July, 2014

Greetings!

The CAFS team had a busy June developing and teaching summer courses, working to kick off our Farmers' Market project, and readying the Food and Agriculture Clinic for the Fall, among many other exciting projects. We're looking forward to all that July has in store, but before we move ahead, we're happy to have the chance to share some June highlights with our extended CAFS community.

We hope you enjoy the July News Bite!

PROJECT SPOTLIGHT:

CAFS TO PARTNER WITH DARTMOUTH'S DALI LAB AND CHILDREN'S ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH CENTER ON FOOD LABELING WEBSITE

CAFS is excited to announce its partnership with the Children's Environmental Health Center and the DALI Lab at Dartmouth to develop a comprehensive food labeling site that will help demystify the complex information included or excluded from food labels and build on our existing site: foodlabelfacts.org. The CEHC will provide a scientific perspective to make the new resource truly multidisciplinary.

VLS' ALUMNI MAGAZINE WINS BEST SPECIAL ISSUE AWARD

Vermont Law School's alumni magazine, Loquitur, just won a Silver CASE Circle of Excellence Award in the Magazines - Special Issues category. The issue featured a fantastic article on CAFS and how we're using the law to change the food system.

The issue also featured an array of VLS alum's working in the field of food and agriculture law and policy. Additionally, the issue notes Vermont Law's participation in the Vermont Higher Education Food Systems Consortium, a partnership with UVM on new programs and degrees, and the expansion of the distance learning program to include, among other things, a curriculum dedicated to food and agriculture law and policy. For an electronic copy, click the photo at right.

SUMMER CLASS SPOTLIGHT:

GLOBAL FOOD SECURITY

With Professor JAMIE RENNER

CAFS' Clinical Law Professor, Jamie Renner, is currently teaching the summer course "Global Food Security." The class covers this complex topic in all its dimensions, including food security measurement and analysis, international trade, the financialization of food and farming, and comparative federal and state food and nutrition policies. It also addresses a range of pressing topics such as agricultural biotechnology, intellectual property rights, climate change, population growth, international food aid, and the right to food.

The course features special guest lectures (in person and by Skype) from individuals all over the world with unique expertise on the covered topics. Such guests include:

Amit Wadhwa, Food Security Analyst, United Nations World Food Programme
Judy Stermer, Director of Communications at the Vermont Foodbank
Gareth Morgan, an environmental consultant and former Member of Parliament in South Africa
Jeff Taft-Dick, former Country Director at the UN�s World Food Programme

Follow CAFS on Facebook to receive weekly updates and profiles on all the upcoming guest lectures.

NEWS & EVENTS:

NOTES FROM UVM'S

FOOD SYSTEMS SUMMIT

As a proud sponsor of UVM's Food System Summit held last week, CAFS was excited to send a contingent of Research Associates and Staff to the event. Below is a brief highlight of the Summit's highlights from CAFS' RA, Emily Laine:

UVM held a two day conference with an array of movers and shakers, farmers and policy makers to speak and be heard on the topic of food systems. Eric Holt-Gimenez, a keynote speaker gave a powerful presentation on the peoples movements such as Via Campesina and the deeply intertwined relationship between social justice and improvement in food systems. He situated this powerful message in the context of Vermont by describing his experience visiting the dairy farm workers right here in the state. His candor and frankness in laying out the differences we policy makers can make as key actors helped characterize the sort of lasting change that can alter the whole food system for the better. Unsurprisingly this presentation moved the audience to a standing ovation.

A photo journal of the event can be found HERE.

PROFESSOR LAURIE BEYRANEVAND, CAFS' ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR, QUOTED IN THE CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR ON GMO LABELING IN VT

Professor Laurie Beyranevand, Associate Director of CAFS, defends Vermont's GMO labeling law in the Christian Science Monitor! "I can tell you that the GMA's assertion that the law has no basis in health, safety, or science is patently false....The law recognizes that there aren't any long term independent studies that haven't been funded by industry which establish the health and safety of genetically engineered foods."

Vermont Law School's Cheryl Hanna is also featured in a video, discussing the constitutional issues surrounding the lawsuit! Read the full article and watch the video interview HERE.