Bill > HB1847

This bill amends the Garden Act to explicitly protect individuals' rights to save seeds from their vegetable gardens for personal use or non-commercial sharing. The legislation reinforces existing protections for vegetable gardening by clarifying that people may cultivate vegetable gardens on their own property or on private property with the owner's permission. It also prevents local governments from creating regulations or ordinances that would prohibit seed saving from vegetable gardens. While local governments can still create general regulations about gardening (such as rules about garden height, setback distances, water and fertilizer use, or controlling invasive species), they cannot specifically target or restrict the practice of saving seeds grown in vegetable gardens. This bill appears designed to protect small-scale gardeners' traditional practices of seed preservation and promote local food sustainability by ensuring individuals can collect and reuse seeds from their own gardens.

Agriculture and Natural Resources

https://www.ilga.gov/legislation/BillStatus.asp?DocNum=1847&GAID=18&DocTypeID=HB&SessionID=114&GA=104