About a year ago I went through the exciting processes of registering our little egg enterprise with the great state of California. I crossed all my T’s and dotted all my I’s so I could properly and legally sell eggs. I knew from the beginning I would never make a fortune selling just a few dozen eggs a month; but, if I ever decided to expand my flock or sell in a store all the paperwork would be done. I have not sold any eggs in months. The joy of blessing our friends with eggs far outweighs making a few dollars. So, when a letter from California’s Food and Agriculture arrived yesterday, I casually opened it assuming it was the reminder to send in my eggs-sold fee. I do not have my paperwork in front of me but it is something like $0.15 per 30 dozen eggs. Since I have not sold even close to that, I owe nothing. But that was not what this letter contained.
Becoming an egg handler involves filling out the paperwork and sending in a $10.00 one-time registration fee. Imagine my shock when I opened the letter and read that the (previously non-existent) renewal fee was $50.00 ANNUALLY! The new egg-handler fee is $75.00! I gasped! Then I fumed! My own answer was simple: No! I thought of the countless small farmers in our area and around my state who will feel the bite of this fee, this taxation, every single year! This is wrong! This is one more way to bleed the small entrepreneur dry! I will not re-register. Fairytale Farm will become a shredded piece of paper in the government’s glut of garbage. I will continue to raise high-quality eggs, I will continue to freely share those eggs with friends, and I will continue to pray that my nation remembers its purpose: to represent the people, not oppress them.
As of April 1st, my legal permit as an egg handler will be void. I wonder how many others will share my fate? I wonder if those men and women who sit in offices writing rules ever stop and consider the affect of each increased fee? Do they even care?
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| Our First Egg (September 2009) |
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