Residents of New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut are the most negative about their state’s taxes according to an April 9, Gallup poll. At least 75% of adults in the New York tri-state region say their state taxes are too high. Half of the residents in Illinois and Connecticut want to move to a different state according to an April 30, Gallup poll. I work with investors in all four of these states and can tell you they’re not happy about their taxes. But there’s nowhere to go unless retirement is an option. What I expect will happen is that the successful will retire sooner than planned because big cities like New York and Chicago will continue to overburden their successful residents. But another option I like is for towns to break-away from their mother state that only tends to her big cities. Take Sedgwick, Maine as an example:
Sedgwick, Maine, the first town in the US to legalize any kind of food transaction as free and legal in order to keep the right to produce raw milk, organic produce, free-range eggs, and more, is revolutionizing the way America keeps its food rights – including saying no to GMOs. In other words, it is the first town to declare food sovereignty while opposing both state and federal laws.
The town has passed an ordinance that protects citizens’ rights to “produce, sell, purchase, and consume any food of their choosing.” The ordinance laughs in the face of FDA regulations and their hodge-podge way of giving food a rubber stamp of approval, especially GMO. Three additional towns in Maine are expected to pass similar ordinances as well.
The move is somewhat similar to a move one England town made, where the citizens transformed their entire town’s landscape into a giant food-producing garden. Both are great examples of moving toward food sovereignty.
It isn’t just a declaration on the whim of a few city council members. There is a warrant added: “It shall be unlawful for any law or regulation adopted by the state or federal government to interfere with the rights recognized by this Ordinance.” This means that federal interference is prohibited in our food supply – at least in Maine. If you can’t get Monsanto out of the government, take the government out of your food. It’s a brilliant way around the convoluted system now in place that almost gave Monsanto the right to be exempt from federal prosecution for its poison food and which tries to hoist it upon the whole Nation without consent.
