Editor’s Note: In March 2011, the Maine town of Sedgewick became the first of four municipalities to pass an ordinance that effectively amounted to a declaration of food sovereignty, one that effectively gives them the right to “a local food system” food that’s sustainable, organic, local; that promotes self-reliance; and that provides an alternative to what is considered the existing, unsustainable system of global-corporate food production. The ordinance is meant to promote “self-reliance, the preservation of family farms, and local food traditions” and enhance “the economic, environmental and social wealth of our community.” One of the principal organizers makes the connection in her blog between the activists who advanced this ordinance and our rabble-rousing founders: “If citizens in enough towns in enough states stand up and take a stand on their local food system based on their inalienable right to produce and choose the food they eat, the Fed might have to listen! … As a country the majority of us have become politically lazy and complacent. If we want change we must take up the tools of the democracy bequeathed to us by the Founding Fathers, organize, and get the ball rolling. If anybody thinks real change happens any other way, look at our history: Long before our Constitution was amended, individuals and small groups of outspoken people put their lives on the line to end slavery, to allow women the right to vote, to end racial discrimination… Real change comes from the people. Period.”
Here below is the section of the ordinance that amount to a declaration of food sovereignty:
We the People of Sedgwick, Hancock County, Maine have the right to produce, process, sell, purchase and consume local foods thus promoting self-reliance, the preservation of family farms, and local food traditions. We recognize that family farms, sustainable agricultural practices, and food processing by individuals, families and non-corporate entities offers stability to our rural way of life by enhancing the economic, environmental and social wealth of our community. As such, our right to a local food system requires us to assert our inherent right to self-government. We recognize the authority to protect that right as belonging to the Town of Sedgwick.
We have faith in our citizens’ ability to educate themselves and make informed decisions. We hold that federal and state regulations impede local food production and constitute a usurpation of our citizens’ right to foods of their choice. We support food that fundamentally respects human dignity and health, nourishes individuals and the community, and sustains producers, processors and the environment. We are therefore duty bound under the Constitution of the State of Maine to protect and promote unimpeded access to local foods.
The purpose of the Local Food and Community Self-Governance Ordinance is to:
- (i) Provide citizens with unimpeded access to local food;
- (ii) Enhance the local economy by promoting the production and purchase of local agricultural products;
- (iii) Protect access to farmers’ markets, roadside stands, farm based sales and direct producer to patron sales;
- (iv) Support the economic viability of local food producers and processors;
- (v) Preserve community social events where local foods are served or sold;
- (vi) Preserve local knowledge and traditional foodways.
And here is the section of the ordinance/declaration that makes the claim that it derives its justification in part from our July 4, 1776 Declaration of Independence.
Section 4. Authority.
This Ordinance is adopted and enacted pursuant to the inherent, inalienable, and fundamental right of the citizens of the Town of Sedgewick to selfgovernment, and under the authority recognized as belonging to the people of the Town by all relevant state and federal laws including, but not limited to the following:
The Declaration of Independence of the United States of America, which declares that governments are instituted to secure peoples’ rights, and that government derives its just powers from the consent of the governed.
Article I, § 2 of the Maine Constitution, which declares: “all power is inherent in the people; all free governments are founded in their authority and instituted for their benefit, [and that] they have therefore an unalienable and indefensible right to institute government and to alter, reform, or totally change the same when their safety and happiness require it.”
§3001 of Title 30-A of the Maine Revised Statutes, which grants municipalities all powers necessary to protect the health, safety, and welfare of the residents of the Town of (name of town) . §211 of Title 7 of the Maine Revised Statutes which states: “it is the policy of the State to encourage food self-sufficiency for the State.”
Here is the link to the entire food ordinance, which has now been passed by four Maine municipalities:
https://savingseeds.files.wordpress.com/2011/03/localfoodlocalrules-ordinance-template.pdf
Image source:
http://www.freefoodphotos.com/imagelibrary/vegetables/
Further reading:
http://www.yale.edu/agrarianstudies/foodsovereignty/pprs/40_Kurtz_2013.pdf
http://blog.tenthamendmentcenter.com/2011/05/trenton-becomes-fourth-town-to-declare-food-sovereignty-in-maine/
