2022-2023 FLSN E-Board Applications are open until May 23!

A bit about FLSN:

The National Food Law Student Network (FLSN) is a collaboration of law students from around the country dedicated to promoting the study and practice of food law and related fields. Motivated by a shared desire to improve the food system, FLSN raises law student voices in the national conversation about our food system. FLSN serves as a hub to exchange ideas, knowledge, and practical skills while building enduring connections among students and professionals to support the next generation of food law and policy advocates. 

How to get involved: 

All law students are welcome to join the network by signing up for our listserv

Network members who are interested in helping to fulfill FLSN’s mission should apply to serve on the 2022-2023 FLSN Executive Board.  

The FLSN Executive Board fulfills FLSN’s  mission by 

  • Hosting regional and national events;
  • Providing guidance and resources for students to promote food policy at their schools;
  • Connecting students to unique food law and policy projects through the Network and our partners;
  • Serving as a liaison between students and professionals in order to cultivate mentoring relationships; and
  • Curating a clearinghouse of funding, internship, and employment opportunities

Applications are open until Monday, May 23rd.

The new committee will be announced by Friday, May 27th, and committee transition calls will happen shortly thereafter.

We’re looking for the following positions:
2 Co-Presidents
1 Secretary
2 Communications Chairs
2 Career Chairs
2 Engagement Chairs
4 Regional Representatives

About the Executive Board positions:

President

  • Oversees other FLSN Executive Board members and projects
  • Schedules and Runs regular FLSN Executive Board Meetings
  • Liaison Between Harvard Food Law & Policy Clinic and the Executive Board
  • Helps Plan Annual Food Law Student Leadership Summit OR Food Law Student Network Digital Event Series 
  • Manages Voting/Yearly Review of FLSN Bylaws
  • Available to Fill in any of the Other Executive Board Positions as Necessary

Skills needed:

  • Leadership Skills: Ability to organize other board members working on outside projects; keeping on top of regular updates
  • Professional Communication Skills: Must be able to communicate effectively with professionals, describe updates in a brief format to ensure board members are on the same page, and promptly reply to all FLSN related email
  • Creativity: Must be open to exploring new projects the Food Law Student Network might take on to continue to grow and evolve

Secretary: 

  • Schedules and Runs regular FLSN Executive Board Meetings
  • Collaborates with President(s) to create meeting agenda
  • Takes minutes of each meeting and promptly shares minutes with the board
  • Regularly checks and responds to messages on FLSN Gmail
  • Help facilitate communications between the Advisory Council and Executive Board

Skills needed:

  • Excellent organizational and time management
  • Good note taker and efficient communicator
  • Reliable schedule – MUST attend all e-board meetings

Communications Chairs: 

  • Reach out to board members or other individuals interested in writing blog posts
  • Run FLSN’s social media platforms, including Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn.
  • Create content for social media platforms
  • Advertise blog and other events or projects as needed
  • Responsible for bi-weekly Food Law Student Network email through MailChimp 

Skills needed:

Fluency with social media: communications chairs need to be relatively fluent in technology and social media platforms, as they are responsible for maintaining FLSN’s online presence. Experience with MailChimp preferred.
Creativity: communications chairs create content for the FLSN website and blog, so those who have creative minds are encouraged to apply!

Careers Chairs: 

  • Maintain a running list of food law career opportunities
  • Find and share professional opportunities with the network
  • Reach out to and network with food law professionals to find out more about both summer and full-time positions in the food law sphere.
  • Coordinate with Communications Co-Chairs regarding the newsletter.

Skills needed:

  • Professional Communication Skills: Must be able to communicate effectively with professionals/staff attorneys in outside organizations.
  • Outreach skills: Careers chairs interact with a lot of attorneys they may not have met before, so they should be comfortable with cold-emailing people

Engagement Chairs: 

  • Coordinate FLSN events (with the support of the Presidents) and support other board members with their events as needed.
  • Provide guidance on how to begin a food law society (FLS) at a new school and how to prepare for the struggles students may face in doing so (lack of attendance, etc.)
  • Provide feedback to students that share their initial FLS documents to better improve them.
  • Establish new ideas and activities to increase student involvement in cost-effective, innovative ways, and disperse those concepts to other FLS groups so that more groups can benefit. 
  • Oversee FLSN initiatives, and seek out new opportunities for the FLSN membership

