Journal of Food Law & Policy: Call for Submissions

The Journal of Food Law & Policy is seeking article submissions.

For ten years, the Journal has been a leading voice in the food law and policy movement, publishing legal scholarship on a wide variety of food law issues. While some articles have reflected the traditional food and drug law approach and presented excellent regulatory analysis, more typically, the articles have presented a look beyond this. They have discussed the most relevant current food policy issues, often with a systemic perspective that transcends the legal academy's traditional approach. The Journal strives for excellent scholarship with "real world" significance -  a mission appropriate for the one area of law that touches everyone in the world -  food.

The Journal's leadership role and its tenth anniversary were noted by authors Baylen Linnekin (Keep Food Legal) and Emily Broad Lieb (Harvard's Food Law and Policy Clinic) in their recent article, Food Law & Policy: The Fertile Field's Origins & First Decade. It was published at 2014 Wisc. L. Rev. 557 last Spring.  A companion video, Food Law & Policy describes the emerging discipline, interviews leaders in the field, and credits the Journal for its innovation.

The Journal of Food Law & Policy continues to be the only student-edited U.S. law journal focused exclusively on food law and policy issues. Journal articles are available on both Westlaw and Hein On Line, and a new web site will soon post past issues for download.  Regular features include food law updates from the United States, the European Union, and Canada. The Journal is published twice a year and is edited by some of the top law students at the University of Arkansas School of Law.

This year's Editor in Chief is A. Jordan Broyles. In a new development, the Journal is working with the LL.M. Program in Agricultural & Food Law, adding an LL.M. Advisor to its leadership team. LL.M. candidate Justin Crawley has agreed to serve in this capacity and has already begun work with the Journal staff.  Justin received his from J.D. from Appalachian School of Law where he served as Senior Editor of the Appalachian Natural Resources Law Journal and was the recipient of “Exceptional Service Award” for outstanding performance on a student publication.  Justin also served as the President and Chief of the Executive Board of the Environmental Law Society. His leadership and support will be very helpful to Jordan and her staff.

Please consider submitting your publication to the Journal. There may be an opportunity include additional articles in the Fall issue, offering a very prompt production schedule.  Submission can be made through ExPresso or by direct delivery via e-mail to foodlaw@uark.edu.  Written submissions can be sent to the address below.  Please include a brief abstract and CV or resume with each submission.

Journal of Food Law and Policy

University of Arkansas School of Law

1045 West Maple Street

Fayetteville, AR 72701

Conference Announcement: "Transparency in the Global Food System: How Much Information and to What Ends?"

Dates: October 24-25, 2014  

Location: UCLA Faculty Center

The Resnick Program for Food Law and Policy at UCLA School of Law and The Food Law Lab at Harvard Law School have partnered to host the UCLA-Harvard Law School Food Law and Policy Conference, a joint annual conference that will focus on transparency issues in the food system from a legal perspective.

Event Description:

Every day brings increasing media coverage, intensified citizen concern and political focus to the problems of our food system, accompanied by a building consensus on the need to address the known challenges. But, the factors shaping our current food system and their implications are often opaque and difficult to analyze, due to both the complexity and lack of transparency in our system. This conference will examine these issues: the meaning of transparency in food law and policy, how consumers use and misuse information about the food system, and the limits of information as a policy tool.

Dr. David A. Kessler, former Commissioner of the United States Food and Drug Administration and currently a Professor at the University of California, San Francisco Medical School, will deliver the conference keynote address on October 24th. In addition, as part of UCLA Food Day events, a screening and panel discussion of the documentary Food Chains will be held in the evening following the conference.

Closing the event, an academic workshop, spearheaded by presentations by Professors Susan A. Schneider, Neil Hamilton, and Steven D. Sugarman, will be held on Saturday, October 25th to discuss the future of food law teaching and scholarship.

Limited travel stipends of up to $200 are available to professors or fellows on on a first-come, first-served basis. If you are interested, please email Randi Kusumi, Kusumi@law.ucla.edu<mailto:Kusumi@law.ucla.edu>, as soon as possible.

Vermont Professor Laurie Beyranevand on the Vermont GMO Legislation

Foodlaw Professors member, Professor Laurie Beyranevand from Vermont Law School was interviewed on NPR about the recent passage of a GMO labeling requirement in Vermont.  Here's a link to the podcast:

http://www.northcountrypublicradio.org/news/story/24785/20140506/what-you-need-to-know-about-vermont-s-gmo-bill

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.

Internship Opportunities in Agriculture and Food Law

This post summarizes an interesting thread on the Food Law Professors Listserv regarding internship opportunities. In an effort to pull these resources into one area, we've posted them below. Please feel free to share.

