Rachel Rodriguez-Williams

According to the Food Bank of Wyoming, Wyoming has at least 12 areas designated as “food deserts." These are geographic areas where access to affordable, healthy food options is limited or nonexistent because grocery stores are too far away. Swaths of Goshen, Carbon and Fremont counties are often listed among these geographic areas.

In a state with more than 10,000 farms and ranches spanning nearly 30 million acres of land (much of them are small, family-run operations), we can and should tackle our food desert problem with true food freedom reform.

The same areas infamous for their designation as “food deserts” also produce the most healthy, local foods. But the law currently prohibits many direct food sales through a confusing web of red tape, zig-zagged across the food industry by state and federal bureaucrats.

Where people should be able to access farm-to-table foods, they’re forced under the fluorescent lights of a nearby Loaf-n-Jug or a distant grocery store; shelves stocked with inflammatory chemical concoctions masquerading as real food.

In Park County, a beloved dairy operation has been barred from selling lattes with healthy, fresh, real raw milk — based on their geographic location. What’s safe being sold at a farmer’s market or from their home kitchen is magically transformed into a public health hazard when sold and consumed in other locations.

In Cheyenne, a family-run farmstand had its meat freezer locked up by the state — but when the ranchers are able to drive for hours and camp out while the sales occur, the meat becomes safe for consumption.

This aforementioned web of nonsensical regulations and the heavy hand on our farmers are tripping hazards. They keep no one from getting foodborne illnesses and harms our producers and consumers. In Wyoming, we still believe families, not unelected bureaucrats, should decide what’s on their kitchen tables.

Food freedom isn’t a slogan. It’s a huge piece of the puzzle to solve our food desert crisis and the chronic health epidemic in Wyoming.

In the Cowboy State, we’re known for “bucking the system.” Let’s do that by embracing the thinking of Hippocrates, namesake of the Hippocratic Oath, who famously (and rightly) stated, “let food be thy medicine, and medicine be thy food.”

(Rep. Rachel Rodriguez-Williams, R-Cody, represents House District 50 in the state Legislature.)