Maine Passes Nation’s First ‘Right to Food’ Amendment
Mainers have taken a bold step to protect the right of individuals to grow their own food.
On Tuesday, voters in Maine approved a referendum to add a “right to food” amendment to the state’s constitution. The amendment, the first of its kind in the United States, provides Mainers with a constitutional right to grow, harvest and consume their own food, and it includes protections for rights to seed saving and seed sharing.
The amendment was approved by the state legislature by a two-thirds vote earlier this year, but it needed approval from voters in order to become a constitutional amendment. The amendment states: “All individuals have a natural, inherent and unalienable right to food, including the right to save and exchange seeds and the right to grow, raise, harvest, produce and consume the food of their own choosing for their own nourishment, sustenance, bodily health and well-being.” It also includes some qualifiers, stating that the right to food is granted “as long as an individual does not commit trespassing, theft, poaching or other abuses of private property rights, public lands or natural resources in the harvesting, production or acquisition of food.”
The issue split the state as debates over the amendment ensued. Opponents of the amendment, including the Maine Farm Bureau, have argued that the language of the amendment is vague and can lead to legal issues, as well as animal rights and property rights issues. Opponents worried the constitutional amendment would override current food safety laws, animal cruelty laws and city restrictions on where animals can be raised and slaughtered. Some were concerned that the openness of the amendment would allow people to raise dogs, cats or other animals not traditionally used in farming for food and that animal welfare and food safety will be compromised when people without proper training process animals for food. However, proponents of the amendment assert the amendment does not override current legislation and restrictions and, instead, ensures Mainers maintain their power when it comes to food, protecting against potential overreach of corporations.
The Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association (MOFGA), one of the oldest and largest organic associations in the United States, endorsed the constitutional amendment, arguing that the amendment is a big step toward a more local food economy, pointing out that 92 percent of the food in Maine comes from across state lines, even though the state has the resources to produce much more of its food. During a time of extreme instability in the food supply chain, MOFGA said the amendment would help “create a more secure food system.”
MOFGA has also pointed out that the amendment “shifts power from corporations to individual citizens.” In recent years, some states have passed initiatives—often funded by large agricultural corporations—to restrict activities such as seed saving and sharing of certain seeds. With the passing of the new “right to food” legislation, Mainers have taken a proactive step in ensuring certain agricultural rights for the individual.
Although it remains to be seen how the “right to food” constitutional amendment will impact the state, Mainers have ultimately taken a critical step toward ensuring food sovereignty and a stronger local food chain. As MOFGA says, “The United States Constitution should have such an amendment.”
Jj Starwalker, a Maine homesteader, voted in support of the amendment. “Growing food yourself has become the most radical of acts,” she says. “It is truly the only effective protest. It is one that can—and will—overturn the corporate powers that be.”
Follow us
Republish!
Republish our articles for free, online or in print, under a Creative Commons license.
Republish this article
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
Want to republish a Modern Farmer story?
We are happy for Modern Farmer stories to be shared, and encourage you to republish our articles for your audience. When doing so, we ask that you follow these guidelines:
Please credit us and our writers
For the author byline, please use “Author Name, Modern Farmer.” At the top of our stories, if on the web, please include this text and link: “This story was originally published by Modern Farmer.”
Please make sure to include a link back to either our home page or the article URL.
At the bottom of the story, please include the following text:
“Modern Farmer is a nonprofit initiative dedicated to raising awareness and catalyzing action at the intersection of food, agriculture, and society. Read more at <link>Modern Farmer</link>.”
Use our widget
We’d like to be able to track our stories, so we ask that if you republish our content, you do so using our widget (located on the left hand side of the article). The HTML code has a built-in tracker that tells us the data and domain where the story was published, as well as view counts.
Check the image requirements
It’s your responsibility to confirm you're licensed to republish images in our articles. Some images, such as those from commercial providers, don't allow their images to be republished without permission or payment. Copyright terms are generally listed in the image caption and attribution. You are welcome to omit our images or substitute with your own. Charts and interactive graphics follow the same rules.
Don’t change too much. Or, ask us first.
Articles must be republished in their entirety. It’s okay to change references to time (“today” to “yesterday”) or location (“Iowa City, IA” to “here”). But please keep everything else the same.
If you feel strongly that a more material edit needs to be made, get in touch with us at [email protected]. We’re happy to discuss it with the original author, but we must have prior approval for changes before publication.
Special cases
-
Extracts. You may run the first few lines or paragraphs of the article and then say: “Read the full article at Modern Farmer” with a link back to the original article.
-
Quotes. You may quote authors provided you include a link back to the article URL.
-
Translations. These require writer approval. To inquire about translation of a Modern Farmer article, contact us at [email protected]
-
Signed consent / copyright release forms. These are not required, provided you are following these guidelines.
-
Print. Articles can be republished in print under these same rules, with the exception that you do not need to include the links.
Tag us
When sharing the story on social media, please tag us using the following: - Twitter (@ModFarm) - Facebook (@ModernFarmerMedia) - Instagram (@modfarm)
Use our content respectfully
Modern Farmer is a nonprofit and as such we share our content for free and in good faith in order to reach new audiences. Respectfully,
-
No selling ads against our stories. It’s okay to put our stories on pages with ads.
-
Don’t republish our material wholesale, or automatically; you need to select stories to be republished individually.
-
You have no rights to sell, license, syndicate, or otherwise represent yourself as the authorized owner of our material to any third parties. This means that you cannot actively publish or submit our work for syndication to third party platforms or apps like Apple News or Google News. We understand that publishers cannot fully control when certain third parties automatically summarize or crawl content from publishers’ own sites.
Keep in touch
We want to hear from you if you love Modern Farmer content, have a collaboration idea, or anything else to share. As a nonprofit outlet, we work in service of our community and are always open to comments, feedback, and ideas. Contact us at [email protected].Maine Passes Nation’s First ‘Right to Food’ Amendment
by Crystal Sands, Modern Farmer
November 3, 2021
Modern Farmer Weekly
Solutions Hub
Innovations, ideas and inspiration. Actionable solutions for a resilient food system.
ExploreShare With Us
We want to hear from Modern Farmer readers who have thoughtful commentary, actionable solutions, or helpful ideas to share.
Submit
It must have been 30 years ago I saw a senator refuse to answer when asked if Americans had the right to eat what they wanted. I also saw the increasing city council restrictions on being able to garden in our little yards. The handwriting was on the wall. It’s too bad people weren’t awake enough back then to do what Maine has succeeded in doing today. Congratulations, Maine!
Excellent! Needs to happen nationwide.
You would think that in this day and age you would not need a constitutional amendment to grow your own food. I abide by the laws of nature and use soil amendments to grow my food.
Bravo Maine! Next step, the state needs to prohibit Dannon products shipped into Maine, since the majority of its recently terminated Northeast dairy contracts were Maine dairy farms. Keep food local. Support local farms. Eat local and grow local. Get back to basics in your home state.
Under US law is not a corporation treated as an individual?