Agricultural & Food Law at Stanford

I was pleased to receive information on some of the exciting agricultural and food law activities at Stanford Law School from Professor Jay Mitchell. I have had the pleasure of corresponding with Jay regarding his innovative clinical work with food system clients and met him at the American Agricultural Law Association conference last fall in Omaha.  I have been hoping to post about Jay's clinical work, as it might serve as a helpful model for other schools.  This clinical work, plus the amazing interdisciplinary research and conferences organized at Stanford are very inspirational.  Great work being done.

Here is a sampling of just some of the work going on at Stanford Law with respect to agricultural and food law issues -

Transactional Clinic

Students in Stanford’s transactional clinic, the Organizations and Transactions Clinic (“O&T”) regularly represent nonprofit organizations involved in sustainable agriculture, food security and food system reform.  The clinic, which opened in spring 2008, works with established Northern California nonprofits on corporate governance, contract and risk management matters.  O&T is a one-quarter course designed to help prepare students for institutional corporate practice and, at the same time, help them see how corporate lawyers can serve community as well as commercial organizations through pro bono, board service and volunteer work.

Associate Professor Jay Mitchell serves as clinic director, and he reports that food system clients represent almost 30% of O&T’s clients, with the projects generally involving real property, organizational programming, direct marketing or governance matters.

Real property projects that the clinic has undertaken include:

• development of a lease and operating policies for an agricultural education organization that leases land to its beginning farmer students; 
• preparation of a license agreement and operating policies for a sponsor of a multi-user agricultural park; and, 
• development of a model community garden lease and participant agreements. 

Programming matters have included:

• advice and document preparation regarding community produce gleaning and local food branding programs;
• development of applications, liability releases and policies for program participants and volunteers; and,
• revision of contracts used by food banks with satellite food distribution sites. 

Marketing matters have included:

• assisting a large farmers’ market sponsor with a complete revision of its market rules and regulations; 
• development of a template site agreement for use with municipalities, shopping center operators and other owners of farmers' market sites; and 
• development of documents for CSAs and for programs designed to help small farmers get access to institutional buyers.

Jay noted that the focus on these types of clients was a deliberate design decision made early on in the clinic’s history.  He just finished work on an excellent article that he shared with me that describes the the types of opportunities presented.  In his article, he argues persuasively that structural and other attributes of the food system make it an unusually attractive source of projects for transactional clinics and other programs focused on experiential learning in non-litigation settings.  Jay's article will appear in the Spring issue of the Journal of Food Law & Policy.

Jay encourages other clinic directors to explore food system opportunities  -- as he notes, these clients are everywhere, the system’s diversity of activities, actors and legal issues means that students can encounter a variety of legal subject matters and skill demands in a variety of modes, the familiarity and topicality of the sector creates considerable potential for student interest, and the area calls out for dedication of legal talent and pro bono resources.  His sense is that the sector can generate challenging and engaging projects for helping prepare students for transactional practice and their responsibilities as lawyers.

Jay would be happy to talk with clinic directors and others interested in exploring similar opportunities.  He can be reached via email at Stanford.

Stanford University Initiatives

Stanford Law faculty members regularly participate in university initiatives relating to food policy.

For example, Professor Buzz Thompson spoke about the Farm Bill at the November 2010 Food Summit that, through the leadership of the School of Medicine, brought together experts from across all of the university’s schools in a set of plenary and breakout sessions.  Video clips from this excellent conference are available from the Food Summit Video Library.

Next month, Professor Thompson, along with Professor Mariano-Florentino Cuellar, will speak at the conference, Connecting the Dots: The Food, Energy, Water and Climate Nexus.

Professor Thompson directs the university’s interdisciplinary Woods Institute for the Environment and is a senior fellow at Stanford’s Freeman Splogi Institute for International Studies.  The two institutes jointly sponsor the Program on Food Security and the Environment, which brings together scholars from diverse disciplines for research on global issues of hunger, food security and the environment.

From early 2009 through the summer of 2010, Professor Cuellar was on leave from Stanford to serve as Special Assistant to the President for Justice and Regulatory Policy at the White House. He led the Domestic Policy Council’s work on a variety of subjects, including public health, food safety and rural and agricultural policy, and was actively involved in the development of the Food Safety Modernization Act.

Food Policy Symposium

The Stanford Law & Policy Review sponsored a food policy symposium in 2010 focused on environmental and market regulation issues.  The journal hosted panel discussions and published articles concerning labeling, food safety and nutrient pollution.  The symposium volume is Issue 2 of Volume 21.

Stanford Law is leading the way in the integration of food law, agricultural law, and environmental law, and I am delighted to have the opportunity to post about the exciting work that is going on.  I welcome updates as clearly, this is an area that will only grow in importance.

West Virginia College of Law: Agricultural Law Initiatives

One of our alumni from the LL.M. Program in Agricultural & Food Law replied to my call for news regarding law school initiatives in agricultural & food law.  Alison Peck, who teaches at the West Virginia College of Law reported on a variety of innovative projects that she is involved in.

Alison reports that she teaches courses related to the question of how the law can guide sustainable development, particularly with relation to global food production and distribution.  Her courses include Agriculture & Rural Land Use, Natural Resources, International Environmental Law, International Trade Law, Property, and a seminar in Sustainable Development.  These courses will eventually be part of the WVU College of Law's new Energy and Sustainability Law Program and Center.

