May, 2014

Welcome back!

It has been a busy month for CAFS, and we have a lot of exciting news to share. First, we'd like to mention the newest addition to our newsletter: the "Support CAFS!" Carrot. The carrot is an easy way for you to support our mission to provide legal and policy resources for sustainable food and agriculture. Simply click the carrot icon above, you'll then be taken to our donations page where you may select CAFS as a specific recipient of your gift.

Additionally, in this issue we are happy to announce our new Food & Agriculture Clinic, introduce our exciting lineup of summer courses, and provide an update on our headlines. We hope you enjoy our May News Bite!

NEWS SPOTLIGHT:

USDA Awards $500,000 to CAFS for Farmers' Market Legal Research & Extension Project

The U.S. Department of Agriculture has awarded the Center for Agriculture and Food Systems (CAFS) at Vermont Law School, the Northeast Organic Farming Association of Vermont (NOFA-VT), and the Farmers Market Coalition (FMC) a $500,000 grant to strengthen farmers' market organizations through legal research and extension.

Awarded by the USDA's National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA), the $.5 million Agriculture and Food Research Initiative (AFRI) grant enables CAFS and NOFA-VT to create the "Farmers' Market Legal Research and Extension" project. The integrated research and extension project is designed to build stronger market organizations by developing a legal resources toolkit for market organizers which will explain and clarify both the complex legal issues facing farmers' markets, and the potential solutions.

PROJECT SPOTLIGHT:

The Food & Agriculture Clinic

This Fall, the Center for Agriculture and Food Systems (CAFS) will launch the Food & Agriculture Clinic (FAC). FAC is one of the first law clinics in the country to practice and teach both food systems advocacy and entrepreneurial skills. In the FAC, students will collaborate with organizations in Vermont, nationally and internationally to develop innovative legal resources to help create the legal infrastructure for the sustainable food movement.

FAC will begin its first project, the Farmers' Market Legal Research and Extension (FMLRE) project, in collaboration with NOFA-VT and FMC. Like all FAC projects, the resources created through the FMLRE will be designed to promote important components of a sustainable food system by providing innovative legal resources to the individuals and organizations working directly in sustainable food and agriculture. For more information on or questions about the FAC, contact Jamie Renner at: [email protected].

OUR SUMMER COURSES:

Check out the

fantastic

lineup below!

For full course descriptions and the summer course catalog click here.

To register for summer courses click here.