Center for Food Safety has occasional internship opportunities, though they might have been filled already.

And there's also Marler Clark, a plaintiff side food safety firm, http://www.marlerclark.com/

The Harvard food law student Association website lists over 500 organizations with jobs.

Google Food Lion internship.

Tuft's comfoodjob listserv often has advocacy and policy internships. The link for subscribing to this service is:
https://elist.tufts.edu/wws/subscribe/comfoodjobs

Farmers’ Legal Action Group in Saint Paul often uses summer interns. Their website is www.flaginc.org

Harvard's Food Policy Clinic publishes a career guide that may be helpful. Its available at http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/foodpolicyinitiative/files/2013/07/Career-Guide_2013.pdf

The LL.M. Program in Agricultural & Food Law runs a blog that posts employment opportunities, and sometimes internships are posted as well.  It is at http://agfoodlawjobs.blogspot.com.

In addition to the Center for Food Safety's offices in Washington, D.C., Oregon and in San Francisco, other suggestions include the following organizations:

- Sierra Club
- PCRM
- Consumer's League
- Food and Water Watch
- Friends of the Earth
- Environmental Integrity Project

Foundations of Food Law & Policy: Ten Years of European Food Safety Authority

We are pleased to announce the publication of Foundations of EU Food Law & Policy: Ten Years of European Food Safety Authority co-edited by Alberto Alemanno and Simone Gabbi.

This volume presents the viewpoints of academics, food lawyers, industry and consumer representatives as well as those of EU policymakers on the first ten years of activity of one of the most prominent European agencies. Its broader purpose, however, is to discuss the future role played by EFSA within the rapidly-evolving area of EU food law and policy. By revisiting and discussing the milestones in the history of EFSA, the collection provides forward-looking views of food leaders and practitioners on the future scientific and regulatory challenges facing the European Union. In particular, by presenting a critical assessment of the agency’s activities within its different areas of work, the book offers readers a set of innovative tools for evaluating policy recommendations and better equips experts and the public to address pressing regulatory issues in this emotive area of law and policy. Despite its celebratory mood, the book’s focus is more about the future than the past of EU food law and policy. Each chapter discusses how EFSA’s role has evolved and identifies what it should have done differently while presenting an overall assessment of how the agency has discharged its mandate.

The full content list is available from the Publisher, Ashgate.  The book can be purchased from Amazon.   It has received excellent reviews:

“This book presents a comprehensive review and analysis of the origin, history, and accomplishments of the first decade of the European Food Safety Authority, by an impressive group of experts. It is an essential volume for anyone interested in Food Law and its Politics.”
Peter Barton Hutt, Harvard Law School

“I have found it quite surprising that the EFSA, an institution that is eminently relevant to our everyday life, has remained the domaine reservé of a few researchers. And yet, this is a meeting point for the scientist, the political economist, and the lawyer. The editors of this volume belong to the exclusive club of experts, as they have already produced an impressive volume of rigorous work in this area. It is only natural then, that they gathered around them a ‘dream team’ of policy makers and researchers to produce this unique volume that discusses in exacting manner the EFSA on its own, and through a comparative angle along with institutions in other parts of the world entrusted with similar mandate. The end product offers not only a fresh perspective on the ‘internal’  workings of the EFSA, but also a comprehensive view of the institution as seen from the perspective of other European agencies interacting with EFSA. Alberto Alemanno and Simone Gabbi should be credited for producing an excellent book on the law, policy, and polity of the EFSA. This is a very timely publication, and yet one which will remain actual for many years to come.”
Petros C. Mavroidis, European University Institute, Florence

“This book is a fascinating read for anyone dealing with food law and policy. Its topic represents at the same time a valuable case-study of regulatory and administrative law in action. An impressive team of authors sketches law, procedure, science and multi-level politics surrounding the past decade of food regulation in the EU.  The book focuses on national, European and international regulatory cooperation, as well as it dealing with topics on the fault line of law, scientific based risk regulation and political sensitivities. This combination raises a host of questions relevant well beyond the next decade of food regulation and modern public law.”

Herwig Hoffmann, Professor of EU Law and Transnational Law at the University of Luxembourg

“This comprehensive edited volume makes an important contribution to the study and understanding  of EU food law and the shaping of food policy with a central focus on the European Food Safety Authority.   It contains a unique mixture of in-depth study, practical insights and critical analysis and gives food for thought on future challenges. I strongly recommend this impressive book to all academics and practitioners who study, and work with,  EU food law and policy.”

Ellen Vos, Maastricht Centre for European Law, Faculty of Law, Maastricht University. 

