Local Food Sovereignty Rights on Trial Before Maine Supreme Court
Raw milk advocates and those concerned about the survival of small farms in Maine rallied Tuesday in Portland to show their support for farmer Dan Brown before his State Supreme Court hearing. This case is much more than a question of whether farmer Brown has the right to sell raw milk from his small dairy farm to people in his local community. It represents the nationwide effort to eliminate local independent food producers from the marketplace. It’s not just the sale of raw milk that is under attack. It is about the authority of a local community to decide how to manage the sale of locally produced food. It is about food sovereignty. Do people have the right to independently produce food using methods of their own choosing and to sell that food to people who want their food grown or prepared according to those standards despite what state or national bureaucrats think is best?
