Think Local
By Chris Hoffman
(Sherburne, NY – April 2013
) In a small town about 526 miles northeast of here, history is being made. Sedgwick, Maine, first settled in 1763, current population about 1200, has just declared by local ordinance that all local food transactions are not subject to the constraints of federal and state regulations. The ordinance gives its citizens the right to “produce, sell, purchase, and consume local foods of their choosing,” including raw milk, meats that are slaughtered locally and all produce. According to FoodRenegade.com, three additional towns in Maine are considering similar ordinances.
The new Sedgwick ordinance allows people to purchase food for their own consumption from any producer by virtue of private agreements that waive liability. These private agreements in turn exempt the licensing and inspection requirements typically imposed by state and federal regulators when farmers intend to sell their products to the general public.
Two years ago, the towns of Blue Hill, Sedgwick, and Penobscot in Maine, as well as the town of Barre, Vt. passed food sovereignty laws. This “food freedom” movement is based on the Tenth Amendment to the US Constitution, which advocates interpret to mean that the federal government has no authority to interfere with state and local food affairs. The Amendment specifically prohibits the federal government from exerting any power not specifically granted to it by the Constitution, and a group called the Tenth Amendment Center (tenthamendmentcenter.com/) works to help states resist what it sees as unlawful federal intrusion.
Small farmers are unfairly burdened with both state and federal regulations that are often overwhelmingly expensive to comply with. Such regulations are more aptly applied to massive corporate farming operations, which not only have the money to purchase mandatory equipment and facilities, but also tend to be culpable in spreading food-borne pathogens because of their profit-driven practices that are inhumane to animals and destructive of the environment. In decades past, farmers sold directly to their communities, and it wasn’t until corporate conglomerates took over food production that regulations became necessary to protect the public. Now these regulations are in effect making it nearly impossible for local farms to succeed.
The National Family Farm Coalition (NFFC), a food freedom advocacy group, states, “U.S. farm and food policy must change in order to reverse the economic devastation currently faced by our nation’s family farmers and rural communities. In addition, our international trade policy must recognize each nation’s right and responsibility to make their own decisions about how to develop and protect the capacity to grow food, sustain the livelihood of food producers, and feed the people in its own borders.”
NFFC is building support for a growing international food sovereignty movement that seeks to guarantee the basic right of communities to choose where and how their food is produced and what food they consume. Fighting against corporate control of agriculture, small farmers are leading the way to change the food system.
In New York, farming and agriculture is a critically important industry that has the potential to transform how and what people eat and where our food comes from, while supporting the local economy. We are experiencing a renaissance of food awareness and new models of farming that give us a unique opportunity to shape the future, both economically and practically. The industrialized food system is killing us and destroying the land in the process. Learning how to successfully disengage from that system is one of the smartest things we could do, and the citizens of Sedgwick and other towns in Maine are leading the way. We should pay attention.
Chris Hoffman lives in the village of Sherburne in her 150+ year-old house where she caters to the demands of her four cats, attempts to grow heirloom tomatoes and herbs and reads voraciously. She passionately pursues various avenues with like-minded friends to preserve and protect a sustainable rural lifestyle for everyone in Central New York.