Clinton family farmers are taking action after an inspector from the Maine Department of Agriculture, Conservation, and Forestry (ACF) arrived at their house on Tuesday and ordered them to stop selling milk and sourdough bread at their farm stand.
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“I was just at home, a man showed up at our house, which happened often, because we have a farm stand and a lot of friends, and he showed up at our house and came up to our door. I met him out there,” said Chris Harrington, speaking with The Maine Wire,
“And then he told me who he was, handed me his card, and told me that we are not allowed to sell milk or any baked goods on the farm stand anymore without a Maine state license,” he added.
The Harrington Homestead and Farmstand is a small, family-owned operation in Clinton, run by Chris and Karen Harrington, who work other jobs and operate a farm stand in their free time.
The Harringtons explained that they decided to expand and build a small farmstand on their property after having previously sold eggs and given away produce at the end of their driveway.
After they built their farm stand, Karen began selling her popular sourdough bread, and they began selling other dairy products, including milk from their two Nubian goats.
“I get a gallon of milk a day. I sell a quart here and there to people, and they love it. That’s the thing we can’t keep our farm stand in stock, people love it. We have like lines out the door on Saturday morning. That’s the only day I sell baked goods, Saturday morning, one day a week,” said Karen.
They’ve been operating without issues for years now, and built the farm stand in accordance with town regulations and with approval from the local Clinton Code Enforcement Officer.
“The code enforcement officer was like, ‘No, no, no, you don’t, you don’t need anything, the dimensions are small, you’re good, you’re good, go ahead,'” said Karen.
That all changed on Tuesday, when ACF Inspection Program Manager Ben Metcalf showed up at their home and told Chris that, due to state regulations surrounding food sales, they would no longer be allowed to sell any dairy products or baked goods without state licenses.
Metcalf didn’t show up for a random inspection. He came after someone showed him a picture from the Harringtons’ Facebook page and reported them.
The couple have urged their followers not to respond with hostility towards Metcalf, who was only doing his job as required by state laws and regulations. They have tried to determine who reported them.
The state told them that Metcalf was shown their social media page at a youth group event, but that he did not know the name of the person who made the report.
“They said that it was at a local community function, and somebody showed him the picture on Facebook, and he doesn’t know the name of the person who showed him,” said Karen.
The Harringtons explained to The Maine Wire that the process to become licensed by the state would be unduly difficult and expensive. They would be required to obtain two separate licenses for baked goods and dairy, both of which would come with prohibitive regulations and costs.
“There’s a ton of restrictions on the baked goods, like you can’t use butter in your buttercream frosting, and my whole thing is like I’m making like real food, I don’t want to use processed crappy shortening in my food,” said Karen.
Karen said that a license to sell dairy would require them, among other things, to build an entire separate “milk house” with running water just to sell products from their two goats.
State licensure is not the Harringtons’ only option to get their farm stand up and running again, however; they can have recourse to Maine’s food sovereignty laws.
Under those laws, first passed in 2017, local municipalities can pass ordinances that allow residents to sell homemade food locally without requiring them to submit themselves to the state’s onerous regulations, made for commercial producers rather than small-town family farms.
Instead of simply shutting down their farm stand, the Harringtons have decided to take action and try to get a local food sovereignty ordinance passed in Clinton.
“All jokes aside, the guy from the state said that if our farm stand was in any other neighboring town with a local food ordinance, it would be a non-issue, but because Clinton does not have one, it is an issue,” said the Harringtons on Facebook.
“Over 113 municipalities in Maine have implemented local food sovereignty ordinances. This means nearly 30% of Maine’s towns have local laws allowing farmers and producers to sell food directly to consumers. Surely Clinton, the best town in the state of Maine, should be one of them,” they added.
They immediately began working to get the ordinance passed and have spoken about it with the town’s code enforcement officer and town manager, along with Rep. Amanda Collamore (R-Pittsfield), all of whom, they say, have been extremely helpful and supportive.
“Our town has been super awesome and receptive,” said Karen.
They explained that, according to the town manager, the town could pass a local food ordinance at a special town meeting if the Harringtons are able to collect signatures from 149 registered Clinton voters, five percent of the votes cast in the town in the most recent gubernatorial election.
On Wednesday, just one day after the inspector shut them down, they submitted a draft of their proposed local food sovereignty ordinance, based on similar ordinances from surrounding towns.
“We, the People of the Town have the right to produce, process, sell, purchase, and consume local foods thus promoting self-reliance, the preservation of family farms, and local food traditions. We recognize that family farms; sustainable agricultural practices; and food processing by individuals, families, and non-corporate entities offer stability to our rural way of life by enhancing the economic, environmental, and social wealth of our community,” says the proposal.