I should note that before Alison joined the West Virginia faculty, she developed and taught an excellent seminar in Sustainable Agriculture in our LL.M. Program.

Working together with West Virginia's Future Farmers of America (FFA), Alison and her colleague, Professor Grace Wigal have established the first annual Agricultural Law Moot Court Competition for West Virginia high schools students. Through the program, FFA students will have an opportunity to practice their advocacy skills with the help of law faculty and students in Alison's Agriculture & Rural Land Use class.  They will argue before state court judges. This year's problem focuses on the prospect of greenhouse gas regulation of agriculture.

Alison is recognized for her scholarship on the issue of agricultural biotechnology. She has published a number of scholarly articles and legal updates relating to international trade in agricultural products, especially agricultural plant biotechnology.  She was a featured guest relating to these issues on Chicago Public Radio's "Worldview," and have commented on these issues for publications such as New York Times/Greenwire and Science magazine.

Alison's current research focuses on a recent trend in contemporary political rhetoric about regulation of food consumer choices to reduce obesity costs. Opponents to such measure evoke founding principles of U.S. constitutional democracy, the founding fathers, and events such as the Boston Tea party. The article reviews the history of the non-importation and non-consumption agreements of the pre-Revolutionary era and argues that this movement was motivated by many of the same concerns that animate modern food policy: rising shared social costs resulting from ostensiby "private" consumption choices.

This summer, Alison will teach in WVU College of Law's Brazil Study Abroad program. She plans to lead students in discussion relating to issues affecting Brazil and the Amazon River, including deforestation, climate change, biodiversity conservation, bioprospecting/biopiracy, benefit sharing, and compulsory licensing of pharmaceuticals. At Centro Universitario Vila Velha, she will lecture to Brazilian and U.S. law students about the Brazil-U.S. trade wars over cotton and ethanol subsidies.

Fascinating work, Alison.  Thanks for letting me post on it.

Farmer-Labor Connections in Wisconsin

I grew up on a small (by today's standards) dairy farm in Minnesota. Although my parents never ran for office, political discussions were commonplace and part of our every day family discourse.  They were proud members of the Democratic Farmer Labor Party, the DFL. I recall being confused as a young child about references to the Democratic and the Republican parties on a national level, as I always thought it was the DFL versus the Republicans.

With this upbringing, the link between family farmers and the middle-class workers that form the backbone of the U.S. labor force always seemed so natural to me.  It was at DFL conventions that urban and rural interests got to better understand each other.

So, it was with great pride and a lot of nostalgia, that I read about the Tractorcade to Madison, Wisconsin to protest the recent legislation cutting off the collective bargaining rights of public workers.

In the video embedded below and recorded at the Tractorcade demonstration, one farmer explains why the workers' struggle is "a farmer's issue." Hubert Humphrey must be smiling down on him.

Thanks to Twitterer, Peter Patau @MadisonGuy for posting the video stream on his website. There is a slide show of fascinating photos from the Wisconsin protest posted on Peter's website as well. The picture posted above is from that selection.

Law School Work in Food & Agriculture

A couple weeks ago, I posted on the interesting food law work going on at Harvard -  work that is largely student generated and student centered.  I have contacted a number of colleagues that I happen to know are leading work in this area, and I hope to be receiving information on new classes, clinical and skills work, and at least one new center.  The work is inspiring.

I am certain that there are other exciting law school activities going on out there -  let me know, and I would be delighted to post about your activities.
Susan Schneider

The LL.M. Program in Agricultural & Food Law

While waiting for your submissions, I am always happy to post about the work we are doing here at the University of Arkansas School of Law.  We offer the LL.M. Program in Agricultural & Food Law, providing an opportunity for attorneys to focus on the full range of legal issues affecting our food system. 

Our curriculum includes many of the traditional aspects of agricultural law -  e.g., a study of federal farm programs, the environmental regulation of agriculture,  and agricultural finance and credit issues.  But, it also includes food law & policy courses that cover issues such as food labeling, food safety, food policy issues, and specific rules such as the national organic standards.  Integrated throughout the curriculum is the concept of sustainability, with the phrase "Food, Farming & Sustainability" often used as our guiding inspiration. We offer twenty-four credits of specialized instruction over two semesters.  More information about our Program and the work of our alumni can be found on the aglaw llm blog or our twitter account, @aglawllm.

The LL.M. Program at Arkansas has been in existence for 31 years.  Thanks to the increasing interest in agricultural and food law issues, we are receiving more applications than ever before.  We have been able to raise our admissions standards while also increasing our class size.  We have our largest class ever this year -  19 candidates.  Our experienced attorneys have professional experience that includes leadership at Wal-Mart as Sustainable Development Director, Judge Advocate service at the Pentagon, service as an FAA Regional Environmental Counsel, and international customs work as a practicing attorney. We also host a professor of law from Yeunganam University in the Republic of Korea.  Our recent law graduates obtained their degrees from the University of Iowa, Ohio State University, Washington University, the University of Oregon, Hofstra University, the University of Miami, Mercer University, Novgorod State University in Novgorod, Russia, and our own University of Arkansas School of Law.