Really local tries to dodge regulatory bullet

Monday, August 5, 2013

A Blue Hill Maine "farmer" named Dan Brown is the darling of the "local" local food movement in that state. According to the salt, a website published by National Public Radio in the United States, Brown was fined more than US$1,000 for selling unpasteurized milk from his single cow, even though he claimed he was exempt from federal and state food safety rules under a local ordinance.

There are now 10 municipalities in Maine that have passed laws claiming to overrule state and federal inspection laws for farmers who sell directly to "local" consumers.

According to a local food advocate, the first such ordinance was passed in 2011 after Maine passed a law allowing small producers to slaughter birds worth $1,000 or less on their own farms instead of at a slaughterhouse. However, the scheme was going to cost an individual chicken producer $30,000 to $40,000 to implement. BF