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A new “sovereign market” opened in Burnham, where locals can sell food they produce under the food sovereignty rules the town’s voters approved last year.
“I think it’s really good to buy things from people when you can talk to them about themselves or why they started or what their process is,” said Andrya Pulaski, the market’s organizer.
Unlike a typical farmers market, vendors at the sovereign market do not have to abide by many of the state’s licensing and inspection requirements for food producers, which otherwise apply for anyone selling products other than produce and eggs.
Shoppers sign membership forms acknowledging that they understand that they are buying from unlicensed vendors and pay a $5 fee that funds things like flags, signs and liability insurance, which is required by the town.
The Burnham market is one of a small but growing number of sovereign markets operating in the state. The first started in the town of New Sweden in 2024. Another opened in Ashland this year.
The Burnham market’s current offerings include bread and other baked goods, dairy products, soap, and preserves. Pulaski is hoping more vendors will join the market, held on the lawn of the town hall every other Saturday from May to October.
Pulaski, who sells sourdough bread and baked goods at the market, was a driving force in the town’s passage of the food sovereignty ordinance, which exempts local food producers from some state laws that set standards for licensing and inspections.
Many local food producers operate on a very small scale, she said, and getting licensed and inspected by the state just to sell some bread or the extra tomatoes they can from their gardens doesn’t always make sense.
“I did it so those people could also make a few extra dollars without having to pay a kitchen license fee just to sell a couple of loaves of bread,” she said.
To meet the needs of small producers who might only have products to sell for part of the season, vendors can drop in for a single market for $5 per day.
In order to sell at the market, vendors must produce their food in towns with a food sovereignty ordinance. While there is no official count of how many municipalities have passed these local laws, the number is thought to be more than 100. These include towns near Burnham such as Thorndike, Albion, Troy and Detroit.
Maine has a cottage food law that enables small-scale producers to sell certain goods from their home kitchens, provided they pay a nominal fee for a license, send products for testing, and meet certain equipment requirements.
But Pulaski considers it too restrictive, because only shelf-stable food can be sold and certain foods, like preserves, must be tested by the state. “I cook with real food,” she said. “I use butter in my frosting. I use cream cheese in my carrot cake frosting and with the cottage food laws you’re not allowed to do that.”
Maine passed food sovereignty into law in 2017, which allowed towns to enact food sovereignty ordinances governing sales between producers and consumers. While the law originally only applied to sales of food at the place it was produced, such as at the farm, it was later expanded to allow off-site sales, which paved the way for sovereign markets.
Food sovereignty laws do not apply to many meat and poultry products, which means that a farmer wanting to sell beef, for example, at the market would still have to have it processed at a USDA-approved slaughter house.
Still, some state officials and farmers market organizers opposed the expansion of Maine’s food sovereignty law, citing concerns over food safety and potential damage to the reputation of Maine-grown products in the case of a foodborne illness outbreak.
But for Pulaski, food sovereignty strengthens the ties between food producers and consumers and gives buyers more knowledge and control of what they are eating and where it comes from.
“You know what’s in your food, and you know the person that you’re buying it from, and it just I feel like it makes better connections,” she said.