Skills needed:

  • Communication: Engagement chairs should be able to communicate well, especially through social media. 
  • Outreach skills: Engagement chairs interact with a lot of students they may not have met before, so they should be comfortable with cold-emailing people.
  • Organization: Ability to organize students working on outside projects; keeping on top of regular updates as the liaison to outside organizations.
  • Professional Communication Skills: Must be able to communicate effectively with professionals/staff attorneys in outside organizations. Also, need to adequately describe projects in a brief format when sending opportunities to the listserv.

Regional Reps: 

  • Each Representative (up to 4) is assigned a region of the United States and works alongside the Engagement Chairs in their regions to collect contact information from law schools and students as well as project opportunities from partner organizations and clinics.
  • Maintain updated contact with schools and clinics in their region
  • Stay informed and share with FLSN any projects, conferences, networking, or other professional opportunities
  • Serve as a bridge for bringing together regional communities of law students interested and/or active in food law. 

Regional Representatives are not required but are welcome to join the monthly e-board meetings

Skills needed:

  • Communication: The Regional Representatives should be able to communicate well, especially through social media. 
  • Outreach skills: The Regional Representatives interact with many students they may not have met before, so they should be comfortable with cold-emailing people.
  • Professional Communication Skills: Must be able to communicate effectively with professionals/staff attorneys in outside organizations. Also, need to be able to adequately describe projects in a brief format when sending opportunities to the listserv.

Please reach out to foodlawstudentnetwork@gmail.com with any questions!

Legal Issues for Cannabis in Foods and Dietary Supplements

Virtual FLSN Event Happening Monday, April 25th!

Monday, April 25, 7:00-8:15 pm ET

Register here: https://loyno.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJUpfuuurDooHdf5UUeYWfQlLNpU3QiCXob3

FLSN partnered with the Food and Drug Law Institute (FDLI) on this super cool virtual panel event to discuss the legal issues surrounding the use of cannabis in foods and dietary supplements.

Speakers:

Kristi Wolff
Partner, Kelley Drye & Warren
Kristi is a partner in the Washington, D.C. office of Kelley Drye & Warren and chairs its Food and Drug Law and Cannabis Law practices.

Marshall Custer
Partner, Husch Blackwell
Marshall is a partner in the Denver, CO office of Husch Blackwell and co-chairs its Cannabis team

Moderator:

Sarah Chase

Executive Director, Council for Federal Cannabis Regulation, Washington, D.C.

We are really excited about this event and hope you will join us!
Register Here!

Food Law Student Network Digital Event Series March 15-20, 2021

WHO: People interested in food law! 

WHAT: Food Law Student Network Digital Event Series 

WHERE: Zoom – see specific links! 

WHEN: March 15-20th 

Please join the Food Law Student Network for our week long digital event series! Below you will find registration links and information about each event, speakers and the time. We hope to see you there! 

Monday, March 15th, 2-3 pm CT: 

Hemp: Industrial Production, Evolving Regulations & Needed Developments

Register here! 

Speakers:

Blake Jackson, Policy Officer & Staff Attorney, Indigenous Food and Agriculture Initiative

Cristina Buccola,  Founding Attorney, Cristina Buccola Counsel PLLC

Wednesday, March 17th, 2-3 pm CT: 

Beverage Law under FDA  Jurisdiction 

Register here! 

Speakers: 

Nury Yoo Arturo Reyes, Keller & Heckman 

Thursday, March 18th, 12-1 pm CT: 

Row Crops: Policies, Subsidies, and the Upcoming Farm Bill 

Register Here!

Speaker: 

Jonathan Coppess, J.D., Assistant Professor, Director of the Gardner Agriculture Policy Program, University of Illinois, Dept. of Agriculture & Consumer Economics 

Thursday, March 18th, 7 PM CT: 

Film Night Event: Food Chains 

Watch the 2014 documentary film, Food Chains, before the event & join us for a group discussion. Find the film at no cost here.  

You may join our discussion event here! 

