LIKE EVERY farmer Courtney Hammond, who grows blueberries and cranberries in Washington County, Maine, has a lot of worries. He frets about weather, invasive species, failed crops and global prices. To abide by federal food-safety laws, he has had to do training, maintain meticulous records, have insect- and rodent-control plans and document daily the sanitation of his processing equipment. It is a tremendous amount of work but it means, he says, “I don’t have to worry about anybody getting sick from eating anything that leaves my farm.” Now he is worried that a new law may put his hard work in jeopardy.
Earlier this month 61% of voters opted to change the state constitution to ensure that all Mainers had a “right to food”, the first law of its kind in America. The constitutional amendment’s main proponents included a conservative lobsterman, a liberal raw-milk organic farmer, the Sportsman Alliance (a hunting group) and Cumberland County Food Security Council. The pandemic has shone a light on food insecurity in Maine. Now, Mainers have the “unalienable right to food…to grow, raise, harvest, produce and consume the food of their own choosing”.
The amendment sounded innocuous, but sceptics are wary of its impact. Marge Kilkelly, a former state lawmaker who raises turkeys as well as pigs and goats, points out that most people don’t know much about farming: “It does not happen in an instant. You don’t just get the turkey seed and put water on it. Poof, there’s a turkey.”
Opponents of the amendment worry that its vague wording opens towns to legal challenges over local zoning and other ordinances. Rebecca Graham of the Maine Municipal Association expects everything from hunting laws to food programmes to be challenged, at great cost to the taxpayer. Rules like the one in Portland, the state’s largest city, which allows residents a maximum of six hens (no roosters) could be ignored or challenged in court—never mind cows grazing in front gardens.
Janelle Tirrell, head of the Maine Veterinary Medical Association, is concerned about the treatment of farm animals by people ill-equipped to look after them: people will “use that right-to-food defence to justify the keeping of animals in ways that violate our current laws”. Others foresee environmental impacts, such as contaminated water supplies. Some farmers fear that amateurs will introduce invasive species that could damage their crops.
Billy Bob Faulkingham, the Republican state representative who championed the measure, pooh-poohs these concerns. He thinks court challenges are unlikely. Frivolous ones will be dismissed. The law will give Mainers more ownership of the food supply, he argues: some 90% of the state’s food is imported. Alluding to the constitutional right to bear arms, he says: “I call this the second amendment of food.” His partner across the aisle, Craig Hickman, a Democratic state senator and an organic farmer, says not everyone is going to start farming or raising animals, but this will “inspire people to shop locally” or even share their land with their neighbours.
This chimes with local culture. Despite its relatively small farm industry, Maine supports its producers. The state’s constitution gives farms property-tax breaks. Some communities pay people to farm their land. The state has been experimenting with food sovereignty. More than a hundred towns have adopted ordinances that allow food “self-government”, letting towns make their own rules for food products. Producers in these places can sell directly to customers, offering, say, unpasteurised milk without a licence (meat and poultry are excluded).
Farm-to-table restaurants are immensely popular. Maine is a “foodie” destination. Tourists flock there for its lobsters, blueberries and cranberries. Julie Ann Smith, of the Maine Farm Bureau, wonders how food safety can be maintained without regulations. That is why Mr Hammond is so anxious about the new amendment. It will take only one tourist sickened by blueberries sold by an amateur to taint all Maine farmers, not just “the guy with three tomato plants on his porch”.■