USDA Secretary Vilsack Visits Drake University Ag Law Center

Neil Hamilton at Drake University School of Law is often credited with being the first agricultural law scholar to write about the connections between food and agriculture and to work for a more integrated, sustainable approach to these topics.

Here's an update from Drake:

U.S. Secretary Tom Vilsack visited the Drake University Agricultural Law Center on April 22nd to meet with Prof. Neil Hamilton, Director of the Center, to discuss current projects and to reaffirm the historic relation between USDA and Drake University.  Secretary Vilsack was a visiting professor at Drake during the Spring of 2007.  He is pictured here with Prof. Hamilton and other members of the Agricultural Law Center staff, Matt Russell, Jenny Zwagerman, Poppy Davis and Ed Cox.

Colloquium on Environmental Scholarship

Given the close connections between environmental law and food law & policy, this colloquium will likely be of interest to readers.

Thank you to Laurie Beyranevand for providing information about this opportunity.

Dear Friends and Colleagues,

Vermont Law School will host the Fifth Annual Colloquium on Environmental Scholarship on October 4, 2014. This event offers environmental law scholars the opportunity to present their works-in-progress, to get feedback from their colleagues, and to meet and interact with those who are also teaching and researching in the areas of environmental and natural resources law, or any related specialty areas.

If you are interested in presenting a paper at the Colloquium, please submit a working title and short abstract, using the online form here, no later than June 1, 2014. For an abstract to be eligible for submission, the author must anticipate that the paper will still be at a revisable stage (neither published nor so close to publication that significant changes are not feasible) by the date of the Colloquium. We will do our best to include all interested presenters, and will notify authors about acceptances no later than July 1, 2014.

All selected participants will be required to submit a paper draft no later than September 20, 2014, and all participants will be asked to provide commentary on another participant's paper draft at the Colloquium. Final papers will also be eligible for publication in the Vermont Journal of Environmental Law.

The Colloquium panels will take place on Saturday, October 4.  Vermont Law School's Environmental Law Center and its faculty will host a cocktail reception the night before in the Hanover area and a dinner on Saturday evening, at Vermont Law School.  There will be an optional field trip on Sunday, consisting of a hike in the Upper Valley region, if weather permits.  Further Colloquium details regarding the schedule, events, lodging, and transportation will be forthcoming, and will be posted here as available.  For those who are unfamiliar with South Royalton's location, we are approximately 2 hours from Boston by car. The closest airports serviced by major airlines are Burlington, VT, Manchester, NH, and Boston Logan. There is a small local airport in Lebanon, NH with flights to and from the NYC area and Boston Logan, serviced by Cape Air. In addition, there is train service to White River Junction on Amtrak, as well as a luxury bus service from Boston provided by the Dartmouth Coach.

For more information on the Colloquium, or if you need assistance uploading your abstract, please contact Courtney Collins at ccollins@vermontlaw.edu or at (802) 831-1371.


Sincerely,

Hillary M. Hoffmann
Professor of Law
Vermont Law School

Vermont Summer Program: Food and Ag Offerings

For more information, contact: 

Laurie Ristino, Director

Center for Agriculture and Food Systems

Vermont Law School

802.831.1230

 lristino@vermontlaw.edu

http://www.vermontlaw.edu/cafs

Professor Nicole Civita Speaks on Legal Issues and Food Recovery

Professor Nicole Civita, Visiting Assistant Professor in the LL.M Program and Director of the Food Recovery Project, participated in the inaugural Food Waste & Hunger Summit on April 5 & 6 at Northwestern University.  Professor Civita is author of the popular publication, Food Recovery: A Legal Guide.

Professor Civita presented an hour-long plenary address on the legal aspects of food recovery and fielded many excellent questions about liability protection, preemption, tax incentives, and state-by-state nuances related to regulation of donated food.

The uniformly positive feedback on this session once again demonstrated the value of educating anti-hunger activists and food recovery advocates about the Bill Emerson Good Samaritan Food Donation Act.

Below is access to Professor Civita’s interactive presentation slides.

The Food Recovery Project is an initiative funded by two generous gifts from the Women's Giving Circle at the University of Arkansas.  Last year, the Women's Giving Circle funded the drafting of Food Recovery: A Legal Guide and its companion article for lawyers, The Legal Guide to the Bill Emerson Good Samaritan Food Donation Act  by James Haley (2013 Ark. L. Notes 1448).  This year, they are funding continued work in this area, including the Food Recovery Project blog.