Sarah King is a law student in the HLS Food Law & Policy Clinic and a guest contributor to this blog. This summer, the Supreme Court decided a case concerning the reach of the Clean Water Act, which generally prohibits the discharge of pollutants into “navigable waters,” drawing a range of reactions from environmental and agricultural groups. This case began in…
Zoe van Vlaanderen is a law student in the HLS Food Law & Policy Clinic and a guest contributor to this blog. Every year, preventable diet-related diseases contribute to the deaths of nearly 1.5 million people across the U.S. Many of those who face diet-related diseases also experience food insecurity, limited or uncertain access to food. The Farm Bill funds and…
Camden Smithtro is a Program Coordinator in the Pace Food Law Center and a guest contributor to this blog. Three marker bills — the LAST ACRE Act, the ReConnecting Rural America Act (RRAA) and the Rural Internet Improvement Act (RIIA) — are in contention to define the focus of rural broadband programs in the upcoming Farm Bill. Each program is…
Hudson Bennett is a law student in the HLS Food Law & Policy Clinic and a guest contributor to this blog. What’s going on? The United States agriculture industry is wasting water at a crippling rate. Irrigation efficiency sits at around 60-70%, and domestic aquifers are being depleted at a rate significantly faster than they can recover. In other words, the…
Sarah King is a law student in the HLS Food Law & Policy Clinic and a guest contributor to this blog. What is the program? In an effort to address the impact of discrimination experienced by farmers and ranchers, Congress has authorized the Discrimination Financial Assistance Program, which will give money to people who were discriminated against in USDA farm lending…
Beverly Bolster is an undergraduate student at the University of Maryland and a guest contributor to this blog. Earlier this year, Senators Heinrich (D-NM) and Braun (R-IN) introduced the Agrivoltaics Research and Demonstration Act of 2023 in the U.S. Senate to provide funding for the U.S. Departments of Energy and Agriculture to jointly research agrivoltaics. In the bill, an “agrivoltaic…
Olivia Scuderi is a University of Maryland undergraduate student and guest contributor to this blog. Given the advanced age of the average American farmer, addressing the need for young and beginning farmers is critical to stabilizing the U.S. food system. Similarly, farm viability for small and medium-sized farms is vital to the future of agriculture. As a young farmer about…
Marisa Koontz is a law student at the University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law. She is a guest contributor to this blog. The Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 (IRA), signed into law by President Biden on August 16, 2022, is a budget reconciliation package that provides approximately $770 billion in new spending to reduce the federal government…
Eric Surgarman is a law student at Lewis & Clark Law School and a guest contributor to this blog. Over 1 billion pounds of pesticides (you read that right, 1,000,000,000 pounds) are applied annually in the United States alone, and with agriculture being responsible for approximately 85-90% of pesticide use, the millions of farmworkers who supply the nation’s food bear the…
Hazel Spires is a law student at the University of Oregon School of Law and a guest contributor to this blog. Agriculture is a cornerstone of the American economy, relying heavily on a diverse workforce of around 2.4 million people. However, a significant language gap among farmworkers poses a serious challenge in ensuring their safety and well-being. Language access in the…