MontanaMule

I wanted to give a shout out to 8 feathers distillery in Boise, ID. I took thier two day course last weekend and it was awesome. Very open and transparent group, very informative and will answer any question you have as honestly as they can. I plan on sending my wife and business partner to the course in the coming months. Check them out!

I was really hoping this thread was not going to turn into an anti GMO campaign. Since it has can I atleast see the peer reviewed documentation supporting these claims?

Huffy, Thank you for the links, they will be a big help!

James thank you for the reply, it is truly helpful! I found a few references this morning while doing some research. One I found was in reference to Portland's zoning laws where they list exceptions to manufacturing type business's. I may be able to present the city this type of proposal since we will be mostly retail sales to the public with limited distribution right away. In addition to that I found examples in a few other states classifying distilleries as retail sales/Business Commercial. Here is the exception Exceptions. Manufacturing of goods to be sold primarily on-site and to the general public are classified as Retail Sales And Service. https://www.portlandoregon.gov/bps/article/53501 Thanks again for the replies! MM

Yesterday I stopped into our local city planners office with zoning questions about a potential building. Although I had already read through the zoning laws and had a basic idea where and where not we could locate, a conditional use question arose. Our proposed location is within a zone that allows alcohol to be served so our retail shop would be fine, but under the conditional uses "light manufacturing" is not allowed. Being we are the first of our kind the city planner did not know how to classify a distillery, so he could not give the immediate go ahead, which is understandable. Now he seemed interested in finding a way to get approval. He suggested that the best way is to find an example of another town that classified a distillery other than light manufacturing or industrial, and provide documentation. I also asked about a variance to which he replied it was not legal to give a variance for a "use". In other words, there is really no way around the conditional use restrictions except to find a different label for the manufacturing process of a distillery. So here I am asking you guys! What does your city consider your distillery under your zoning laws? Does anyone have any ideas on how I can phrase the manufacturing process of distillation other than light manufacturing? Thanks!

Really they are asking two different questions. First the GMO question will depend on the grain you use. Most cereals actually are not "Genetically modified" with the exception of corn. Barley, wheat, rye typical are considered "non-gmo" type crops because of how crop breeding is preformed. I can go into detail if you'd like. As far as pesticides go that will depend on where you source your grain. If you do not specific source from "organic farms" I would guess some form of pesticide is used. Does that make the grain unsafe? Honestly with my agricultural background I say no, I have seen organic farms use just as lethal if not worse forms of pesticides than conventional farms. If pesticides are used within the label recommendations there should be no issues. If pesticides were used there would also be a post harvest interval (PHI) on the label specifying a time limit that must be met before the crop can be harvested to prevent and contamination. Moral of the story, modern agriculture has enable us to more than double our annual production of food to feed an increasing world population. Without the use of modern plant breeding practices and modern plant protection we would be farming in the dark ages. Hope this helps!

No worries Aaron! I'm in the Billings area so not too far from you.

Been lurking for a while, decided to jump on board! Thanks again for all the insight and information!