Bill Text: WV HJR30 | 2022 | Regular Session | Introduced
Bill Title: Amending the Constitution to provide for the right to food, food sovereignty and freedom from hunger
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 11-0)
Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2022-01-12 - To House Health and Human Resources [HJR30 Detail]
Download: West_Virginia-2022-HJR30-Introduced.html
WEST virginia legislature
2021 regular session
Introduced
House Joint Resolution 30
By Delegates Walker, Thompson, Pushkin, Evans, Griffith, Zukoff, Garcia, Young, Lovejoy, Rowe and Bates
[Introduced March 15, 2021; Referred
to the Committee on Health and Human Resources then Judiciary]
Proposing an amendment to the Constitution of the State of West Virginia, by adding section twenty-three, article three thereof, relating to the Bill of Rights; providing for the right to food, food sovereignty and freedom from hunger; and providing a summarized statement of the purpose of such proposed amendment.
Resolved by the Legislature of West Virginia, two thirds of the members elected to each House agreeing thereto:
That the question of ratification or rejection of an amendment to the Constitution of the State of West Virginia be submitted to the voters of the state at the next general election to be held in the year 2022, which proposed amendment is that article III thereof be amended by adding thereto a new section, designated section 23, to read as follows:
ARTICLE III. Bill of Rights.
§23. Right to food, food sovereignty and freedom from hunger.
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.
Resolved further, That in accordance with the provisions of §3-11-1 et seq. of the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended, such amendment is hereby numbered “Amendment No. 1” and designated as the “Right to Food and Food Sovereignty and Freedom From Hunger Amendment” and the purpose of the proposed amendment is summarized as follows: “To provide that all people have a natural, inherent and unalienable right to food and 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.”
Resolved further, That in accordance with the provisions of §3-11-1 et seq. of the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended, such amendment is hereby numbered “Amendment No. 1” and designated as the “Right to Food, Food Sovereignty and Freedom From Hunger Amendment” and the purpose of the proposed amendment is summarized as follows: “To provide all people have a natural, inherent and unalienable right to food and 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.”
NOTE: The purpose of this resolution is to amend the constitution to include as a right under the state Bill of Rights that all people have a natural, inherent and unalienable right to food and 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.
Strike-throughs indicate language that would be stricken from a heading or the present law and underscoring indicates new language that would be added.
