BarclayBlog links to the NCSL 50-State Legislative Tracking Web Resources, a compilation of legislative resource from all fifty states.  It includes a topical, alphabetical listing of legislative and statutory databases, compilations and state charts/maps. 

This could be a very helpful research and searchable resource.  The first page identifies categories and subcategories.  Within each subcategory, you can formulate your own search terms and/or search by state, topic, year, bill type and status.  I looked at the subcategory of “Healthy Community Design” within the Agriculture and Rural Development category.  I then searched for any documents relating to “direct marketing” and got a list, by state, of pending and recent legislation that relates to direct marketing by farmers.  The links, like a search of any statute database, tell me the law in various states.  But this database goes further and gives me a means to compare what the states are doing recently on a particular topic.  Check it out. 

The issue of direct marketing by farmers is especially interesting to me because last week we received our last delivery of goodies from the Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) program in which we participate.  For the last six months, we have gotten a chicken, a dozen eggs and a surprise bin filled with fruits and vegetables every week.  In addition to having great, fresh food all summer, I have expanded my knowledge of fruits and vegetables and cooking skills.  The winter CSA starts soon and I am looking forward to that.  If you don't know about CSA's, the USDA has some information here.