Friday, March 19th, 12-1 PM CT: 

Meat Alternatives: Exploring the Regulatory & Technological Advances in Plant-based Meat, Cultivated Meat, and Insects as Food 

Register here!

Speakers: 

Professor Marie C. Boyd, University of South Carolina School of Law

Nicole Manu, Attorney, Good Food Institute 

Professor Steph Tai, University of Wisconsin Law School 

Saturday, March 20th, 12 PM CT 

Virtual Brunch!  We may not be able to meet in person this year, but we can still connect and discuss all things food law! 

Please help us celebrate a fabulous week of events with a virtual brunch filled with food, fun, and the opportunity to connect with fellow FLSN members!  Like our virtual dinner parties last semester, there will be cooking, games, and vibrant conversation! 

Register here!

Upcoming Fall Event: COVID-19’s Impact on the Food Supply Chains

We are delighted to be hosting a panel around the issue of COVID-19’s Impact on the Food Supply Chains.

When: November 6th 12:00 pm CST, 1:00 pm EST and 10:00 am PST

Where: Zoom! Registration link can be found here.

The panel will be a 1 hour moderated discussion with the following guests:

Professor Steph Tai
University of Wisconsin Law School

Aleks Schaefer, JD,PhD

Michigan State University, Dept. of Agriculture, Food and Resource Economics

Megan Konar, PhD
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Civil and Environmental Engineering Dept.

Magaly Licolli

Co-founder Venceremos

You’re Invited! Join FLSN for a Virtual Dinner Party

Who: You!

What: Food Law Student Network Dinner Party

Where: Your kitchen, and the wonderful world of Zoom

When: Friday, September 25th at 6:30 PM Central

Why: Virtual community, delicious food, and trivia!

RSVP HERE

We’re so excited to cook with you all next week!

Thanks to Sarah for submitting her Pad See Ew recipe (linked below). It’s super delicious, packed full of veggies, and QUICK to cook. It doesn’t require many specialty ingredients, but you can totally take it to the next level if you have access to an Asian market. It is a complete vegetarian meal all in itself, and has an easy vegan version as well. A great wine pairing with this dish is Chateau Ste Michelle Riesling, which is widely available. We’ve tested the recipe and can give guidance on substitutions, technique, etc. throughout the night. 

PAD SEE EW RECIPE

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Like any dinner party, we won’t get right into eating – the first hour is a casual social hour while we prep ingredients, chat about our day and interests, and play some party games (we’ve got food trivia!) Feel free to come and go as you please, log on just for the end, or skip this entirely. Caitlion, our dinner party host and Regional Representative for the South, is looking forward to getting to know you all.

Meet Caitlion & the FLSN Engagement Team

After social hour, we’ll get into cooking! Since our recipe cooks so quickly, you can watch Caitlion make the dish, then try it yourself after it’s finished – or be bold and follow along!  While this dish is really good and pretty simple, no pressure if it’s not your style; we still want to hang out with you. Join us for the trivia and conversation! 

We tried our best to pick a time that works for the most people, but don’t worry if you aren’t able to join. We’ll host another party in October at a later time for Pacific folks. 

Please RSVP for the event here. Knowing how many people plan to join helps us plan the games and structure of the evening, and means we don’t have to spam the whole mailing list with party news (as much fun as it is going to be!) If you have any questions about the event, please email FLSNcookbook@gmail.com

See you soon! 

Caitlion and the FLSN Cookbook Team 

A Recipe for a Party!

*Blog Content by Caitlion O’Neill, FLSN Regional Rep.

As we have been forced to narrow our social sphere and change our everyday practices, many of us have developed a new relationship with food. Maybe it has taken the form of developing new hobbies like baking, planting a garden, supporting local businesses through takeout, dealing with food shortages, or even a fear of working in or visiting a restaurant or grocery store. One thing is likely common with us all- it’s much harder to sit around the dinner table with our loved ones.

Since meeting and sharing a meal in person is currently impossible, we are hoping that our FLSN community will join us in a project- sharing meaningful recipes to compile into a community cookbook! We will then choose a few of the best recipes to center a few virtual community cooking parties in which FLSN members can all cook the same food, then join in a Zoom dinner party. Share your recipes to FLSNcookbook@gmail.com and see the below formatting tips and example recipe. 

