Greetings 
 
I'm pleased to present the  CAFS summer newsletter. It's been a busy season here: We hosted the distinguished scholars and faculty who provide our students with unparalleled food and agriculture law and policy summer curriculum, lectures, and networking. We kicked off our Kellogg-funded Blueprint for a National Food Policy with our partner Professor Broad Leib and the Harvard Food Law and Policy Clinic, and are also fortunate to be one of the founding network members of the Schumacher Center-led Cuba-U.S. Agroecology Network. And, just as importantly, we're busy preparing to welcome our first class of LLM and Masters students in food and agriculture law and policy, who will arrive in about a month.

I hope you enjoy these last days of summer with its rich bounty.

Eat well, be well,

Laurie Ristino
Director, Center for Agriculture and Food Systems

 
  
Student Spotlight 

Gabriela Steier
Class of 2017
 
Gabriela Steier, Esq., is joining Vermont Law School as an LLM Fellow in food and agriculture law. Originally from the Eifel region of Germany, she earned a B.A. from Tufts University, a J.D. from Duquesne University in Pittsburgh, and is pursuing a doctorate in comparative law from the University of Cologne. Since 2015, she has taught a food law and policy course at Duquesne University School of Law, and is also a Visiting Professor at the University of Perugia in Italy, where she teaches EU-US comparative food law in the Department of Political Sciences. 

Gabriela is co-founder and partner of Food Law International, LLP, which promotes scholarship in international sustainable food law and policy. She has published widely on international food law and policy and is the editor of the forthcoming textbooks  International Food Law and Policy (Springer, 2015) and International Farm Animal, Wildlife and Food Safety Law (Springer, 2016) . Recently, she was awarded the outstanding honor of "Recent Graduate of the Year" by Duquesne University School of Law. 

Gabriela will be Vermont Law School's first Distance Learning LLM student and will work on CAFS' Land Tenure and National Gleaning Projects, both funded by the USDA National Agriculture Library. 

 
Projects & Resources

CAFS Joins Cuba-U.S. Agroecology Network
CAFS has become a founding member of the Cuba-U.S. Agroecology Network (CUSAN), joining a diverse group of sustainable food and agriculture organizations working to support agroecology and the exchange of information and ideas with Cuba. CAFS director Laurie Ristino said that Cuba offers a one-of-a-kind situation to learn from its experience. "To have this culture that was petroleum-based and then went to a more sustainable platform is almost like a living laboratory."

Kellogg Foundation Awards CAFS $261,965 Grant for National Food Policy Reform Project
CAFS is thrilled to partner with the Harvard Food Law and Policy Clinic on the "Blueprint for Integrated National Food Policy,"  an effort to inform national food policy reform and create a more healthful, environmentally sustainable, and equitable food system for children and other vulnerable U.S. populations.

CAFS recently launched the  Online Gleaning Resources Guide , part of The National Gleaning Project, a three-year, USDA-funded project examining the role of agricultural gleaning and food recovery in the U.S. The Online Guide is the first national resource that allows gleaning and food recovery organizations and advocates to research state and federal laws impacting their work, explore the work of similar organizations, and collaborate at the local, state, and national levels. Over the next two years, CAFS will continue to add to this resource with additional materials and case studies. The over-arching goal of The National Gleaning Project is to address food waste and food insecurity by supporting a national network of organizations and individuals engaged in gleaning and other methods of fresh food recovery.

CAFS Launches Food Labeling Website
CAFS launched a food labeling website LabelsUnwrapped.org, the only site of its kind that explains the laws behind food labels. The site offers an array of colorful tools for demystifying the array of terms - from 'natural' to 'locally grown' - that appear on labels.

News & Events

2015 UVM Food Systems Summit is a Success
On June 16-17, 2015, CAFS co-sponsored the 2015 UVM Food Systems Summit , which was themed "The Right to Food: Power, Policy and Politics in the 21st Century." After CAFS Director Laurie Ristino's opening remarks, Clinical Director Jamie Renner framed the conversation by relating his experiences in food-insecure Nigeria. The Summit drew 300 attendees from both across the country and the world. Keynote speakers Raj Patel, Smita Narula. and Claire Kremen spoke on the complicated challenge of sustainably feeding the growing global population. Watch the keynote speakers, panelists, and other event videos on the UVM Food Systems YouTube Channel or on the 2015 Summit Playlist .

 
CAFS Associate Director Laurie Beyranevand Quoted in
ClimateWire
Laurie Beyranevand was quoted in the ClimateWire article "Businesses Learn There are Tax Incentive and Laws to Help Them Recycle Mountains of Food," published in July. The article explores the high percentage of food wasted annually in the U.S., and the business climate and liabilities around food donation. "What qualifies as wholesome remains a sticking point for some restaurant and grocery owners who aren't sure what level of effort they need to make to determine if food is safe," Beyranevand said. 

CAFS Director Laurie Ristino Writes on Food Security in the Environmental Law Reporter
In July, Laurie Ristino's article " Food Security: Concept, Challenges, and the Role of Attorneys "  was published in the  Environmental Law Reporter. Her piece addresses the role of legal practitioners in mitigating the impacts of the growing population on climate change and food security. 

Celebrating One Year as First Pollinator-Friendly Campus in the Nation
In August 2014, CAFS partnered with the Center for Food Safety on their Bee Protective Campaign. This month, CAFS celebrates its one-year anniversary as the first neonicotinoid-free higher education campus in the country.
 
People at CAFS
*  This summer CAFS hosted Janelle Orsi as our Distinguished Summer Scholar. A graduate of the UC Berkeley School of Law, Janelle founded the Sustainable Economies Law Firm in Oakland, California, which helps individuals and organizations share resources and create sustainable communities.
 
*  CAFS also welcomed our first summer intern,  Cassie Averbuch.   Cassie is a graduate of Duke University, and is pursuing a J.D. from the New York University School of Law. She also studied French cuisine and pastry at Le Cordon Bleu in Paris. Cassie spent the summer working on CAFS' Farmers' Market Governance Project, researching the use of SNAP/EBT at farmers markets.

 
*   CAFS LLM Fellow  Carrie Scrufari taught the course Food System Advocacy: Leading the Nation in GE/GMO Labeling during the 2015 Vermont Study Tour , which ran from May 31-June 20. Presented by the Vermont Higher Education Food Systems Consortium, the tour brought together students came from across the country for a three-week program focused on sustainable food systems.

 
* CAFS Clinical Director  Jamie Renner  taught Global Food Security for the second year, and welcomed many distinguished guest speakers, including U.N. World Food Programme Food Security Analysts Rossella Bottone and Aysha Twose, USDA Food Security Analyst Matthew Rabbitt, human rights attorney and 2015 UVM Food Systems Summit keynote speaker Smita Narula, Vermont Foodbank Director of Public Affairs Judy Stermer, and Michael Lohuis, Ph.D., an Agricultural Environmental Strategist for Monsanto Company.