Codi Coulter is a law student at Maryland Carey School of Law and guest contributor on this blog. The Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry held a hearing March 1 to discuss the 2023 Farm Bill’s conservation and forestry titles. Because agricultural production practices are not one-size-fits-all throughout the United States, a broad theme in the hearing revolved around…
Valerie Marshall is a law student at Duke University School of Law and guest contributor on this blog. Supporting the wide adoption of perennial agriculture is one of FBLE’s top 2023 Farm Bill recommendations to support climate change adaptation, risk management, and natural resources conservation. But above all, FBLE posits that investing in perennial agriculture would be one of the…
Interest in “regenerative agriculture” is surging as Congress starts thinking about the next farm bill. Native Americans have long cultivated food using techniques that are now widely referred to as regenerative agriculture and are leaders in its resurgence. Unlike organic agriculture, which is regulated from production to labeling by the USDA, there is no standard definition of regenerative agriculture. Rather,…
Alex Sadzewicz is a student at the University of Maryland Francis K. Carey School of Law. Nathan McMullen is a student at the University of Maryland College Park. They are both guest contributors to this blog. The Environment Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) and the Conservation Stewardship Program (CSP) are the working lands programs from the United States Department of Agriculture…
Over last weekend, the Senate pulled an all-nighter to pass the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA or the Act), narrowly getting it across the line with a 51-50 vote. If passed by the House (which may happen today), it will enact the largest U.S. investment in the fight against climate change, with some commentators saying it will “change the world” and…
Two current big ticket legislative bills – the infrastructure bill and Build Back Better – contain numerous provisions funding conservation and climate-related initiatives that would impact programs within the farm bill. These programs include forest management programs, climate adaptation initiatives, and Natural Resources Conservation Service’s (NRCS) working lands programs. While the infrastructure bill’s overlap with the farm bill’s environmental programs…
Stephanie Kelemen is a law student enrolled in the Harvard Law School Food Law & Policy Clinic and guest contributor on this blog. Buried deep in the 2018 Farm Bill, under the Conservation title, Congress established a peculiar program with $75m of mandatory funding: the Feral Swine Eradication and Control Pilot Program. Prior to encountering this Section, I had never…
This blogpost is cross-posted from the HLS Food Law & Policy Clinic Blog. Original version here. Ali Schklair and MJ McDonald are interns at the HLS Food Law & Policy Clinic and guest contributors to this blog. In June 2020, the House Select Committee on the Climate Crisis (Select Committee) released Solving the Climate Crisis, a comprehensive set of recommendations to confront…
Cover Photo: Hogs swimming through floods in Duplin County, NC. NPR | Kelly Guerin Earlier this month Hurricane Dorian tore through the Southeast United States and the Bahamas. It devastated the Carolinas, spawning nearly two dozen tornadoes and leaving 418,000 people without power in the region. Of particular concern is the massive flooding in North Carolina, a state which…
Environmental issues ranging from water pollution to biodiversity loss to soil erosion remain an ever looming presence. However, many people may be unaware of the role that agriculture plays in many of these problems. Unfortunately, there are few mandatory regulations dictating how agricultural land use interacts with the environment. Instead, mitigating agriculture’s impact on the environment rests largely on the…