| Hi Friend,
The Senate Judiciary Committee is holding a hearing on Tuesday, March 1 at 3 pm Central on Senate Joint Resolution 861 (SJR 861), known as the Right to Food Amendment, which would add the following language to the state constitution:
"All individuals have a natural inherent and unalienable right to food, including the right to save and exchange seeds and the right to grow, raise, harvest, produce and consume the food of their own choosing for their own nourishment, sustenance, bodily health, and well-being, as long as an individual does not commit trespassing, theft, poaching, or other abuses of private property rights, public lands or natural resources in the harvesting, production, or acquisition of food."
Tell Committee members to vote YES on SJR 861 and support a Constitutional Amendment for the Right to Food.
The right to grow, harvest, produce and consume is a basic fundamental right; the resolution is a commonsense protection of that right—something that is especially needed with supply chain disruptions, rolling shortages of various foods, and the deprivation of fundamental health freedoms throughout the country over the past two years as well as an increasing lack of transparency as to what ingredients are actually in foods in the conventional system.
Please see action steps below and share this alert with your friends and family in Tennessee.
Alexia Kulwiec
Executive Director
|
| | | TAKE ACTION
Call and/or email Senate Judiciary Committee members and ask them to vote YES on SJR 861. Calls are more effective than emails. It is especially important to contact a committee member if you are a constituent.
Don't know who represents you? Find out HERE.
Remember to remain polite when corresponding with your legislators. Consider using any of the Talking Points below.
You may copy/paste this block of email addresses to contact all members of the committee at once (also see listing at the end for more contact info, including phone numbers):
sen.mike.bell@capitol.tn.gov; Sen.Dawn.White@capitol.tn.gov; sen.paul.rose@capitol.tn.gov; sen.raumesh.akbari@capitol.tn.gov; sen.todd.gardenhire@capitol.tn.gov; sen.sara.kyle@capitol.tn.gov; sen.jon.lundberg@capitol.tn.gov; sen.kerry.roberts@capitol.tn.gov; sen.john.stevens@capitol.tn.gov |
| | TALKING POINTS
1. The resolution will give Tennessee residents stronger protection in a court of law if a government agency, corporation or individual is illegally interfering with another individual’s right to grow, raise, harvest, produce and consume foods of choice.
2. The resolution will not preempt any zoning or animal welfare law. Oversight of food processing and commerce by the Tennessee Department of Agriculture and the Tennessee Department of Health remains. The resolution will not make it mandatory that the government provide food; it could actually reduce current government expenditures on food for the needy by encouraging people to be more self-sufficient in producing food, decreasing food insecurity.
3. The resolution will reduce dependence on the corporate food supply by increasing state and local resiliency and self-sufficiency in food production, leading to the development of stronger community food systems.
4. The decentralization of food production and decision-making will improve food security. Currently there is as little as three days’ worth of food in the conventional pipeline at any given time.
|
| | COMMITTEE CONTACTS
Below is contact information for each member of the Tennessee Senate Judiciary Committee; links for each are posted HERE
Mike Bell (R-District 9) - Chair
615-741-1946
sen.mike.bell@capitol.tn.gov
Dawn White (R-District 13) - 1st Vice Chair
615-741-6853
Sen.Dawn.White@capitol.tn.gov
Paul Rose (R-District 32) - 2nd Vice Chair
615-741-1967
sen.paul.rose@capitol.tn.gov
Raumesh Akbari (D-District 29) (615) 741-1767 sen.raumesh.akbari@capitol.tn.gov
Todd Gardenhire (R-District 10)
615-741-6682
sen.todd.gardenhire@capitol.tn.gov
Sara Kyle (D-District 30)
615-741-4167
sen.sara.kyle@capitol.tn.gov
Jon Lundberg (R-District 4)
615-741-5761
sen.jon.lundberg@capitol.tn.gov
Kerry Roberts (R-District 25)
615-741-4499
sen.kerry.roberts@capitol.tn.gov
John Stevens (R-District 24)
615-741-4576
sen.john.stevens@capitol.tn.gov
|
| | DONATE
If you’d like to make a donation to support the work of Farm-to-Consumer Legal Defense Fund to bring you these informative legislative updates and work to improve federal and state laws, please donate HERE. |
| www.farmtoconsumer.org | 703-208-FARM (3276) | info@farmtoconsumer.org |
| |
