All people have a natural, inherent and unalienable right to food, including the right to acquire, produce, process, prepare, preserve and consume the food of their own choosing by hunting, gathering, foraging, farming, fishing, gardening and saving and exchanging seeds or by barter, trade or purchase from sources of their own choosing, for their 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 acquisition of food; furthermore, all people have a fundamental right to be free from hunger, malnutrition, starvation and the endangerment of life from the scarcity of or lack of access to nourishing food.
The text opens an avenue for the people of West Virginia to enshrine this most basic of human rights into their constitution. The right to food does not mean the right to be fed. It would not infringe upon any other rights, nor would it place undue burdens on existing state resources. It does mean that the state should do everything within its power to ensure that West Virginians can access adequate food, have a voice in the future direction of their food system, and create sustainable foodways for future generations.
While the idea is bold, and may even seem overly aspirational, it represents the cries of hundreds of thousands of people and the ideals enshrined in the West Virginia state motto: Mountaineers are always free. Yet West Virginians cannot be free until we are all free from hunger, and free to collectively participate in building institutions that do everything in their power to eliminate it.
Our state constitution already enshrines many rights. The right to due process, the right to vote, the right to education, the right to speech, the right to private property, the right to religious freedom and the right to bear arms. Our state invests a large amount of resources and has built institutions to protect and guarantee these rights. Why not food?
It is time to guarantee the right to food, to move the conversation about food insecurity and hunger forward from our lived experiences, from the brokenness of our existing systems demanding and enacting a pathway to food justice for all!