What the Cluck? Backyard Chickens and Maine's Mysterious Right to Food

Authors

Lucy Weaver, University of Maine School of Law

Abstract

When Maine voters approved the nation’s first “right to food” constitutional amendment, many were concerned about the amendment’s potential to conflict with animal welfare, food safety, and other regulations currently in place at the state and local level. Born from a decade of advocacy, the amendment represents a new era for Maine’s food sovereignty movement. However, the boundaries of the amendment remain unclear, and Maine’s municipalities lack sufficient guidance as they attempt to navigate how this amendment applies to them. This Comment explores one example of the many challenges that may arise from the enactment of the right to food amendment. Zoning regulations and local ordinances regulating health and safety, long under municipal control through the right of home rule, may be upended if they unreasonably restrict residents’ ability to procure their own food. Specifically, this Comment examines backyard chicken ordinances in light of the new amendment and structures a model ordinance that attempts to appropriately balance individuals’ right to food with municipalities’ right to regulate public health and safety. This Comment shows that it is possible, with some flexibility on both sides, for these rights to coexist. As Maine and other states look to their constitutions as a mechanism for creating individual rights where the U.S. Constitution has left gaps, it is critical to show that these rights are not just nice in theory, but workable in practice.

First Page

289

Recommended Citation

Lucy Weaver, What the Cluck? Backyard Chickens and Maine's Mysterious Right to Food, 76 Me. L. Rev. 289 (2024).
Available at: https://digitalcommons.mainelaw.maine.edu/mlr/vol76/iss2/6