Beverly Bolster is an undergraduate student at the University of Maryland and a guest contributor to this blog. Sustainable farming practices, such as planting cover crops, applying compost to fields, rotating crops, and not tilling soil, can create long-term benefits for farmers, increase crop productivity, and benefit the entire food system. However, these methods may require increased costs or labor…
Olivia Scuderi is an undergraduate student at the University of Maryland and guest contributor to this blog. Farm Bill briefings are a critical process in preparing and evaluating current issues in agriculture. The Environmental and Energy Study Institute (EESI) hosted a briefing on June 21 in the Russell Senate Office Building with four diverse panelists. Speakers consisted of Samantha Levy,…
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. On June 3, President Biden signed the Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2023, H.R. 3746 (also known as the debt ceiling deal), into law after weeks of negotiations. These negotiations took place under a pressure cooker…
Kaitlynn Dixon is a law student at the Elisabeth Haub School of Law at Pace University and a guest contributor to this blog. Using the 2023 Farm Bill, Congress should implement citizen suit provisions to provide the public and stakeholders the power to hold the USDA accountable for carrying out directives the Farm Bill mandates. A citizen suit provision would establish…
Kipper Berven is a law student in the HLS Food Law & Policy Clinic and a guest contributor to this blog. The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) is a Farm Bill provision that profoundly impacts the health and wellness of millions of Americans. Today roughly 34 million Americans live in food-insecure households, and a recent survey by the U.S. Department of…
Robert Velazquez is a law student at the University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law and is a guest contributor to this blog. For many people the thought of performing back breaking manual labor in triple digit heat seems unfathomable, but for farmworkers harvesting America’s produce, it’s another day at the office. Farmworkers who spend most of their…
Robert Velazquez is a law student at the University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law and is a guest contributor to this blog. American agriculture is deeply reliant on foreign labor to meet market demands. Since the mid-20th century, the domestic supply of agricultural workers has continually shrunk causing farm employers to rely on temporary foreign workers on…
Luca Greco is a law student in the HLS Food Law & Policy Clinic and a guest contributor to this blog. Pesticides pose a fundamental threat to environmental justice communities around the country, not only in rural areas, but also in urban areas. While many might picture crop dusters and fields of corn when they think of pesticides, their widespread use…
Liz Turner is a law student in the HLS Food Law & Policy Clinic and a guest contributor to this blog. On February 28th of this year, the USDA Equity Commission released an Interim Report, recommending steps the USDA should take to remedy existing disparities in its policies and programs and reconfigure the agency culture and systems that have perpetuated those…
Naima Drecker-Waxman is a law student in the HLS Food Law & Policy Clinic and a guest contributor to this blog. There is a long history of racial discrimination in access to and delivery of United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) programs. Under directives from President Biden and Congress, USDA formed the USDA Equity Commission to evaluate equity issues in USDA…