“We have faith in our citizens’ ability to educate themselves and make informed decisions. We hold that certain federal and state regulations unnecessarily impede local food production and constitute a usurpation of our citizens’ right to foods of their choice,” it added.
Under the proposal, everyone in the town would be allowed to buy and sell locally produced foods. The ordinance would not apply to meat and poultry, which would still need to be produced to state safety standards.
On Saturday, the Harringtons are planning to host a “petition-signing party” at their farm stand, where they will give out free sourdough and other baked goods, and invite registered Clinton voters to sign their petition.
“If you’re a registered voter in Clinton and you want to sign, come on down. If you’re not a registered voter, but want to sign, go down to the town hall to get registered to vote. If you’re not a Clinton resident, but you know someone who is, let them know. If you’re not a Clinton resident, but you want to try to score a free loaf of sourdough bread and shoot the breeze over some coffee, come on down,” said the Harringtons on Facebook.
“The free goodies are for everyone (while supplies last). There is no expectation for you to sign the petition in order to get freed goodies,” they added.
The couple told The Maine Wire that every Saturday until the ordinance is passed, they will host a bake sale, with all proceeds going to a different nonprofit. Fundraising bake sales for nonprofits are not subject to the same state regulations as their private farm stand.
“We’re going to do a bake sale, and every week we’re going to donate all of the sales, not even just the profits—every cent—to a different organization,” said Karen.
The first organization they plan to support is PAL Sports, the organization through which their son plays baseball.
Strangulation by regulation. Give it away and take donations.
Maine Government couldn’t work any harder to destroy Maine Comrades!
Maine can’t control the vast amount of fraud in the Mainecare and Medicaid system but can sure put the kabosch on a little farmstand making health and sought after foods. Thanks Democrats
Im from the government and Im here to help…..
Oh sure, Chinese pot is just fine but lord forbid if nana wants to sell baked goods at the church social mills drops the hammer. Look if you don’t want it or don’t trust it, don’t buy it, same as the democratic party.
Or how about,,, free bread with a mandatory $5 service tip and since tips wont be taxed (hopefully) the state gets nothing, as it should be.
That is such bull c***. The state is getting robbed of millions of tax dollars by illegal chinese pot growers. And the couple selling a few farm goods as a hobby are under the state’s tax gun? It’s pure bull c***
Hi!
This is a violation of the Maine constitution art. 1, sec 2 “All power is inherent in the people.”
Lise from Maine (former licensed clinician).
What’s not being said here is that even if she did get a license, she wouldn’t be allowed to have butter in her frosting unless she kept anything that she put that frosting on properly refrigerated per code. (I wonder if anyone told her that.)
Memory is that this would have to be a refrigerator that had no raw fish, meat, or eggs in it, you also have to meet other cross-contamination prevention rules.
A long time ago, I spent a summer enforcing this stuff, and on one level it makes sense. There were a lot of really shabby takeout restaurants in Old Orchard Beach and a lot of Canadiens in Quebec with food poisoning from them. The version I heard was that the Quebec authorities wrote the reports in French, which no one in Augusta knew how to read, and the whole thing fell through the cracks.
So you have fly-by-night operators selling to people they’ll never see again, yes, the state needs to step in and regulate things. But when you have people with a farm in a house selling stuff to their neighbors — not so much. Maybe a legible sign that says this place is not approved by the state of Maine.
Butter can go bad, as can cream fillings. There was a major food poisoning outbreak in the ‘50s with those cream-filled rolls, people died, and that’s why the State is the way it is.
Restaurant inspections in Boston are done by the city rather than the state, and what they’re doing down there is giving the restaurant a printed sheet on how the inspection went, and assigning a grade. When I was down there last week, I saw several restaurants with their inspection report, with the big “A” on it, taped to their front window for advertising.
And remember there are two sets of inspectors. If over 50% of your sales involves food that’s not ready to eat, you are inspected by ACF, if over 50% is ready to eat, then DHHS.
And of course, these people don’t talk to each other…
But what I think the state ought to do is make up a professional looking sign, indicating that these premises are exempt from state inspection, and any concern should be reported to the town inspector whose phone number they can write in by hand in the bottom. Then it’s clear the states not inspecting them. The state is not responsible for them, and customers shouldn’t expect the state to have inspected them.
and then if a place is displaying one, then AFC or DHHS doesn’t inspect it….
There are alot of short term rental units which should be inspected and should be paying/collecting State sales taxes.
