Fed up with depleted supermarket shelves, soaring prices and corporate domination of the supply chain, more and more Americans are looking to their backyards or to local producers to get food on the table.
The movement has been growing for years but is being galvanised by the Covid-19 pandemic, which has laid bare America’s reliance on its just-in-time food-delivery system and highlighted how large corporations can play an outsize influence on what people eat.
“We have to bring food production closer to the people who are consuming it,” said Betsy Garrold, a homesteader and president of the campaign group Food for Maine’s Future.
Maine, which imports 92 per cent of its food, recently passed an amendment to the state constitution that gives residents an “unalienable right” to grow and produce their own food.
Campaigners see the Maine referendum as a major moment in the “backyard-to-table” campaign and other states appear set to follow suit, with similar legislation being considered in Montana, Wyoming, Colorado and Oklahoma.
Other states — including Rhode Island, South Carolina, Florida, Alabama and Tennessee — are debating “cottage food laws” that would let smallholdings and backyard farmers sell to the public without being subject to strict standards on time and temperature controls.
“We need to re-localise our food and break the stranglehold of the corporate commodified system,” Ms Garrold said.
President Joe Biden last month blamed the four big corporations that control more than half the markets in beef, pork and poultry for runaway food prices.
They “dominate the markets, pay ranchers less for the cattle they grow, charge consumers more for beef — hamburger meat, whatever they’re buying. Prices are up,” the president said.
One sponsor of Maine’s amendment, Republican Billy Bob Faulkingham, described the state’s current system that relies so heavily on food imports as “unsustainable”.
A solution, food advocates argue, is to make it easier for people to produce their own livestock and food products and sell them to neighbours.
Passed by 61 per cent of voters in November, Maine’s amendment gives people a “natural, inherent and inalienable right to food, including the right to save and exchange seeds and the right to grow, raise, harvest, produce and consume the food of their own choosing".
In Maine, small family farmers — including some operating out of their backyards — now have a right to grow and sell food without having to adhere to the same regulations as larger producers.
Supporters say these regulations are stacked in favour of the corporate food industry.
For example, federal law requires all animals to be inspected before and after slaughter, irrespective of the size of the producer.
Small farmers in most of Maine are subject to the same regulations as industrial-scale agribusiness companies, with a person milking three cows being treated the same way as a large-scale producer, Ms Garrold explained.
“A small producer is expected to build dairy parlours which can cost thousands of dollars, which is not economically feasible,” she said.
“Small-scale chicken producers were subject to inspection. They had to take the birds to a major inspected facility.”
Other cases included a farmer with one cow being classed as a “milk distributor” — subject to the same rules as big producers — because he had a sign at the end of his driveway saying he was selling raw milk.
Opponents say Maine’s measure is overly vague and poses risks to food safety and animal welfare.
They also argue residents could end up trying to raise livestock in their backyards in built-up urban areas.
“If I have a constitutional and inalienable right to produce my own food, does that mean I can have a pig in my backyard in Portland?” asked farmer and former Maine legislator Marge Kilkelly.
“Or, if I am renting an apartment which bans pets, can I have two goats because they provide milk for my family?”
Lori Larson, who keeps nine chickens at her home in the artists’ colony of Ogunquit, got rid of her noisy rooster out of consideration for her neighbours.
But theoretically, the Maine law will tilt the legal balance in favour of a rooster’s owner rather than people living nearby.
Ms Larson’s chickens provide her with eggs, which she eats herself or gives away. She supported the constitutional change.
“If we are raising animals in our backyard, we are not interfering with our neighbours,” she said.
“In general, what you do in your backyard, as long as it doesn't hurt anybody, should be your own business.”
Julie Ann Smith, executive director of the Maine Farm Bureau, said there are plenty of concerns over the amendment.
“Our list is pretty extensive, but it won’t come into play until somebody gets sick from food,” she said.
Food rights advocates such as Niaz Dorry, executive director of the National Family Farm Coalition, argue changes are essential for the US, where more than 40 per cent of adults are obese.
