Oregon’s on-farm and cottage food producers could sell additional value-added products under a pair of bills that reflect the rise of pandemic-era home-based businesses.

State law already allows certain foods produced on farms and in homes to be sold at retail without producers being licensed as food manufacturers.

Farmers are allowed to directly market to the public such products as fresh produce, eggs, honey and acidic jams and jellies processed by the grower.

Under Senate Bill 507, that list would be expanded to include pasteurized fruit and vegetable juices and crops that have been freeze-dried and steam-canned, among others.

The bill would also allow growers to contract with third parties for distribution and sell their products over the internet as long as they remain in Oregon, unless they qualify for interstate sales under federal rules.

“Local food is an economic development engine for our communities,” said Catlin Seyfried, food partnerships manager for the North Coast Food Web in Astoria, Ore.

The existing farm direct marketing law has helped small growers but it hasn’t kept up with the times since being passed more than a decade ago, said Alice Morrison, co-director of the Friends of Family Farmers nonprofit.

Proponents of SB 507 are working on an amendment that would add syrups from big leaf maples and walnut trees to the product list, and further ease direct marketing by permitting entities to aggregate farm-produced goods, she said.

Senate Bill 643 proposes similar changes for “cottage” food producers who don’t necessarily raise the crops and livestock that they process in home kitchens.

The bill would specifically clarify which non-hazardous foods can be manufactured and sold by home businesses, while also eliminating the $20,000 revenue cap on such ventures.

“I want to grow and scale but our law makes this impossible,” said Jennifer Berg, a home baker in Bend, Ore.

Aside from removing the revenue limit, SB 643 would help cottage food producers by allowing them to sell products through their websites, she said.

Online sales are prohibited under the cottage food law passed in 2015, which supporters of SB 643 say is an outdated provision.

“This is a major hindrance,” Berg said. “The way we all do business has changed in the last seven years.”

Oregon currently has the lowest revenue cap for cottage food companies in the U.S. and is in the minority of states that don’t allow shipping through the mail, said Jennifer McDonald, assistant director of activism at the Institute for Justice, a nonprofit that opposes government overreach.

The restriction doesn’t improve food safety because only cottage foods that are non-refrigerated and shelf stable are allowed under the law, she said.

Under SB 643, cottage food producers could sell through the mail and also act as wholesale suppliers to retail stores that make their products available to consumers.

The outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic three years ago has led to a surge in home-based businesses as people lost their jobs and spent more time at home, McDonald said.

“Cottage food industries have among the lowest barriers to entry so they really provide an accessible path to small business ownership,” she said.

Home-based businesses also have the potential to grow and boost the state’s economy, as shown by such companies as Hewlett Packard, Microsoft and Harley Davidson, said Sen. Tim Knopp, R-Bend.

“Big businesses sometimes get started in very humble places,” said Knopp, the bill’s chief sponsor.