State of Maine vs Farmer Brown

[reb]

On Wednesday, November 9, Dan Brown, owner of Gravelwood Farm in Blue Hill, Maine, was served notice that he is being sued by the State of Maine for selling food and milk without State licenses. Blue Hill is one of five Maine towns to have passed the Local Food and Community Self-Governance Ordinance, a local law that permits the types of sales Brown was engaged in. By filing the lawsuit, the State of Maine and Walter Whitcomb, Maine Agricultural Commissioner, are disregarding the Local Food and Community Self-Governance passed nearly unanimously by the citizens of Blue Hill at their town meeting on April 4. Residents of Blue Hill will be attending the Selectmen’s meeting on Friday, November 18 to enforce the provisions of the Ordinance. The Blue Hill residents will be instructing the Town of Blue Hill to send a letter to the Maine Department of Agriculture requesting the State withdraw the lawsuit and recognize the authority of the Local Food and Community Self-Governance Ordinance.

A rally and press conference will take place Friday at the Blue Hill Town Hall. Details about this event and schedule for press calls will be released Monday, November 14.

This was copied from Mr. Browns FB page

Richard

[nihiljohn]

Any update on this story?

[LongViewFarm]

Not directly related to Maine, but an interesting read. As a potential young farmer targeting local markets, I hope to see this impact grow.

Click: –> A Local Food Blueprint

[jason glick]

check out “local food local rules” at http://localfoodlocalrules.org/

there is also a facebook page “we are all farmer Brown” that is updated very often , cheers, jason

[Jim Garvin]

Jason;

Thanks for the link…it’s very interesting, and a very timely topic. Here is a link to another Blue Hill, Maine, resident’s FB page that is also very interesting and timely. I’m hoping that other DAP forum readers will take the time to look at it and know how much this young soldier has sacrificed. It helps to keep all things in perspective for me on a daily basis.

https://www.facebook.com/#!/isupportjake?sk=info

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