Your application WILL NOT be accepted if you do not agree to the following:

The ONLY reason you are joining is because you want to participate in our membership, to buy food for yourself and your family, and to participate in our community.

You have an active interest in building community, supporting local farmers and local delivery, supporting people in creating a sustainable food supply for your family and community.

You have no ulterior motive to joining and are not joining in any legal or governmental capacity. This private membership is strictly private. Private for all its members. Joining in any legal or governmental capacity is strictly forbidden and if you violate these rules, you will be dealt with accordingly through legal action as well as being removed from our PMA.

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The question that became the core principles of the PMA:

Where is the power … within law and secondly, what is it that holds that power. Third, how do you apply the highest principles of that law within our life?

The Declaration:

This organization and community are under the direct guidance of God (a higher power). We claim the protection of that higher court and its laws and reside within that eminent domain.

You Understand:

You have personal responsibility for who you are, your choices and beliefs and that you should ethically extend it to others

1. To honor your relationships and seek to make them as authentic as you can.
2. Each person will choose for themselves, their own standards and not everyone will make the same choices as yourself.
3. To be honest in your dealings with others.
4. To treat people with respect and honor, even if you disagree with them.
5. To give people room to have a voice even if it differs with your own.
6. To give yourself room as well. By this we mean that you should speak your piece also, and strive to give voice to what you see when it is necessary.
7. Because we are dealing with food, we ask all members to practice good sanitation and food handling practices. By signing this agreement all members acknowledge that everyone is doing their best and we all take personal responsibility for what we are buying and selling, what we are sharing with each other as a community. To enhance and create trust farmers and producers are asked to say exactly how something is produced/raised and answer all questions a community member might have. For example a member may be looking for a Non-GMO product. A farmer may raise something that does not fit that criteria and must say so. There are people to whom this is NOT a criteria they use to buy their food. So every product has a place here and must be listed in the greatest transparency. In this way every person is given the greatest latitude to choose for themselves the food they want to consume and have in their homes. It is our purpose to have farmers who use regenerative practices and other wholesome practices though not all have the same methods. We do not support farming that is destructive or abusive. If you become aware of something that falls under abuse or is destructive, we ask you to please let us know.
8. At no point, ever, is anyone to discuss member dealing with non-members. This PMA is a private membership. It is not public nor ever meant to be public. This membership is for the purpose of conducting transactions with each other in an honorable way. We make our own contracts and manage our own dealings.
9. We are maintaining a high standard of ethics and expect all members to have these standards also. (i.e. no stealing, fraud or misrepresentation). Please extend these standards to non- member dealings because it speaks to your character. If you do not feel you can adhere to these standards of conduct, do not become a member. If we can help you in other ways, we will. Also, if you are looking to join because you need food and having difficulty providing for yourself and your family, please reach out to Mark or myself. We have food programs available and do not want to turn people away if we are able to help. Thank you.
10. Member/Customer Responsibilities with Conflict
    1. To be honest in your dealings
    2. To try to sort out conflict and if you cannot find good resolution, please to include us and we will be an arbitrator and make sure everyone is happy with the result.
    3. To talk to the vendors, farmers and producers if you see an incongruence. Let’s assume it is unintentional and give people space and time to make corrections. If it is an ongoing problem, please contact us and give us the details.
    4. The farmer/producer/vendor’s Responsibilities with self-representation:
    5. To be honest and fair in your dealings with other members, farmers and producers.
    6. To list your products with the best possible information and intention, being as transparent as you know how as to the nature of your products, how they are produced and what if any cautions should be addressed. Please make sure your customers are fully informed as to what they are buying from you.
11. Membership is currently free though will change at a later date. Membership is renewed quarterly. When we charge for the membership it will be a nominal amount and will be non- refundable.
12. All these practices are to create fair dealings and bring harmony and peace to all our interactions with each other. As our PMA evolves we will strengthen some of these guidelines that all our issues can be dealt with fairly within our community.
13. People who violate these rules will be dealt with accordingly and in most cases will be removed from membership and will no longer be able to participate within our community. If necessary we can also look to obtaining legal advice and guidance and may retain a lawyer as needed.

All these practices are to create fair dealings and bring harmony and peace to all our interactions with each other. As our PMA evolves we will strengthen some of these guidelines that all our issues can be dealt with fairly within our community.

People who violate these rules will be dealt with accordingly and in most cases will be removed from membership and will no longer be able to participate within our community. If necessary we can also look to obtaining legal advice and guidance and may retain a lawyer as needed.

i) In the political writings of 17c.-18c. it often has a sense of “the populace as the source of political power, the community in its collective and legislative capacity” and can be opposed to monarch. Link: https://www.etymonline.com/word/sovereign?ref=etymonline_crossreference#etymonline_v_48944

sovereign (n.)late 13c., soverain, “superior, ruler, master, one who is superior to or has power over another,” from Old French soverain “sovereign, lord, ruler,” noun use of adjective meaning “highest, supreme, chief” (see sovereign (adj.)). Specifically by c. 1300 as “a king or queen, a ruler of a realm.” Also of Church authorities and heads of orders or houses as well as local civic officials.Middle English had a tendency to add an unetymological -t to it, as in pheasant, tyrant. The meaning “gold coin worth 22s 6d” is attested from late 15c.; the value of it changed 1817 to 1 pound. In the political writings of 17c.-18c. it often has a sense of “the populace as the source of political power, the community in its collective andlegislative capacity” and can be opposed to monarch.Should it be argued, that a government like this, where the sovereignty resides in the whole body of the people, is a democracy ; it may be answered, that the right of sovereignty in all nations is unalienable and indivisible, and does and can reside nowhere else ; but, not to recur to a principle so general, the exercise, as well as the right of sovereignty, in Rome, resided in the people, but the government was not a democracy. In America, the right of sovereignty resides indisputably in the body of the people, and they have the whole property of land. [John Adams, “Defence of the Constitutions of Government of the United States of America,” 1787-88]