Annual AALS Section Meeting: Innovations in Teaching Food Law and Policy

Happy 2014. Thank you to all who attended the very exciting panel held past week at the AALS annual meeting in New York regarding integrating food law into law schools' curricula.  Speakers included Susan A. Schneider (Director, LL.M. Program in Agricultural & Food Law, University of Arkansas), Michael Roberts (Executive Director, Resnick Program for Food Law and Policy, UCLA), Alli Condra (Fellow, Harvard Food Law and Policy Clinic). 

Initially, the discussion focused on how each of these programs approaches teaching food law and policy, predominately with a focus on connecting laws governing food production with sustainability and public health concerns. Also flagged was the need for more intensive scholarly work regarding the legal framework of food regulation domestically, the racial and socio-economic impacts of food law, and the implications of food and food systems in the context of laws regulating international trade and export.

One consistent thread emerged: food is everything-- meaning every kind of law, in all types of practice-- and the opportunities to explore food law and policy in the law school setting are varied and compelling. Some schools have taken on helping small food related business through providing practical how-to publications or support through their transactional legal services clinics. Some professors teach food law through courses like administrative law where they draw heavily on food related case law and regulations. Others are engaging with international food law through direct services; at Wake Forest, Barbara Lentz led a team of students this month to Nicaragua to help local farmers meet certification requirements for U.S. food imports.

In addition to a lively and energizing discussion, a few follow up points emerged:

1. CALL FOR SYLLABI: In the Q & A session there was If you teach a food law course, whether survey, seminar, traditional course with a focus on food law, please post your syllabus for interested parties to consult and consider in making up their own classes. 
2. UPCOMING CONFERENCES:  UCLA’s Resnick Program for Food Law and Policy will be hosting a Food Law Litigation Symposium this April, dates to TBD.  The Resnick Program also plans a larger scale conference on food law in the fall of 2014.
3. NEW ASSOCIATION: We are in the early stages of forming a Food Law and Policy Association.  If you are interested in being a founding member, please email Melissa.mortazavi@brooklaw.edu.

Science and Technology in International Economic Law: Balancing Competing Interests

Professor Kuei-Jung Ni, Visiting Scholar, Petrie-Flom Center for Health Law Policy, Biotechnology, and Bioethics at Harvard Law School and Professor of Law at the Institute of Technology Law, at National Chiao Tung University, Taiwan is pleased to announce that the book that he co-edited with Professor Bryan Mercurio at the Chinese University of Hong Kong was recently published.

The book, "," was published by Routledge. Professor Ni's article, titled Does Science Speak Clearly and Fairly in Trade and Food Safety Disputes? The Search for an Optimal Response of WTO Adjudication to Problematic International Standard-Making, is included in the book.

Announcing the Food Law Profs reading group!

We're starting a food law professors reading group!  The idea is to focus on books outside the legal arena which may nevertheless inform our views of the food system and to provide an arena for sharing our individual approaches to legal scholarship in the food systems area. 

Our first book will be Weighing In by Julie Guthman. Several of us will be lead discussants, who will present their own thoughts and questions as individual blog posts.

The rest of us (and any of you readers!) will then discuss the books within the comment sections.  We anticipate starting our discussion on January 10, 2014 and to continue for about a week and a half afterwards.

Happy reading!

Special thanks to Professor Steph Tai for getting this initiative organized.  Steph is an associate professor at the University of Wisconsin Law School, and this year is serving as the 2013-14 Supreme Court Fellow assigned to the Federal Judicial Center.

New Food Safety Chapters

Food Law Prof Neal D. Fortin published two chapters in two different books this spring. Both relate to the complex issue of the regulation of imported food. Although I do not have links, citations to the books are provided.

Neal Fortin, Institute for Food Laws & Regulations, Michigan State University, Michigan State University College of Law

Improving U.S. Regulation of Imported Foods, Improving Import Food Safety, pp. 89-109 (Wiley-Blackwell 2013)    

This chapter provides an overview of the amalgamation of disparate elements that make up the food import regulatory system in the United States. This patchwork collection of authorities provides a useful laboratory to observe the effectiveness of the different regulatory approaches. The author discusses how this knowledge could best be used to create a more effective, prevention-based import regulatory system.

Neal D. Fortin, Institute for Food Laws & Regulations, Michigan State University, Michigan State University College of Law

HACCP and Other Regulatory Approaches to Prevention of Foodborne Diseases, Foodborne Infections and Intoxications, Chapter 38, 4 Ed. (Elsevier 2013)

Science-based, preventative regulation was slow in coming to food law. It took more than half a century from the development of HACCP — Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point — in the 1950s, for Congress to direct the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to apply comprehensive, science-based, preventive controls across the food supply. Full implementation will likely take several years, but the FDA Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) signed into law on January 4, 2011, provides FDA with a mandate to shift the focus of the FDA from primarily reacting to food safety problems to prevention. 

