Vote Smart's Synopsis:

Vote to concur with house amendments and pass a bill that promotes local food procurement by expanding local foods economy.

Highlights:

• Requires the Commissioner of Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry to establish and promote a good local local foods procurement program (Sec. 1).

• Requires the program to improve access to good local foods for recipients of benefits under any food supplement program administered by the Department of Health and Human Services (Se. 1).

• Requires the program to help farmers and fishermen in Maine by increasing demand for and direct purchasing of their products by individuals and institutions with a goal of increasing the sale and purchase of good local foods by 20%  no later than 2025 and supporting local economies, farms, fisheries, jobs, nutrition, environmental sustainability and animal welfare (Sec. 1).

• Requires the program to increase the purchase of good local foods by public and private institutions in Maine, including the following (Sec. 1):

• Primary and secondary schools, colleges, and universities;

• Hospitals, jails, restaurants and grocery stores; or

• Community center serving senior citizens and child care centers.

• Requires the commissioner to establish guidelines to assist these institutions to assess their ability to procure good local foods while minimizing costs (Sec. 1).

• Requires the program to provide education and outreach for the purpose of supporting farms, farmers’ markets, community supported agriculture and seafood providers to further the goal of increasing the sale and purchase of good local foods (Sec. 1).

• Defines “community supported agriculture” as an arrangement in which individual consumers have agreements with a farmer to be provided with food or other agricultural products produced on the farmer’s farm (Sec. 1).

• Defines “good local foods” as foods that are (Sec. 1):

• Produced or harvested in Maine;

• Affordable and accessible to all residents of Maine;

• Healthy, safe, wholesome and nutritious and meet the dietary guidelines for Americans published jointly by the United States Department of Health and Human Services and the United States Department of Agriculture;

• Equitably distributed so that producers and harvesters receive and consumers pay a reasonable price and so that producers and harvesters have an equal opportunity to sell foods and consumers have an equal opportunity and to purchase foods; and

• Sustainably produced in terms of water, soil and pesticide management.

Full Bill Text