A state lawmaker is proposing enshrining a right to food in the state constitution.

Assemblywoman Michaelle Solages, D-Bronx, has introduced legislation in the state Assembly (A.10474) that would amend the state constitution to say New York residents have the right to food and the right to be free from hunger, malnutrition, starvation and the endangerment of life from the scarcity of or lack of access to food. Solages’ bill hasn’t garnered much support yet from fellow lawmakers, with no co-sponsors and no companion bill filed yet in the state Senate.

“Some of the primary causes for hunger and food insecurity include low-wages, unemployment, lack of affordable housing, high healthcare costs, and a lack of access to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). No individual deserves to be deprived of nutrition. By implementing this protection, we strive to protect the rights of New Yorker’s access to food,” Solages wrote in her legislative justification.

Solages’ right to food amendment is markedly different from a similarly named measure approved by Maine voters in 2021. The main referendum asked voters if they favored an amendment to the Maine Constitution “to declare that all individuals have a natural, inherent and unalienable right to grow, raise, harvest, produce and consume the food of their own choosing for their own nourishment, sustenance, bodily health and well-being.” It was an experiment not tried before by any state.

Supporters used the campaign to make the case the amendment would ensure the right to grow vegetables and raise livestock in an era when corporatization threatens local ownership of the food supply. They positioned the amendment as a chance for Mainers to wrestle control of the food supply back from large landowners and giant retailers with little connection to the community.

Solages’ bill is different. Rather than a right to grow one’s own food, Solages bill focuses on access to food and a right not to be malnourished. That movement, spawned in part by the Maine constitutional amendment, doesn’t focus on the right to grow or hunt for food. Instead, as articulated last year by Michael Fakhri, the UN special rapporteur on the right to food, in his July report to the United Nations. A right to food is found in the United Nations’ 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights and is also included in the 1966 International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.

The United States and Israel were the only countries to vote against a United Nations proposal that would have said food is a human right in 2021. Fakhri called for several measures in his report that could provide a guide to what Solages hopes her proposed amendment could create direct cash transfers to those who are food insecure; universal school meals; support for territorial markets; and recognition of and support for the role of local and regional governments in meeting needs related to the right to food.

“This constitutional amendment recognizes the accessibility to nourishing food as a state right, therefore, protecting New Yorkers rights to live free from food insecurity and malnutrition,” Solages wrote in her legislative justification.