The Food Label Police Got a Badge
SB 25 turned health-and-nutrition policy into another statewide mandate, complete with labeling rules and a civil penalty.
Dan Patrick's brand of freedom keeps coming with paperwork.
Senate Bill 25's official caption says it relates to health and nutrition standards, including food-labeling requirements, education requirements, higher-ed requirements, continuing education for certain health care professionals, and a civil penalty. Texas Legislature Online lists SB 25 as effective on 9/1/25.
Eat your vegetables, read your mandate
Nobody is against healthy Texans. That is not the issue.
The issue is the reflex. Patrick's crowd sees a problem and reaches for statewide requirements, compliance language, and penalties. Today it is nutrition and labeling. Tomorrow it is whatever topic wins the next press conference.
For small businesses and local institutions, that means the same old Austin math: more rules to track, more forms to understand, and more ways to get sideways with the state.
Limited government should mean something
A conservative Legislature can encourage health without pretending every grocery shelf, classroom, campus, and continuing-education file needs a fresh instruction sheet from Austin.
If Patrick wants to run as the limited-government guy, he should try limiting government occasionally.
Pick competence over control
Texans can care about health without signing a blank check for state micromanagement. We can support practical information, local judgment, and accountability without turning every concern into a penalty-backed mandate.
Dan Patrick is up in 2026. Vikki Goodwin is the alternative for Texans who are tired of politicians using "common sense" as the label on another rulebook.
Sources
Meet the alternative: Vikki Goodwin
Texas has a choice. State Rep. Vikki Goodwin is running for Lieutenant Governor on a platform of fully funding public schools, protecting the grid, and keeping government out of small businesses it doesn't understand. If you're tired of Dan Patrick's priorities, there's somewhere else to put your vote.