Mike Orlando is a law student in the HLS Food Law & Policy Clinic and a guest contributor to this blog. On February 14, Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack, head of the USDA, testified in front of the House Agriculture Committee (the “Ag Committee”). He urged the Ag Committee to act quickly to pass the next farm bill, noting that delays…
James Wyche is a law student in the HLS Food Law & Policy Clinic and a guest contributor to this blog. America’s Digital Evolution America’s development from an agrarian country to one of increasing technological sophistication has engendered fundamental economic and social changes. Since the dawn of the age of the internet near the end of the 20th century, society’s reliance…
Orly Levy is a law student in the HLS Food Law & Policy Clinic and a guest contributor to this blog. Food Insecurity in Higher Education The next farm bill provides a legislative opportunity to tackle food insecurity amongst college students through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). While the exact numbers are unclear, many low-income college students don’t have enough…
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…
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…
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…
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…