06/02/2026
OtterBee's customers: please add your testimony against HB 4153 by 1pm today, Friday, 2/6!!! If our local farms are limited in the ways they can sell what they grow, product, or harvest, then this eventually hurts all of you too! OtterBee's WILL NOT SURVIVE if our small farms don't survive!
Our little community might be small, but dang if it ain’t MIGHTY!
Close to 1000 testimonies have been submitted about HB 4153, the “Farm Store” bill. That’s a lot of Oregonians voicing their opinion. So far over 62% are in opposition and most strikingly, a very large number of those are from the Southcoast: Gold Beach, Port Orford, Langlois, Bandon, Coos Bay, Coquille. Our peeps!
Thank you so much for springing into action - swiftly and in amazing numbers - to oppose this bill! It’s making a difference in Salem.
So much so that our state Senator and bill co-sponsor, David Brock Smith, reached out yesterday in hopes of changing my mind about HB 4153 (and yours as well). But the more I’ve learned about HB 4153 the more it’s clear: while the bill would benefit some large-scale agritourism operations who want to expand their music venue or sell more donuts, it would simultaneously kill most of our local, family-run farmstands. It could also inadvertently drive up the price of farmland as big parcels are purchased primarily for lucrative agritourism enterprises rather than production of food, fiber and forage.
Sen. Brock Smith insisted that this bill would help Valley Flora because we’re big enough to meet the acreage/sales requirements specified in the bill. But the fact is, it’d be at the expense of our farming friends and neighbors and that’s simply not OK. We’re in this to build a strong food system on the Southcoast - to grow real food for real families - and we’re driven by a set of core values: to tend the land and feed our community with care, and to make the world a healthier, more connected, resilient, just and vibrant place. The more of us who share that ethos - farmers and eaters alike - the more the vision becomes real. We’re stronger together.
So no, we do not want to benefit from a bill that will put other small farmers out of business. And no, we do not support a bill that will undermine the visionary land use laws that have protected and supported Oregon agriculture for over 50 years. HB 4153 is not the answer. You have until 1 pmFriday, 2/6, to submit testimony if you haven’t already: https://www.valleyflorafarm.com/node/19797. Thank you!
