BANGOR DAILY NEWS • July 8, 2021
Voters will decide in November on enshrining a right to food in the Maine Constitution, which would continue the state’s pioneering efforts on the topic but likely prompt decades of discussion over what exactly such a right would allow or prevent. The push in Maine has been part of a broader effort to bolster local food networks that has been led by small farmers and lawmakers from across the political spectrum. It resulted in a first-in-the-nation food sovereignty law in 2017 that allowed cities and towns to disregard certain state food safety laws for goods prepared and sold within their borders. “Those kinds of constitutional amendments really are about giving someone standing” in court, said Heather Spalding, deputy director of the Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association.