FSMA requires that all FDA regulated food companies implement a written hazard analysis and risk-based preventive control plan unless specifically exempt. In addition, FSMA directs FDA to work with the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to propose “science-based minimum standards for the safe production and harvesting” of fruits and vegetables that are raw agricultural commodities for which FDA has determined such standards will minimize the risk of “serious adverse health consequences". The law also provides FDA with new enforcement authorities designed to achieve higher rates of compliance with prevention and risk-based food safety standards. 

This chapter summarizes the evolution of science-based risk control systems into food regulation in the United States beginning with the development of HACCP and finishing with enactment the Food Safety Modernization Act in 2011. Key points of the HACCP regulation for seafood, meats and poultry, juices, and FSMA risk-control plans are covered. Finally, the chapter provides advice on compliance with these control systems. 

The Science, Law and Policy of Neonicotinoids and Bees: A New Test Case for the Precautionary Principle

Another article that is on my summer reading list is the very timely article by Food Law Prof Alberto Alemanno discussing the precautionary principle and the regulation of neonicotinoids.

Alberto Alemanno, HEC Paris - Law Department
The Science, Law and Policy of Neonicotinoids and Bees: A New Test Case for the Precautionary Principle,  European Journal of Risk Regulation, 2/2013

Once more, while facing an analogous risk phenomenon affecting their predominantly homogeneous societal and economic interests, the US and EU authorities seem to adopt diverging stances. Amid the publication of several new studies and a set of EFSA scientific opinions linking the use of the world’s most widely used pesticides to bee decline, the European Union is poised to adopt a temporary ban on their use. While the Commission does not expressly rely on it, its restrictive decision is clearly based on the controversial precautionary principle. Yet, as it is discussed in this article, the conformity of this decision with the requirements that determine the legal invocation of this principle remains doubtful.  

This article proceeds as follow. Part II first introduces the reader to the main features and usages of these controversial insecticides, called neonicotinoids. It then discusses how concerns have arisen around their use and analyses the available science exploring their impact on the sudden decline of bee colonies. Part III identifies and comments the restrictive actions currently undertaken across the European Union both at the national and EU level. Part IV in turn provides an overview of the scientific and regulatory approaches adopted by US authorities vis-à-vis neonicotinoids. By building upon the previous two sections, Part V contrasts the EU scientific and regulatory approach towards the use of these pesticides with that adopted by the US authorities. It then attempts at illustrating the factors explaining the current regulatory divergence across the Atlantic upon the issue of neonicotinoids. In order to provide a legal analysis of the EU restrictive stance over these pesticides, Part VI measures how the EU controversial restrictive measures score under both EU and WTO law. Lastly, some final conclusions provide some recommendations on how to render less controversial the invocation of the precautionary principle in the EU and beyond.

Preempting Humanity: Why National Meat Ass'n v. Harris Answered the Wrong Question

I also recommend the following thought-provoking article by Food Law Prof Pamela Vesiland. I am pleased to note that Pamela has agreed to stay with us for another year at the University of Arkansas School of Law, serving as a Visiting Assistant Professor. Pamela earned her LL.M. degree in Agricultural & Food Law in May.

Pamela Vesiland, Preempting Humanity: Why National Meat Ass'n v. Harris Answered the Wrong Question, 65 Me. L. Rev. 685 (2013).

National Meat Ass’n v. Harris is poised to become a significant legal barrier to industrial animal agriculture reform. Although Congress has historically refrained from setting even minimal protections for animals raised in industrial operations, the Supreme Court’s 2012 opinion laid the foundation for expanding Congress’s Commerce Clause authority to set national limits to state animal welfare standards. National Meat asked whether USDA slaughterhouse and packing plant regulations under the Federal Meat Inspection Act preempted California’s newly-raised standards for handling disabled (or “downed”) livestock. In answering this question, the Court misconstrued federal legislative and regulatory history and improperly conflated the state’s animal cruelty regulations with its food safety regulations and the USDA’s food safety regulations. Taking the resulting opinion to its logical conclusion, Congress and the USDA have unprecedented supremacy to limit state farmed animal welfare and anti-cruelty standards. This unfortunate consequence might have been avoided had National Meat asked a better question: Whether California’s welfare standards for downed livestock violated the “dormant” Commerce Clause. Mounting tensions between meat and dairy corporations and organizations representing animal welfare, food safety, and consumer protection interests will eventually force congressional action. Unless its preemptive authority in the area of farmed animal welfare is correctly defined, Congress will continue to impose artificial limits on state police authority to define what is “humane.”