Farm-to-table economies protected in Maine

AfD'ers in Maine have been supporting town-level passage of the Local Food and Community Self-Governance Ordinance of 2011, and a public meeting on the ordinance is planned for Thursday, February 3 in Brooksville. The ordinance will be presented at town meetings there and in Sedgwick, Penobscot, and Blue Hill this spring. We'll be posting links to local coverage, and will have a copy of the ordinance online soon.

The ordinance is designed to safeguard the "farm to table" relationships between producers and buyers that have been a part of Maine food traditions for generations, but have come increasingly under attack by a regulatory system geared toward often dangerously haphazard oversight of industrial agriculture and processors.

The right to local self-governance in the ordinance builds on the local ordinances previously passed by six towns in New Hampshire and Maine to protect their groundwater and their local ecosystems.