This bill does the following.
1. It amends the law governing edible landscaping throughout Capitol Park to allow collaboration with local, state or regional entities in developing and maintaining edible landscaping.
2. It provides that strategies to end hunger in the State by 2030 must include protecting the right to food as declared in the Constitution of Maine, Article I, Section 25.
3. It amends the Maine Food Sovereignty Act to: A. Require the State, instead of the Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry, to support certain policies, including promoting self-reliance and personal responsibility and enhancing rural economic development, and add as a policy protecting the right to food as declared in the Constitution of Maine, Article I, Section
25; B. Establish food sovereignty principles; C. Apply the provisions of the Maine Food Sovereignty Act to all local food ordinances, including those in place before that Act was enacted; and D. Specify that the Maine Food Sovereignty Act does not require a specific form or framework for local food ordinances.
4. It establishes the Maine Vegetable Garden Protection Act to: A. Allow an individual to cultivate vegetable gardens on the individual's property or on the private property of another with the permission of the owner of that property anywhere in the State without interference; B. Allow a municipality, county, village or plantation to develop and implement a program to promote permaculture and to establish edible landscaping, food forests and community gardens in public spaces, including publicly owned properties, rights-of- way, school grounds, parks and parking lots, in collaboration with local, state or regional public or private entities; and C. Allow a municipality, county, village or plantation to adopt ordinances to regulate matters related to the cultivation of vegetable gardens, permaculture, edible landscaping, food forests and community gardens.
5. It requires the Maine Farms for the Future Program review panel, to the extent practicable, to give priority to applications from applicants who have a history of generational poverty or land dispossession in the United States or from applicants who are veterans.
6. It allows the Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry, Bureau of Parks and Lands to lease land and parcels of land in parks and historic sites, nonreserved public land and public reserved land for purposes of cultivating edible crops, hay or pasturage for livestock and allows the bureau to give priority consideration in establishing those leases to individuals with a history of generational poverty or land dispossession in the United States or to individuals who are veterans.
7. It clarifies that a plantation has the same powers and duties and is subject to the same restrictions as a municipality with respect to ordinances regarding traditional foodways and direct producer-to-consumer transactions under the Maine Food Sovereignty Act.

Statutes affected:
Bill Text LD 124, SP 50: 3.902, 7.2, 7.282, 7.283, 7.284, 7.318, 12.1814, 30-A.7051