It wasn’t that long ago that Maine’s Department of Agriculture was ordering the slaughter of chickens for the reason of bird flu. Bird flu virtually disappeared when President Trump took office.
Comments about Old Orchard Beach are a bunch of blather. In a small community, where you know and trust your neighbor, you don’t need a bunch of regulations, inspection, etc. For centuries it was “buyer beware” and you only bought perishable food from people you knew and trusted, the local butcher, baker, farmer, etc. The need for FDA, regulations, and inspection was a function of industrialization and wide interstate, and even international, commerce. Leave local, small scale people alone!
This wonderful family was targeted because they are outspoken conservatives.
Whoever turned them in is leftist scum.
For those familiar with Mackworth Island in Falmouth, which is owned by the state and managed by the same Department of Agriculture, we’ve had a graffiti problem on the jetty for three years. After repeated calls to the Department the “expressive artwork” is still there. (You’d think the libtard environmentalist who walk the island would be upset and complain as well). Yet, the Department has time to hassle these farmers. Typical useless bureaucrats!
“The state told them that Metcalf was shown their social media page at a youth group event, but that he did not know the name of the person who made the report.” LIAR!
Maybe if they had Janet’s brother make them a sign, they would be good to go.
So how about those church bake dales, potluck dinners, community dinners etc, all those kitchens inspected?
Classic state overreach, protect us from bread
No Islander, bake sales and church suppers are NOT inspected, they are explicitly exempted, like farmstands are in towns that pass the ordinance.
the real issue here is raw (unpasteurized) milk, which tastes better and how to avoid the problems that occurred a century ago, but milk wasn’t pasteurized.
Blame Jeff Timberlake for any state issues you might have. He hates competition when it comes to his near monopoly on apple products.
Turn your farmstand into a “private members only club” charge an honorarium to join the private club and distribute the fruits of your labor as you see fit. Freedomwithequity.com
The problem is with people in our govt who want to keep their over paid jobs, with Healthcare and vacation pay and all the other benefits they get with it. Government no longer serves the people , it serves itself and ever increasing it.
Government side: Where are all the “No kinks” and Nazi/fascist protestors. mmmm?
MMA has been pushing “food sovereignty” Good or bad? Do “We The People” have the right to grow, consume, and share (Malachi 3:10)
Face it folks. State government is to bloated. It has got to been fed. Meaning tax money from it’s serfs. Don’t like it? Change it. Tea party?
I do not recommend a one size fits all organization such as the MMA. Nor do I condone the actions of a hungry governmental beast that will continue to make demands to be fed/funded.
Remember, the Ananocki believed to be giants. If you don’t believe, fine. BUT at very lease understand the analogy.
Peace
Shenna Bellows and her incompetents will be all over those 149 votes – I’d video the signing of each one.
They should write to RFK – I think he’d opt for butter over processed, hydrolysed nonsense.
The democrats continue to prove that they hate hardworking, resourceful Mainers who pay their fair share and more. They despise good local food and people and generally are just totally miserable citizens and neighbours.
Good luck to the Harringtons. I feel a drive to Clinton coming on.
Go after the illegal fraud people; Send them to jail.
Let working Mainers free from your controlling rules.
Look for the 4,000,000 illegal minors which the Democrats let go in America.
Stop the illegal nontax paying Chinese grow houses in Maine.
The Harringtons are the best
we have so many visitors from away add to our sales tax. Why did not our Democrats put Maine the great American Faire in DC this week. Stupid Democrats holding Maine back.
Nyet
Buttercream frosting is like cleaning paint brushes with gasoline — both are potentially dangerous but safe if done responsibly. And both will get a bureaucrat legitimately telling you that they are dangerous practices, people would blame the bureaucrat for not telling you if something happened.
Responsible people don’t leave buttercream frosting — or butter — out in the hot sun for three days. Responsible people aren’t smoking while cleaning paint brushes in gasoline (although some of the other stuff is actually worse).
Buttercream frosting can (not inherently will) build up dangerous levels of bacteria that can get people quite sick.
Your gov’t looking out for you!
WTFO? “They” convicted folks they needed “food sovereignty ordinances” (Written by corporations and using associations to “suggest”)
Remember this boys n girls.
The Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away.
Take a peak a serfdom. Or better put serf dumb. And “they” are counting on the dumb part.
Education system: Thomas E. Dewey Look, See and Do.
No, madam town clerk, I didn’t get that from a noose paper.
I hate to be the bearer of bad news towns can’t out rank the state and federal laws.
I love roadside farm stands.