Political Column - Local Food Access and Production

County Commissioner Kim Cyr and I were talking about the dangers of a highly political year, like this year, for farms and food access. It will be a year of fear. Not because it needs to be. Not necessarily because there's a legitimate reason for a higher sense of fear. It will be a year of fear because that's beneficial for running political campaigns.

It appears to me that the big push will be to use the scare of a virus to shut down small and local food production and distribution. There will, of course, be many other political maneuvers throughout the year, but restricting local food access and production will be detrimental to the country, the state, and our local area at some point in the future, and that's a weakness we should pay attention to and work to avoid.

You have to eat to survive. Everyone has to eat to survive. If food access is limited, if local food production is restricted, then you are dependent for your life and health on whoever controls your access to food. Power is a function of dependency. Without local food access and production you have no power, and you lose your independence.

This restriction of food production, harvesting, processing, and trading is a pattern in societies where the freedom and independence of people is being reduced, or will be reduced, because it makes communities and the society fragile. Victory gardens were promoted during WW2 because local food access and production makes our communities resilient and more self-sufficient.

Neither Commissioner Cyr nor I have a perfect solution, but as we talked he did say that if I wrote a resolution he would present it to the Muskegon County Board of Commissioners for consideration. I wrote the resolution to emphasize and support the people that are taking action to grow, and process, and distribute food. It's an issue that effects the people of Muskegon County in every city, in every village, in every township. Ideally, areas that lack access to local food wouldn't exist anywhere, and yet they exist in both urban and rural communities, in both the city and the country. It's a unique opportunity to unite people in a year of political division.

Muskegon County Board of Commissioners

A Resolution in Support of Local Community Food Access and Production

Whereas, Muskegon County is grateful to Almighty God for the blessings of freedom, and earnestly desires to secure these blessings undiminished to ourselves and our posterity; and

Whereas, Muskegon County supports local food access and production as foundational structures upon which the health and welfare of the community rest; and

Whereas, local food access and production supports people in their life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness; and

Whereas, limited local food access and limited local food production negatively impacts people in both urban and rural communities; and

Whereas, limited local food access and limited local food production disproportionately negatively impacts the individual health choices available for those of lower socio-economic status; and

Whereas, Muskegon County recognizes the need for fair and just treatment of people and businesses providing local food access and production; and

Whereas, the right to produce, harvest, process, exchange, and consume food is necessary to both sustain human life and for people to flourish; and

Whereas, it's desirable to preserve local knowledge and traditional food ways; and

Whereas, prioritizing rights for local food access and production has a long history going back to the Magna Carta Libertatum of 1215; and

Whereas, protections against trespass, joint trespass, and trespass quare clausum fregit have been strongly established; and

Whereas, the right to contract is an important aspect of a functioning society; and

Whereas, the rights of the people to protection from unreasonable searches, and to procedural and substantive due process, are enumerated in the United States and Michigan constitutions; and

Whereas, the national and state constitutions explicitly recognize that there are additional unenumerated rights that are still retained by the people; and

Whereas, unwarranted restrictions on local food access and production can be considered a regulatory taking; and

Therefore, the Muskegon County Board of Commissioners recognizes and supports the aforementioned needs of the people; and

Furthermore, the Muskegon County Board of Commissioners recognizes and supports the aforementioned rights of the people; and

Finally, the Muskegon County Board of Commissioners recognizes and supports citizens in their efforts to increase local food access and production.

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