“It gives access to food which our DNA recognises as nutritious, as opposed to unidentifiable food objects pumped with chemicals at prices which are artificially low,” she told The National.
“This reverses the destructive food system which has been killing us.”
The Maine law will likely see legal challenges, with the extent to which it is enacted ultimately decided in the courts.
The Voice of Hind Rajab
Starring: Saja Kilani, Clara Khoury, Motaz Malhees
Director: Kaouther Ben Hania
Rating: 4/5
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Scoreline
Al Wasl 1 (Caio Canedo 90 1')
Al Ain 2 (Ismail Ahmed 3', Marcus Berg 50')
Red cards: Ismail Ahmed (Al Ain) 77'
Fund-raising tips for start-ups
Develop an innovative business concept
Have the ability to differentiate yourself from competitors
Put in place a business continuity plan after Covid-19
Prepare for the worst-case scenario (further lockdowns, long wait for a vaccine, etc.)
Have enough cash to stay afloat for the next 12 to 18 months
Be creative and innovative to reduce expenses
Be prepared to use Covid-19 as an opportunity for your business
* Tips from Jassim Al Marzooqi and Walid Hanna
Ms Yang's top tips for parents new to the UAE
- Join parent networks
- Look beyond school fees
- Keep an open mind
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
BMW M5 specs
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Wydad 2 Urawa 3
Wydad Nahiri 21’, Hajhouj 90'
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The specs
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UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
KILLING OF QASSEM SULEIMANI
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Iran's dirty tricks to dodge sanctions
There’s increased scrutiny on the tricks being used to keep commodities flowing to and from blacklisted countries. Here’s a description of how some work.
1 Going Dark
A common method to transport Iranian oil with stealth is to turn off the Automatic Identification System, an electronic device that pinpoints a ship’s location. Known as going dark, a vessel flicks the switch before berthing and typically reappears days later, masking the location of its load or discharge port.
2. Ship-to-Ship Transfers
A first vessel will take its clandestine cargo away from the country in question before transferring it to a waiting ship, all of this happening out of sight. The vessels will then sail in different directions. For about a third of Iranian exports, more than one tanker typically handles a load before it’s delivered to its final destination, analysts say.
3. Fake Destinations
Signaling the wrong destination to load or unload is another technique. Ships that intend to take cargo from Iran may indicate their loading ports in sanction-free places like Iraq. Ships can keep changing their destinations and end up not berthing at any of them.
4. Rebranded Barrels
Iranian barrels can also be rebranded as oil from a nation free from sanctions such as Iraq. The countries share fields along their border and the crude has similar characteristics. Oil from these deposits can be trucked out to another port and documents forged to hide Iran as the origin.
* Bloomberg
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What it means to be a conservationist
Who is Enric Sala?
Enric Sala is an expert on marine conservation and is currently the National Geographic Society's Explorer-in-Residence. His love of the sea started with his childhood in Spain, inspired by the example of the legendary diver Jacques Cousteau. He has been a university professor of Oceanography in the US, as well as working at the Spanish National Council for Scientific Research and is a member of the World Economic Forum’s Global Future Council on Biodiversity and the Bio-Economy. He has dedicated his life to protecting life in the oceans. Enric describes himself as a flexitarian who only eats meat occasionally.
What is biodiversity?
According to the United Nations Environment Programme, all life on earth – including in its forests and oceans – forms a “rich tapestry of interconnecting and interdependent forces”. Biodiversity on earth today is the product of four billion years of evolution and consists of many millions of distinct biological species. The term ‘biodiversity’ is relatively new, popularised since the 1980s and coinciding with an understanding of the growing threats to the natural world including habitat loss, pollution and climate change. The loss of biodiversity itself is dangerous because it contributes to clean, consistent water flows, food security, protection from floods and storms and a stable climate. The natural world can be an ally in combating global climate change but to do so it must be protected. Nations are working to achieve this, including setting targets to be reached by 2020 for the protection of the natural state of 17 per cent of the land and 10 per cent of the oceans. However, these are well short of what is needed, according to experts, with half the land needed to be in a natural state to help avert disaster.
Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
