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Maine just voted to become the nation’s first ‘right to food’ state
Key Excerpts from Article on Website of Washington Post
Posted: December 5th, 2021
https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2021/11/03/maine-rig...
Maine voters approved an amendment Tuesday that enshrines the “right to food” — the first of its kind in the United States. The amendment to the state’s constitution declares that all people have a “natural, inherent and unalienable right” to grow, raise, produce and consume food of their own choosing as long as they do so within legal parameters. Maine, a state with a bustling agricultural industry, has been at the forefront of the food sovereignty movement, which envisions a food system where producers also have control over how their goods are sold and distributed. The referendum was meant to ensure local communities have more agency over their food supply. “Power over our food supply is concentrated in a few individuals and corporations,” [livestock farmer and advocate Heather] Retberg said. “Global companies dominate our food system and policy at the expense of our food self-sufficiency. This concentration of power threatens Mainers’ individual rights to grow, raise, harvest, produce, and consume the food of our choosing now and in the future.” Maine state Rep. Billy Bob Faulkingham, a Republican legislator who sponsored the legislation, has called it the “Second Amendment of food,” empowering people to fight hunger and regain command over the food supply in an era of corporate domination. The nonprofit WhyHunger called the vote “a transformative step in ensuring the protection of food as an unequivocal basic human right.”
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