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Local Food Sovereignty

Sovereignty is a powerful word to convey territorial authority or power over a certain domain.  Food Sovereignty has been frequently mentioned at the heart of the food debate more and more frequently.  Who should have the power and authority over the food you choose put into your body?  Your country?  Your state?  Your city?  You?   Frighteningly the majority of people sign up for the federal government continuing to own this decision.  I say continue because currently, the federal government in the US makes that decision for you with its food regulation and policies.  I bring this up because our dear friend Liz Reitzig of Nourishing Liberty just hosted a fabulous guest post from Joel Salatin on the topic.  Please take the time to read Joel’s post because as you know, no one can say it quite like Joel can.

Joel Salatin on Creating Local Food Sovereignty

In the post he calls for localities to pass their own Food Sovereignty Act to help protect choice and protect the rights of local producers to produce and distribute in the scope of local food systems. He cites Maine’s actions as an example from which I grabbed this excerpt:

“The passage of food sovereignty ordinances in Maine has sparked a national movement of localized actions in California, Vermont, Massachusetts, and Utah to reclaim control of decision making over local food systems. The movement is raising important questions about who gets to decide how food is produced and how that food is exchanged among consenting individuals.” — The Right to Eat Local

There are many more links in the article and I strongly recommend you take the time to read some of them if this topic is interesting to you.  Joel ends by proposing that perhaps we give this a time bound experimental period in which we allow this choice at the local level for a set amount of time and gather some hard data on the impact.

What if we had a local food sovereignty act at the Muncie / Delaware County level for a fixed 2-year period to collect and study the data and determine the impact on our health and the local food system?

Let us know what you think!

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{ 2 comments… add one }
  • David March 31, 2014, 12:08 pm

    That would be great! Indiana’s Home Based Vendor rule gives us some freedom (http://www.harrisoncountyhealth.com/HBV-1309.htm), but not really enough. Requiring certification to resell product that someone else grew might still be a good idea, since the consumer doesn’t have the opportunity to meet the farmer or visit the farm.

  • Stephen April 4, 2014, 12:37 pm

    Great idea!

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