Greetings!
 
I'm pleased to present the February edition of the CAFS newsletter.  We've had a busy new year:  we launched our second distance learning course on federal food and agriculture regulation, expanded the work of the clinic, and developed a new resource to support sustainable food and agriculture systems. I hope you enjoy this edition. 
 

Eat well, be well!

Laurie Ristino

CAFS Director

 

  
PROGRAM SPOTLIGHT:
    The Food & Agriculture Clinic (FAC) has expanded in its second semester and is hard at work! The FAC is collaborating with the national Farmers Market Coalition (FMC) and the Northeast Organic Farming Association (NOFA) of Vermont to produce a legal toolkit for farmers market leaders nationwide. The clinic is also collaborating with Land for Good and BCM Environmental & Land Law PPLC to develop a legal toolkit for farm-seekers, farmers and landowners regarding farmland tenure legal issues, and with the National Farm to School Network (NFSN) to produce a state farm to school legislative survey.

STUDENT SPOTLIGHT:
  
KATIE MICHEL, CLASS OF 2015
This month we proudly introduce Katie Michel, Class of 2015. Katie earned her MELP in 2014, and will graduate in May as a member of VLS' first class of Accelerated JD students. Before coming to VLS, Katie worked as a sustainable agriculture advocate in a variety of capacities, including coordinating a CSA program on a 35-acre organic farm, serving as the operations manager for the City of Berkley's four weekly farmers' markets and managing marketing initiatives for an agricultural land trust. 

Katie is a student clinician in the Food and Agriculture Clinic (FAC), where she is helping draft a white paper on governance and business law issues that will inform the FAC's Farmers' Market Legal Toolkit. Prior to joining the FAC Katie worked as a research associate with CAFS, where she conducted legal research for NFSN's State Farm to School Legislative Survey: 2002-2014, among other projects.  Her article "Landless: Legal and Policy Tools for Transferring Vermont Farmland to the Next Generation of Stewards and Food Producers," was recently published in the Vermont Law Review.  After graduating, Katie hopes to use the skills she has gained at VLS to continue advocating for an equitable and environmentally-sound food system in the United States.
PROJECTS & RESOURCES:
 
FARMLAND TENURE ONLINE RESOURCE GUIDE
CAFS recently launched the Farmland Tenure Online Resource Guide. Developed in the FAC, the guide offers farmers and land tenure advocates information on land acquisition, urban agriculture, financing, taxation, insurance and state statutes. While focusing on New England, the guide also has national resources. We will periodically update this resource and welcome suggestions for additions and updates.
NEWS & EVENTS:
 
RAJ PATEL AMONG KEYNOTES AT 2015 UVM FOOD SYSTEMS SUMMIT
CAFS is partnering with the University of Vermont in hosting their annual Food Systems Summit , June 16-17, 2015. This year's theme, The Right To Food, addresses the actions needed to ensure that all people have access to adequate and nutritious food. UVM and CAFS are excited to announce Raj Patel is among the Summit's keynote speakers. Patel is a Research Professor in the Lyndon B Johnson School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas, Austin, has testified about the causes of the global food crisis to the US House Financial Services Committee and was an Advisor to Olivier De Schutter, then the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food. Visit the Food Systems Summit online for full bios of Patel and additional keynote speakers Claire Kremen and Smita Narula. Registration for the 2015 Summit is now open. Please visit the Summit registration page for more details.
 
FOOD AND AGRICULTURE CLINIC TO HOST LAND TENURE CONVENING
On February 25 the FAC and Professor Sean Nolon, will facilitate a regional convening regarding New England's farmland tenure legal challenges. The convening brings together farmland tenure stakeholders from across the region who will work with the FAC to identify priority legal challenges to farmland tenure, which the FAC will address in its impending land tenure legal toolkit.

CAFS DIRECTOR LAURIE RISTINO PRESENTS AT AALS & DUKE
CAFS Director Laurie Ristino spoke on food security and climate change at the annual meeting of the American Association of Law Schools on January 3. She also presented at the Duke Environmental Law & Policy Forum's 25th Anniversary Symposium "Carrots & Sticks: Moving the U.S. National Food System Toward a Sustainable Future" on January 23. There Director Ristino spoke on on the role of distribution and the food movement.

CLINICAL DIRECTOR JAMIE RENNER SPEAKS AT MIAMI SCHOOL OF LAW
On February 6 FAC Director Jamie Renner participated in the Miami School of Law's Inter-American Law Review Symposium "Food Safety Modernization Act: The Future of Food Litigation." Professor Renner spoke on the potential impacts of FSMA on small-scale farmers across the world who import food into the U.S.
 
DIRECTOR RISTINO AND JOSEPH SIMPSON, JD '16 CO-AUTHOR ARTICLE
Director Ristino and VLS second year JD student Joseph Simpson co-authored All Dried Up: Tensions Rise Over Water Shortage in California. The article was published online in January in EcoPerspectives, a blog hosted by the Vermont Journal of Environmental Law (VJEL).
 
CAFS AT NOFA-VT CONFERENCE FEBRUARY 14 & 15
NOFA-VT will be holding its 33rd annual Winter Conference February 14 and 15. CAFS will have an informational booth in the exhibitor's fair section of the conference on both days. Please visit us if you are attending.