Jayce Jimenez is a law student in the HLS Food Law & Policy Clinic and a guest contributor to this blog. Let me paint a picture for you. You’re talking with your “friend” Kevin about the dire need for collective climate action, a subject with which you’re familiar, when he abruptly shifts the conversation to the topic of carbon credits (which…
Sarah King is a law student in the HLS Food Law & Policy Clinic and a guest contributor to this blog. This summer, the Supreme Court decided a case concerning the reach of the Clean Water Act, which generally prohibits the discharge of pollutants into “navigable waters,” drawing a range of reactions from environmental and agricultural groups. This case began in…
Hudson Bennett is a law student in the HLS Food Law & Policy Clinic and a guest contributor to this blog. What’s going on? The United States agriculture industry is wasting water at a crippling rate. Irrigation efficiency sits at around 60-70%, and domestic aquifers are being depleted at a rate significantly faster than they can recover. In other words, the…
Beverly Bolster is an undergraduate student at the University of Maryland and a guest contributor to this blog. Earlier this year, Senators Heinrich (D-NM) and Braun (R-IN) introduced the Agrivoltaics Research and Demonstration Act of 2023 in the U.S. Senate to provide funding for the U.S. Departments of Energy and Agriculture to jointly research agrivoltaics. In the bill, an “agrivoltaic…
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…
Kaitlynn Dixon is a law student at the Elisabeth Haub School of Law at Pace University and a guest contributor to this blog. Using the 2023 Farm Bill, Congress should implement citizen suit provisions to provide the public and stakeholders the power to hold the USDA accountable for carrying out directives the Farm Bill mandates. A citizen suit provision would establish…
Robert Velazquez is a law student at the University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law and is a guest contributor to this blog. For many people the thought of performing back breaking manual labor in triple digit heat seems unfathomable, but for farmworkers harvesting America’s produce, it’s another day at the office. Farmworkers who spend most of their…
Kipper Berven is a law student in the HLS Food Law & Policy Clinic and a guest contributor to this blog. On Tuesday, March 7th, two law students and two instructors from Harvard Law School’s Food Law and Policy Clinic traveled to Washington D.C., joining a student from the University of Pittsburgh School of Law to attend the Farmers for Climate…
Luca Greco is a law student in the HLS Food Law & Policy Clinic and a guest contributor to this blog. As Congress turns its attention to the 2023 Farm Bill, climate and conservation are among the top issues. Republicans who have generally opposed provisions aimed at addressing climate change have signaled their concern over new mandatory programs, but have signaled…
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…