vermont, California, and others have standing programs. We hope to expand into more states directly as we begin to expand this report each month.
In the meantime, watch for….
🛡️ (Threat) Watch for: carbon-pipeline eminent domain, mandatory animal ID / traceability, foreign farmland ownership rules that sweep in small producers, and right-to-farm / nuisance rollbacks.
🌱 (Opportunity) Watch for: cover-crop and no-till cost-share, soil-health grant programs, and beginning-farmer land access.
4. Natural Healthcare & Health Freedom
This is the newest and most fast-moving of the three areas — a state-by-state fight over who you’re allowed to see for your care. The pattern in 2026: bills to license and expand access to naturopathic doctors, midwives, and other practitioners, met by organized opposition from state medical associations.
👀 WATCH · New York — S8714 (Hinchey) · 🔄 In committee Would establish naturopathic doctors as licensed professionals in New York under the State Education Department. Introduced January 7, 2026; referred to the Higher Education Committee.
⛔ FAILED · Florida — “Medical Freedom Act” · Died in House A broader bill that passed the Florida Senate but died in the House. It would have eased vaccine exemptions for schoolchildren, required certain vaccine disclosures with parental sign-off, allowed pharmacists to provide ivermectin to adults without a prescription, and maintained prohibitions on mRNA-vaccine mandates.
⛔ FAILED · Florida — SB 688 · Florida moved to reestablish licensure and regulation of naturopathic doctors for the first time since 1959, creating a Board of Naturopathic Medicine and authorizing licensed naturopaths to diagnose and treat using clinical nutrition, botanical and fungal extracts, lab testing, lifestyle medicine, and physical medicine. Unfortunately, Govern DeSantis veto’d against this bill. Governor DeSantis stated in his DeSantis Veto Letter that Floridians already have ample access to natural remedies and that currently licensed practitioners (such as MDs and DOs) are already permitted to use naturopathic methods. He also cited that the bill would introduce additional costly regulations and bureaucracy. This is really unfortunate.
Take Action
If any of these hit close to home:
- Find your bill. Every bill number above links to a primary source in the Sources list. Search it on your state legislature’s site or on LegiScan to see its current status and next hearing.
- Know your window. Bills move in committee first. That hearing is where public comment matters most—and where the fewest people show up.
- Show up or write in. Most states accept written testimony or a simple “I support/oppose” position submitted online. It takes ten minutes.
- For the raw milk fight specifically: Michigan’s package is the live one this summer. If you’re in Michigan, that’s where your voice goes furthest right now.
What’s Coming
Dates are current as of this issue. Where the timing is genuinely uncertain—like final Farm Bill passage—it’s given as a range with the reason it’s in flux, rather than a false-precision date.
Federal Farm Bill—key window: now through September 30, 2026. The Senate Agriculture Committee released its own version (the Agricultural Act of 2026) on June 23, with a markup expected over the summer. The pressure point is a hard deadline: the current farm bill authorization expires at the end of the federal fiscal year—September 30, 2026.The Congressional Budget Office assumed enactment around early August, but the real path is uncertain — a dispute over SNAP funding has stalled agreement, so Congress may pass a bill or punt with another short-term extension. Watch the soil-health match and the EQIP/CSP conservation pieces as it moves. (Track at congress.gov, H.R. 7567.)
Year-round legislatures—active through December 31, 2026. Michigan, New Jersey, Ohio, and Pennsylvania keep moving bills all summer and fall while most states rest. This is where the live action is between now and January—including Michigan’s raw milk package and New Jersey’s A5836 cottage-food cap.
2027 sessions—most convene early-to-mid January 2027. In 2026, 35 states convened between January 5 and 20; expect the same rhythm for 2027.
Two things to note now:
- Prefiling starts as early as December 2026 in early-opener states (Maryland, South Dakota) — the first look at next year’s bills. A few states (Colorado, North Carolina, Ohio) don’t allow prefiling at all, so their bill text won’t appear until session opens.
- Texas, Montana, Nevada, and North Dakota return in 2027. These four meet only in odd years, so they’ve been quiet in 2026 — but their interim committees are drafting bills right now, and they reconvene in January. Texas especially is one to watch, given its size and its active food-freedom movement.
Sources
- National Agricultural Law Center — Food Law in the States: 2026 Update (VA HB 402, WV SB 44, MD HB 535): https://nationalaglawcenter.org/food-law-in-the-states-2026-update/
- Food Safety News — States’ legislation on raw milk sales moving forward (Iowa HF 2444, Michigan HB 5217–5219): https://www.foodsafetynews.com/2026/02/states-legislation-on-raw-milk-sales-moving-forward/
- BillTrack50 — MI HB5217: https://www.billtrack50.com/billdetail/1910293
- Iowa Capital Dispatch — Iowa 2026 session wrap: https://iowacapitaldispatch.com/briefs/iowa-bill-would-expand-raw-milk-cottage-food-sales-and-farm-to-table-meals/
- Farm-to-Consumer Legal Defense Fund — Policy Tracker: https://www.farmtoconsumer.org/
- CottageCMS state law tracker (Indiana HB 1424, New Jersey A5836, Missouri HB 3108): https://cottagecms.com/state-laws
- American Farmland Trust — Deep Dive into the Farm, Food, and National Security Act of 2026 (H.R. 7567 House passage): https://farmland.org/blog/a-deep-dive-into-the-farm-food-and-national-security-act-of-2026
- Congress.gov — Soil CARE Act of 2026 (S. 3820 / H.R. 7474): https://www.congress.gov/bill/119th-congress/senate-bill/3820
- Akerman LLP / Health Law Rx — Reviewing Florida’s 2026 Healthcare Legislation (SB 688, Medical Freedom Act): https://www.healthlawrx.com/2026/03/sunshine-state-of-health-reviewing-floridas-2026-healthcare-legislation/
- Florida Senate — SB 688 bill text: https://flsenate.gov/Session/Bill/2026/688/BillText/c1/HTML
- New York State Senate — S8714: https://www.nysenate.gov/legislation/bills/2025/S8714
- American Medical Association — April 24, 2026 State Advocacy Update (scope of practice): https://www.ama-assn.org/health-care-advocacy/advocacy-update/april-24-2026-state-advocacy-update
- National Association of Counties — Senate Ag Committee introduces 2026 Farm Bill (June 23 timeline): https://www.naco.org/news/senate-agriculture-committee-introduces-2026-farm-bill-following-house-passage
- Congressional Budget Office — H.R. 7567 cost estimate (assumed early-August enactment): https://www.cbo.gov/publication/62376
- Farm Aid — Latest Updates on the Farm Bill (Senate timeline, SNAP dispute): https://www.farmaid.org/issues/farm-policy/the-latest-updates-on-the-2025-farm-bill/
- MultiState — 2027 Legislative Session Dates: https://www.multistate.us/resources/2027-legislative-session-dates
- Leonine FOCUS — States Quietly Gear Up for 2027 Sessions (prefiling windows, biennial states): https://www.leoninefocus.com/states-quietly-gear-up-for-2027-legislative-sessions/
The Freedom Watch is compiled monthly. Bill statuses change quickly; always confirm with your state legislature before acting.
