Codi Coulter is a law student at Maryland Carey School of Law and guest contributor on this blog. A thriving local food system can improve the economy, the environment, and health, benefitting both consumers and producers. Local food is often sold directly to consumers, and an increased demand for local foods can stimulate jobs throughout the food system. In addition,…
Naima Drecker-Waxman is a law student in the HLS Food Law & Policy Clinic and a guest contributor to this blog. At the beginning of the month, the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, & Forestry held its first Farm Bill hearing of the 118th Congress. The hearing covered the trade and horticulture titles of the Farm Bill. Three experts testified: Alexis…
Alyssa Huang is a law student in the HLS Food Law & Policy Clinic and a guest contributor to this blog. This past week students and instructors from Harvard Law School’s Food Law and Policy Clinic traveled to Washington D.C. to attend the Food Not Feed Summit. The Summit was hosted by a growing coalition of organizations across a wide range…
On a recent Saturday, my co-worker and I spent an unsuccessful five minutes trying to get a Healthy Incentives Program (HIP, a nutrition incentive program in Massachusetts) transaction to go through. We both work at a farmers market selling fruits and vegetables from a farm in upstate Massachusetts. The customer knew that she had $40 in HIP left (the full…
Merve Ciplak is a law student at Harvard Law School and former clinical student of the Food Law & Policy Clinic, where she worked on the report linked below. She is guest contributor on this blog. The COVID-19 pandemic has posed challenges in all facets of society. Members of our communities are having a hard time affording, accessing, and purchasing…
Originally published at the Harvard Law School Center for Health Law & Policy, Food Law & Policy Blog. As the response to coronavirus continues and states increase or extend stay-at-home orders or advisories, the local food system is in a precarious position. The CARES Act stimulus explicitly includes the local food system in a new $9.5 billion disaster relief program. But…
Originally published at the Harvard Law School Center for Health Law & Policy, Food Law & Policy Blog. As social distancing measures close schools and public gatherings nationwide, farmers markets closures reveal a difficult reality for a particularly vulnerable segment of the food system: local and regional farmers and ranchers. Estimates indicate that direct-to-consumer markets and institutional purchases, such as…
The Senate passed its farm bill, the Agriculture Improvement Act of 2018 (S. 3042), on Thursday, June 28th. The bill is a mixed bag for efforts to build local, resilient agricultural systems that create meaningful opportunities for diverse farmers. FBLE’s report, Diversified Agricultural Economies, makes farm bill recommendations to achieve a more just farm system by ensuring socially disadvantaged farmers…
Senate Joins Farm Bill Fray Last Friday the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry released its draft farm bill, kicking off the Senate’s effort to pass new omnibus legislation before some provisions of the current law expire in September. The Agriculture Improvement Act of 2018 (“AIA”), which arrives on the heels of the House’s failure to pass its own…
This is the fourth post in FBLE’s series on the Local FARMS Act. The Local FARMS Act, a 2018 Farm Bill marker bill introduced by Chellie Pingree (D-ME), Jeff Fortenberry (R-NE), and Sean Patrick Maloney (D-NY), includes a variety of programs that would support the growth of local food economies. One proposed provision intends to bolster the amount of local…