Harvard Law School Adopts New Focus on Food Law

According to an article appearing in the January 2014 issue of the Harvard Law Bulletin, Harvard Law School has established a food law and policy clinic in light of “more and more people deeply concerned about what they’re eating and what it means for our health, the economy, the environment, social justice, and even national security.” The school has also launched the Food Law Lab that “will be a locus for research, scholarship and teaching on the legal regulation of food.” Lab director Professor Jacob Gersten has predicted that “in the next decade, food law will become as big as environmental law. In terms of sheer volume and variety of legal happenings, the field is quite vibrant right now.”

Among other issues of interest are changes to food safety regulations under
the Food Safety Modernization Act, U.S. Supreme Court jurisprudence on
genetically modified seeds, state and local government regulations such as
New York City’s effort to regulate soft-drink sizes, food insecurity, obesity,
sustainability, bio- and agro-terrorism concerns, and food labeling issues. The
Harvard clinic was behind a report released in September 2013 that discussed
how “confusing food date labels lead to food waste.” Food law at Harvard is
apparently “a hot topic,” with some courses oversubscribed.

Harvard Law School Center for Health Law and Policy Innovation Director
Robert Greenwald said of the initiatives, “I really think that ultimately we’re
building the infrastructure for a long-term and sustainable movement to
truly transform both what we produce and what we eat. Our food production
system is not sustainable in terms of the environment and public
health, in that we have malnutrition in the face of obesity. We want to be at
the forefront and help guide this transformation.” Students are apparently
undertaking client-based projects throughout the country.

Issue 510