Ava Cilia is a law student in the Harvard Law School Food Law & Policy Clinic and guest contributor on this blog. Between 1910 and 1998 Black Americans lost about 90% of their farmland. Along with decades of notably racist practices by USDA, white supremacist violence, and the Great Migration, this disturbing trend is partially the result of the lack…
Oscar Heanue is a law student in the Food Law & Policy Clinic of Harvard Law School and guest contributor on this blog. Thanks to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Online Purchasing Pilot, participants in the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program (SNAP) are now able to use their benefits online for the first time in the program’s history. However, although…
Julia Harvey is a law student at NYU School of Law and guest contributor on this blog. On September 9, 2020, USDA announced a new final rule that aligns egg safety inspection practices with those already used in other USDA-regulated industries including meat and poultry. The rule requires egg production facilities to develop and implement Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point…
Tanya Shahjanian is a law student at NYU School of Law and guest contributor on this blog. As the COVID-19 pandemic—and the resulting economic instability—persist into the fall season, underserved populations in the United States continue to suffer financially. Food insecurity remains high, and millions of families continue to rely on various federal food assistance programs to get by. Fears…
Katie Smith is a law student at NYU School of Law and guest contributor on this blog. COVID-19 is forcing the United States to become an even more internet-dependent society, and rural and Tribal communities are increasingly being left behind. As of 2016, over 30% of rural Americans and over 35% of Americans living on Tribal lands did not have…
Alexander Langer is a law student at NYU School of Law and guest contributor on this blog. After years of steadily rising global food security, more people will go hungry this year because of COVID-19 and the related global economic crisis. However, the global food system that is so vulnerable to these shocks continues to chug along, and U.S. global…
Hannah Yang is a law student at NYU School of Law and guest contributor on this blog. The USDA Food and Nutrition Service’s mission is “to increase food security and reduce hunger.” As part of its mission, it oversees the National School Lunch Program, which provides free or reduced lunch for eligible students while school is in session. The Summer…
Amy Allen is a law student at the Elisabeth Haub School of Law at Pace University and a guest contributor to this blog. On Wednesday, December 11, 2019, the House passed a bipartisan amendment to the Immigration and Nationality Act, the Farm Workforce Modernization Act. The proposed legislation creates an opportunity for currently undocumented agricultural workers to obtain authorized work status…
The USDA has come under scrutiny recently over whether the agency withheld various climate change reports from the public. On September 19, 2019, Senate Democrats released a report (the DPCC report) citing more than 1,400 climate studies from USDA that the agency failed to publicize. According to the report, the USDA did not issue announcements or press releases on more…
The USDA recently released its interim final rule regulating the production of hemp. Hemp, a resurging commodity, has recently found its way back into the hearts of Americans and has a wide variety of uses. Hemp is a cannabis plant that can be found in fabric, paper, construction materials, food products, cosmetics, the production of cannabinoids such as cannabidiol (CBD), and…