Tribes create their own food laws to preserve native food sovereignty. Indian tribes have many questions. How to save traditional agriculture but make it also commercial? How to protect agricultural heritage from GMO contamination? Can tribes sell cultures and, if so, how to make them safe for consumers? "To protect tribal food systems, those advocates are taking the law into their own hands by writing comprehensive food codes that can be adopted by tribes and used to effectively circumvent federal food safety codes. Because tribes retain sovereignty—complicated and sometimes limited though it may be—they can assert an equal right with the federal government to establish regulations for food handling. Food laws have become tougher, thanks to the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA). Safety controls raise interesting questions in Indian Country. Under FSMA, tribal food economies face two options: Assimilate by complying with federal law or keep tribal food products confined to the reservation." Tribes want to protect their producers and care about intellectual property. Many tribes have a unique, traditional use of plant and animal. Without special laws the corporation could trademark and commercialize these products. Agriculture is a way to strengthen culture and these measures help to protect tribal food systems. Quoted text from https://www.yesmagazine.org/democracy/2016/05/24/tribes-create-their-own-food-laws-to-stop-usda-from-killing-native-food-economies