We especially want to see:

Recipes that preserve a unique foodway. Cuisine from your hometown, state, or country that is representative of that place and a culinary tradition.

  • Example- tender Southern biscuits, Southwestern green chile enchiladas, Midwestern hot dish, Goan fish curry

Recipes that you began to cook during quarantine.

  • Example- sourdough pretzels from a starter you made or were gifted

Recipes that you developed after growing, harvesting, or foraging the ingredients.

  • Example- salsa made with heirloom varieties of tomato and chile that you grew in your container garden

Recipes that were your favorite entertaining dishes pre-Covid

  • Example- a beautifully decorated layer cake or crowd-pleasing appetizer

Recipes that are too yummy not to share!

  • Have an amazing dish that you’ve just got to tell your FLSN friends about, but it doesn’t fit into the above categories? No problem! It’s a community cookbook, and we are happy to feature anything you would like to take the time to submit.

If these are your own recipes, family treasures, or a recipe that you have adapted heavily from the source over time, no credit is necessary. However, if you are using a recipe from a cookbook or online with minimal changes, you must credit the original in your submission. While pictures would be amazing, they are not required. 

FLSN will compile these recipes into a PDF document that may also be available in physical form depending on community demand! 

Be sure to mark your calendars for these Zoom dinner party dates:

  • September 25th (deadline to submit recipes for this party is September 15th!)
  • October 23rd (deadline to submit recipes for this party is October 10th!)

Stay tuned for more Dinner Party info shortly! Please email your recipes, stories, photos, and memories to FLSNcookbook@gmail.com. The deadline for the community cookbook will be in early Spring of 2021. If you are interested in becoming a part of this project, please email coneill@my.loyno.edu to get added to our Cookbook and Dinner Party team!

Formatting Tips

When submitting your recipe, please keep in mind these formatting tips for ease of compiling the cookbook.

If you have a family story or memory about the dish, we would love to hear it! We can always edit these down, so don’t hold back.

Please be specific when using terms like “1 cup of cherry tomatoes, diced” vs “1 cup of diced cherry tomatoes”. The first implies that you measure whole cherry tomatoes into a one cup measure to fill, then dice this amount. The second implies that you dice cherry tomatoes until you have enough to fill up a one cup measure, and these are very different amounts!

If you have separate wet and dry ingredients, or a spice blend, please label and separate these in the ingredient list. 

For ease of editing, please submit in word processing format, not PDF.

Example recipe:

Banana Pancakes from Caitlion O’Neill , FLSN’s Regional Rep. for the South

Serves 2 as a main dish or 4 as a side

I always hated bananas but I wanted to like them because they always seemed so nice in smoothies and pancakes! It wasn’t until I tried the dwarf Thai variety bananas at the age of 25 that I realized I actually like bananas in general, just not the Cavendish banana. If you live in New Orleans or another region where banana trees grow, feel free to substitute in a local variety (Ice Cream bananas are delicious here). If you do like the Cavendish banana, eat up because it may not be around much longer- 99% of the worlds export crop of bananas are Cavendish clones, and a fungal disease is beginning to wipe out Cavendish plantations worldwide because none of these clones have resistance.

Dry Ingredients

.5 c whole wheat flour

.5 c White Lily self-raising flour (or white flour)

2 TBSP sugar

If using White Lily, add 1 TBSP baking powder. If not, add 1.5 TBSP baking powder.

Wet Ingredients

3 TBSP Just Scramble (the liquid) or one flax egg (1 TBSP ground flaxseed mixed with 3 TBSP water, let sit for 5 minutes)

.75-1 c oat milk. Start with .75 cup and use more if too dry. 

1 TBSP oil

1 banana, mashed, preferably Thai

Sift together all dry ingredients. Mix all wet ingredients well, making sure no big chunks of banana remain. Add wet ingredients to dry and gently whisk just until no dry patches remain. The batter should be thick.

Heat a cast iron or non-stick skillet on medium heat. Add vegan butter or other solid fat (coconut oil is good) to pan and let melt. Add batter and make pancakes! They will brown quickly because of the banana and sugar but they are not burning, promise.

Top with more butter and peach jam to serve. 

