To the Editor:
While Question 1 on the November ballot has received much attention, I’m afraid that Question 3 has been largely ignored. I’m writing today to all of my friends and neighbors in western Maine to express my strong support for a YES vote on Question 3. The Maine legislature, on both sides of the aisle, strongly supported (by over 70%) bringing this question to a referendum of Maine voters.
Here is the wording of Question 3: Do you favor amending the Constitution of Maine to declare that all individuals have a natural, inherent, and unalienable right to grow, raise, harvest, produce and consume the food of their own choosing for their own nourishment, sustenance, bodily health, and well-being? This question is about the basic right to food. If we all vote in favor of this question, we can add the right to food to our Maine Constitution as the 25th section of Article One.
Although the United Nations has supported the universal right of all people to food, Maine would be the first state in the US to do so. Why do we need to state this right in our Constitution? Because it is being taken away from us by corporate agribusiness and the lobbyists who represent those corporations. For example, seed saving should be everyone’s right, but you all know that corporations are patenting seeds and then forcing farmers to buy those seeds, making it a crime to save your own seed.
Recently, Alyssa Howe and others supported making Bethel a Food Sovereign town, like nearly 100 other towns in Maine. By doing so, we have become more able to produce and consume our own local foods, to support our neighbors who are farming, and to become a more resilient rural community. Regulation by government agencies, while beneficial for reasons of health and safety, can also become overly complex and restrictive for small farmers and producers. At this point in time, 90% of Maine’s food is imported from out of state, despite the fact that we have the land and resources to produce much more of our own. We need to make it easier, not harder, for farmers and gardeners to produce their own healthy food.
This constitutional amendment would not supersede ordinances or laws now in place. It would not take away landowners’ rights nor would it allow animals to be raised inhumanely. It’s really a simple statement of our people’s right to food.
Bonnie Pooley
Coordinator, Local Food Connection
Lead Team of the Maine Network of Community Food Councils
Albany
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