A group of vendors may have to pay an additional permit fee every two weeks to continue operating at the Tomball Farmers Market in the wake of a tightened enforcement of guidelines from Harris County Public Health and Environmental Services.
In April an HCPHES official met with Tomball Farmers Market board members to discuss a stipulation that certain business owners who do not fall under the county’s definition of a farmers market vendor would soon have to apply for an $80 temporary food permit every 14 days, said Lane McCarty, TFM founder and general manager. Prior to the tightened guidelines, the county health inspector would evaluate the producers on a case-by-case basis to ensure proper county and state permits were up to date, he said.
McCarty said he and the board members were told the $80 fee would be charged to certain vendors in mid-May, but it has yet to be put into action.
“The Harris County health department is starting a domino effect that will put monthly markets out of business as well as mom and pop vendors,” McCarty said.
During a July 17 meeting with TFM members, HCPHES officials agreed to not enforce the temporary food permit fee until all concerns are resolved, McCarty said.
Harris County regulations
In 2011 the state Legislature passed Senate Bill 81 to stipulate local health departments, including HCPHES, could no longer charge all farmers market vendors $80 for a temporary food permit to last 14 days. The permits would total $2,080 each year if a vendor attended a market every weekend, HCPHES communications coordinator Brenda Cabaniss said.
“We recognized from feedback from the farmers markets that this was a burden to the true farmers trying to sell their products,” Cabaniss said. “As such, we worked to reduce the permit fee countywide.”
As a result, HCPHES established a $125 annual farmers market vendor’s permit in March 2012 to allow qualifying vendors to sell products at county markets, Cabaniss said.
According to HCPHES policy, a vendor is not able to obtain a farmers market vendor’s permit for the sale of unwrapped food or any potentially hazardous food not prepared or processed by a farmer or other producer, such as hamburgers, tamales or shaved ice.
To qualify for the farmers market vendor’s permit, applicants have to meet the county’s criteria of a farmers market vendor, and the venue has to be made of 51 percent qualifying vendors, Cabaniss said.
“Those who do not qualify as a farmers market vendor must purchase a temporary event permit not only because they do not meet the definition, but because they have to meet a separate set of food safety guidelines,” Cabaniss said.
With the tightened HCPHES regulations, certain vendors who do not qualify for a farmers market vendor’s permit will now be considered part of the group that must purchase a temporary food permit instead of only needing proper state and other county permits, McCarty said.
“I’ve already had two vendors quit and at least six to seven more say they can’t afford the permit when it does hit,” he said.
Effect on vendors
Tomball Farmers Market vendors Tejas Chocolate and Just Pure Flavors are two of several producers that will be affected by the tightened county policy.
“I feel like it’s a tax on my business,” said Steve Maloof, owner of Just Pure Flavors, a business that produces homemade jam. “I think it’s more of a real difficult issue for businesses that are a little bit smaller. I do three markets a week in the Houston area, so I don’t want to have to pay an extra $160 a month.”
After founding Tejas Chocolate last fall, chocolate maker Scott Moore Jr. said he began selling his products at the Tomball Farmers Market and received enough interest to open a location in Old Town Tomball early this fall.
“For us, we may have still come to farmers markets anyway [even with the additional permit fee], but you would be starting the day $60 in the hole—$20 goes to the farmers market for the space, and $40 goes to the county,” Moore said.