Meet FLSN’s Engagement Chairs & Regional Representatives

As we transition from summer internships to fall courses, Matt and Bridget, this year’s FLSN Engagement Chairs, want to welcome you back to school and to our FLSN community. 

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We also would like to share a few changes to the Network. Last year, the FLSN board voted to change the structure of our leadership: combining the Student Organizations Chair positions with the Projects Chairs into new Engagement Chair roles. We also created four Regional Representative positions, with the goal of having the Network facilitate more community-based relationships among law students interested in food & agriculture. 

We’re excited about the changes and are looking forward to getting to know our food law community better this year. Along those lines, we wanted to introduce ourselves, the new positions and our goals for the upcoming year. 

Engagement Chairs

As Engagement Chairs, Matt and Bridget are focused on creating connections between students, professors and professionals interested in food law, while inspiring law students to get involved in the larger food community. We’ll be planning a variety of ways to engage with the Network–from virtual lectures and conversations to programs and ongoing initiatives that you can volunteer to be a part of. We hope that through these events, we can continue to grow the food law community and elevate law students’ voices in national food law and policy conversations. 

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Matt Watson

Matt is currently a 3L at Pace University, where he is a member of the Pace Food and Beverage Law Clinic. Prior to law school, Matt worked as a digital marketer for food & food-tech start-up businesses in Boston, MA. During that time, he spent a year helping one of the world’s largest vertical farming companies develop its branding, which got him interested in the regulatory state that cutting-edge food businesses must navigate. This ultimately led him to pursue a legal education to engage with food law and policy matters. As one of FLSN’s Engagement Co-Chairs, Matt wants to expand opportunities for law students to get involved with substantive, actionable projects and dialogue within the national food law landscape. This focus will build on the Network’s ability to offer valuable support to leading food-policy organizations and university programs, as well as further legitimize the Network’s own platform in this space.

Bridget Eklund

Prior to law school, Bridget served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Ethiopia, working with smallholder farmers to diversify crops, increase climate resiliency and improve food security. Bridget also volunteered at community gardens while working in New Orleans, Louisiana. Her passion for international development and sustainable agriculture led her to law school, where she is focusing on legal aspects of sustainable food systems, equitable management of land, and climate change. At Duke, Bridget is the founder and president of the Food Law Society. She also conducts research concerning policies and funding mechanisms to promote regenerative grazing practices in North Carolina. Bridget aspires to use her law degree to advance systemic change in agricultural systems and develop resilient communities, both domestically and abroad. As a FLSN board member, Bridget hopes to provide opportunities for students to connect with professionals, faculty, and other students interested in food and agriculture law.

Regional Representatives

Our four regional representatives will be supporting us to facilitate those goals and connect with law students on a more interpersonal level. Each representative is the liaison for a specific region. They’ll be helping us with outreach and connecting students to food law opportunities. 

Caitlion O’Neill 

Caitlion is the FLSN Regional Representative for the South. They are currently a 2L at Loyola New Orleans College of Law. Caitlion worked in food and hospitality for 10 years before law school (rising from dishwasher to chef to restaurant consultant), eventually starting Louisiana’s first vegan cheese company V I R I D I A (which just began online sales! Their curated plant-based charcuterie ships nationally). They volunteered as a worker on small, family-owned organic farms in Japan and Europe through the WWOOF (World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms) program and hosted WWOOFers from around the world here in New Orleans. After seeing that their own personal advocacy had a limited spread, Caitlion decided to attend law school to amplify unheard voices and have access to policy decision making. In law school, Caitlion is the president of the Environmental Law Society and is active with the National Lawyers Guild, Lambda (LGBTQ+ Law Society), and the Animal Legal Defense Fund. Caitlion enjoys working to make the law a vehicle of social change and is grateful that their law school has a focus on social justice. Their summer internship with the Gulf Coast Center for Law and Policy has them producing several podcasts on climate justice and the Green New Deal for the South. As a future attorney, Caitlion is deeply committed to honoring the people and places of their home, the Gulf Coast. As the Southern rep for FLSN, Caitlion hopes to use their passion and experiences in food and farming to bring a pragmatic voice to the food law/policy discussion. Pre-pandemic, Caitlion enjoyed hosting friends for dinner parties, yoga classes, New Orleans’ neighborhood bar scene, and international travel. Nowadays, they’re reading back issues of Mother Earth News, looking for land in the Cajun Country, and spending time with their partner and rescue cat, Snorlene.

