BANGOR DAILY NEWS • May 11, 2025
It’s been eight years since Maine passed the country’s first Food Sovereignty Act, allowing towns to approve ordinances letting residents buy and sell most food free of state regulation. And it’s been almost four years since voters amended the state’s constitution to include a right to food, laying the groundwork for future legal decisions about local food deregulation. But farmers, homesteaders, state agencies and lawmakers are still working out how to apply those principles. That’s apparent in the legislative session underway in Augusta, where bills addressing backyard chickens, working dogs and the right to food itself have continued the conversation and sparked some big reactions.