Data-Driven Analysis of Farm Practices in the Midwest

Nathan Roseberg visiting scholar, Harvard Law School Food Law and Policy Clinic, and Bryce Wilson Stucki, an independent researcher, just released a new report: More Than CAFOS and Corn: A Statistical Analysis of Agriculture in Six Midwestern States. This report will be a critical resource for advocates and policymakers seeking to better understand the mid-west’s agricultural landscape in greater detail…

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USDA Can Promote Equity In Our Food System Through Worker-Owned Cooperatives In The Next Farm Bill

This is a repost of a previous blog post from February 2023, written by Liz Turner, a previous law student in the HLS Food Law & Policy Clinic and a guest contributor to this blog. America’s farmworkers are a uniquely vulnerable group of workers. Farm labor is exempted from many federal protections, including the right to organize under the National Labor…

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Gaining Ground: The Fight for Black Land

Hudson Bennett is a law student in the HLS Food Law & Policy Clinic and a guest contributor to this blog. Screening and Panel Host: Harvard Kennedy School Institute of Politics, Moderated by Andrew Kahrl Panelists: Eternal Polk, P.J. Haynie, and Johane Domersant “Once land is gone, you can’t get it back.”—P.J. Haynie, farmer featured in the film and the panel….

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Senate Agriculture Committee Hearing on Innovation in American Agriculture: Leveraging Technology and Artificial Intelligence

Sarah King is a law student in the HLS Food Law & Policy Clinic and a guest contributor to this blog. On November 14th, the U.S. Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, & Forestry held a hearing to discuss the use of artificial intelligence in agriculture. They heard from several expert witnesses in the agriculture and technology field, including Dr. Mason Earles,…

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Senate Environment and Public Works Committee Examines the Impact of Sackett v EPA

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…

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Nourishing Health in the Farm Bill: Opportunities to Expand Food is Medicine Interventions

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…

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The Need for Improved Water Usage Practices in United States Agriculture

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…

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Agrivoltaics: A Compromise to Maintain Farmland and Increase Solar Energy Production

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…

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