All Posts By

Mike Orlando

May 1, 2024
In 2023 Farm Bill, Local Food

Financing the Financiers: Detailing the Funding History of the Healthy Food Financing Initiative

Mike Orlando is a law student in the HLS Food Law & Policy Clinic and a guest contributor to this blog. Approximately 44 million Americans live without ready access to healthy food. To help mitigate this issue, Congress created the USDA Healthy Food Financing Initiative (“HFFI”) as part of the 2014 Agricultural Act (commonly referred to as the farm bill). HFFI…

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March 21, 2024
In 2023 Farm Bill, Conservation, Hearings, USDA

Congress, Conservation, and the Climate Cult: Highlights from Secretary Vilsack’s Testimony to the House Agriculture Committee

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…

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