Courtney Gately

Courtney is the FLSN Regional Representative for the West. She is currently attending Texas A&M University School of Law. Before law school, she received a Bachelor of Science in Agriculture from Kansas State University and a Master of Science in Nonprofit Management from Northeastern University. She spent the majority of her short career in nonprofit management working with organizations whose missions focused on education, economic self-sufficiency, and supporting post 9/11 combat wounded service members. At law school, Courtney is a research assistant with work focusing on water quantity, water infrastructure, and freshwater alternatives. Her personal research interests include the relationship between agricultural and environmental issues. Additionally, She is the president of the ENRG student organization which has a broad focus on environmental, energy, and natural resources law. In addition to her passion for the intersection between food, agricultural, and environmental law, Courtney hopes to bring her experience in community-based organizations and board service to help increase engagement and awareness of FLSN. 

Sabrina Bey

Sabrina is the FLSN Regional Representative for the East. She currently attends the Howard University School of Law. Her interest in food law began after witnessing first-hand the dangers of unsafe food. As a child, Sabrina had an unfortunate incident eating at a fast-food restaurant and then spending a week in the hospital with E.coli. Sabrina often wonders what could have been done to prevent other children, like herself, from contracting dangerous foodborne illnesses. While in law school, Sabrina had the opportunity to work in the food law group at a big law firm. Her areas of interest in food law grew as she learned more about food safety, labeling issues, and FDA regulations. As a regional representative, Sabrina hopes to build a bigger network with other food law interests and get more students interested in the food law practice.

Hammons Hepner

Hammons is the FLSN Regional Representative for the Midwest. He is a student at the University of Oklahoma College of Law. Hammons grew up as the fifth-generation of a family farm in Freedom, Oklahoma. He graduated from Oklahoma State University in 2018 with a Bachelor of Science in Agriculture in agricultural economics and a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration in finance, along with a leadership minor. Prior to law school, Hammons worked in government affairs with a lobbying principal, where he advocated for agriculture, energy, water, and non-profit interests during the 2018 Regular Session in Oklahoma. Hammons has clerked for Gungoll, Jackson, Box & Devoll P.C. in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma and the Oklahoma Office of the Attorney General. Hammons currently interns with Sharp Law LLP of Prairie Village, Kansas and is a Research Fellow for the National Agricultural Law Center. Hammons is a co-founder, and current president, of OU Law’s Agricultural Law Association, and is an active member of the American Agricultural Law Association, the Oklahoma State University Alumni Association, and the Sirloin Club of Oklahoma.

We encourage any interested students to reach out to us throughout the year! We’d love to be a resource for anyone who’d like to get more involved in the food law community. As the fall semester begins, we’ll be holding virtual “Get to Know Your Regional Rep” events for each respective region. Stay tuned for more details. In the meantime, feel free to contact Bridget, Matt or any of the Regional Reps for more details, ways to get involved, or just to chat about all things food-related!

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FLSN Black Lives Matter Statement

FLSN Header

Dear FLSN Community,

The Food Law Student Network supports the Black community and the Black Lives Matter movement. We are heartbroken for the families of Rayshard Brooks, Tony McDade, George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, Dreasjon “Sean” Reed, and the too many other Black lives we have lost. What is happening to Black people at the hands of rogue police officers and individuals is unacceptable. Although most of these deaths were the result of police brutality, they force us to consider how racism plays a role in every aspect of our society.  In doing so, we realize how pervasive racial discrimination is throughout every segment of our food and agricultural systems.

