Abstract
Locally grown food laws that require, or provide incentives for, purchasing food grown within a defined geographic boundary are vulnerable to challenge under the U.S. Constitution’s restrictions on local and state laws that discriminate against goods and commerce from other states, known as the dormant Commerce Clause doctrine (DCCD). Policymakers and advocates for local food should understand the impact of these restrictions and should take advantage of an important exception to these restrictions when drafting policies to encourage purchase of locally grown food. In
Highlights
A movement to eat locally is growing around the country, affecting food purchasing decisions of private and public consumers
A locally grown food law that explicitly discriminates against out-of-state food, but which is insulated from a dormant Commerce Clause doctrine (DCCD) challenge by the marketparticipant exception, may still be challenged as discriminatory under the PIC
Laws on locally grown food that require or provide incentives for purchasing food grown within a defined geographic boundary are vulnerable to challenge under the DCCD, especially if the geographic boundary excludes out-of-state food from qualifying as “locally grown,” whether explicitly, in purpose, or in effect
Summary
A movement to eat locally is growing around the country, affecting food purchasing decisions of private and public consumers. The consideration of “locally grown food laws.” Such policies encourage or require the purchase or use of locally grown food by private businesses and/or by governmental agencies. When drafting laws that promote locally grown food, policymakers and other advocates need to be aware of the U.S Constitution’s restraints on the ability of state and local governments to regulate interstate commerce, known as the “dormant Commerce Clause doctrine” (DCCD). We will describe the impact of DCCD restrictions, and exceptions to these restrictions, on efforts to purchase local foods by governments, using several adopted and proposed local-purchase policies as case studies. Given the strained economic circumstances in which many state and local governments find themselves, communities want to make sure in particular that they are not buying a lawsuit when enacting laws on locally grown food
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