It is impossible to discuss the roots of systemic racism in this country without acknowledging that it all began with slave labor in agriculture. Directly, and indirectly, racist policies have had a significant impact on racial health disparities as well as access to land, loans, and resources for maintaining a farm.  These policies have helped suppress Black farmers so much so that by 2017 only 1.3 percent of all farmers in the U.S. were Black.[1]

The food and agricultural sector has a great deal of work to do to untangle complex systems of oppression. Food lawyers play a crucial role in moving that forward. It is our duty as a community of future attorneys to educate ourselves and participate in the productive growth of our industry. The Black Lives Matter movement requires us to continue challenging the norms of our food system and amplifying voices of Black, Indigenous, and People of Color in our community. We must actively embrace diversity as the avenue to remove racial disparities in our food system. Doing so is not only the right thing to do but will make for a better, more resilient food system.

We know that many of our members share our sadness, frustration, and outrage. To all of our members hurting right now – we see you. We hear you. We are standing with you, hand in hand.  As future attorneys, it is our responsibility to be anti-racist. That starts with educating ourselves and participating in productive self-growth and community-growth as a united society. It continues with holding each other accountable to ensure our work eliminates racial disparities in agriculture, health, and the environment.

Below are resources for ways to get involved and support the Black community and educate yourself and others on the racial disparities within the food and agriculture industry. As an organization committed to constant growth and learning, we encourage you to share any additional resources with us so that we can continue to work in accompliceship with the Black community, as well as the Indigenous community and all other People of Color, and do our part to ensure justice, peace, and equity throughout our entire food system.

Black Lives Matter

Yours In Solidarity,
FLSN Executive Board 2020-2021


[1] https://www.nass.usda.gov/Publications/Highlights/2019/2017Census_Farm_Producers.pdf

Anti-Racism Resources:

Social Media Activism:

Reading Materials:

Solar Powered Indoor Stoves

Written by Gordon Merrick, 3L at Vermont Law School and FLSN Co-President

A recent announcement by the International Solar Energy Society (ISES) shows just how intersectional our food and energy systems are. Three billion people around the world still depend on cooking stoves fueled by biomass, which poses huge public health issues. In addition to indoor air quality issues, these fuel sources require substantial time, energy, and precious funds. These public health considerations are intensified by deforestation that occurs due to the necessity of these fuels. ISES’s announcement of the winner of their innovation-forcing challenge is exciting not only because it shows that there are people working to solve this problem, but that the international world is taking notice.

The reduced need for biomass to cook food increases the immediate health of those doing the cooking (women and children) and leaves the world’s forests to store carbon and water and provide food and resources to local populations. The world is changing at an incredibly rapid pace, and it is these simple technologies that will support the world’s exponentially growing electricity needs. Freeing up money and time will help address systemic issues that developing nations face. It will allow women and children to focus on what repeatedly is shown to improve quality of life: participating in local commerce and obtaining an education.

In sum, this announcement shows how momentous changes can come from simple ideas. Understanding how rural communities live and operate provides opportunities for residents to better their lives and pushes the world to address our changing climate.  

Sesame Regulated in Illinois

Written by Emily Yslas, 2L at the University of Wisconsin Law School and FLSN Co-Communications Chair

The FDA has identified eight major allergens that are regulated in the United States including wheat, peanuts, eggs, milk, tree nuts, soy, fish, and shellfish. Other countries have these same eight allergens but may have the additional cereals with gluten, buckwheat, celery, lupin, molluscan shellfish, mustard, sesame, sulfites, bee pollen/ propolis, royal jelly, mango, peach, pork, tomato and latex (natural rubber).(1) 

Of the developed world, Canada, the EU, Australia all consider sesame an allergen leaving the US an outlier. The Food Safety Modernization Act officially recognizes Australia as a comparable food system and is working on accepting Canada and the EU as comparable food systems. While the FDA has not added sesame as an allergen, in 2018 they released a comment period regarding sesame allergies.(2)

Illinois is the first state to require sesame labeling.(3) The state hopes that other states will follow and eventually the FDA. Sesame is the 9th most common allergen with .2% of children with sesame allergies. You can read the bill here — http://www.ilga.gov/legislation/BillStatus.asp?DocNum=2123&GAID=15&DocTypeID=HB&LegId=117799&SessionID=108&GA=101 

(1) https://farrp.unl.edu/IRChart

(2) https://www.fda.gov/food/cfsan-constituent-updates/fda-asks-input-sesame-allergies-and-food-labeling  
(3)https://will.illinois.edu/news/story/illinois-requires-food-manufacturers-to-label-sesame-allergen