Food and Agriculture Clinic

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Overview

The Food and Agriculture Clinic (FAC) is one of the only law school clinics in the United States exclusively devoted to the food system.

Our student clinicians are JD, Master’s, and LLM candidates in Vermont Law and Graduate School’s top-ranked environmental law program. They represent the next generation of law and policy practitioners committed to advancing a more just and sustainable food system. The FAC is housed at the Center for Agriculture and Food Systems (CAFS). Student clinicians work under the close supervision of licensed attorneys, including the FAC Director and other CAFS faculty and staff.

The FAC provides students with the opportunity to engage in food system law and policymaking in a practical setting. Student clinicians work with local, regional, and national partners and clients to research, develop, and disseminate legal resources for food system stakeholders, including farmers and food enterprises, farmworkers, consumers, administrators, legislators, and advocates. Through a range of projects, students explore substantive law and policy issues in the field of food and agriculture while refining legal research and writing skills, and developing communication, project management, and leadership skills. Distinctively, our clinic has developed law and policy resources focused on farmland access and stewardship; food and farm business organization and structure; food security; labor laws and protections for food system workers; animal welfare; public health; plant breeding; local and regional food system development; and compliance with complex federal and state laws affecting the food system.

What We Do

The FAC offers the following law and policy services: (1) development of law and policy tools and resources; (2) policy counsel; and (3) direct legal services to food system organizations and enterprises.

Law and Policy Tools and Resources

We partner with nonprofit and community-based organizations to develop legal tools and educational materials that help food system stakeholders navigate various law and policy topics. For example:

The clinic works with the Farmers Market Coalition and NOFA-VT to create legal resources for market managers nationwide through the Farmers Market Legal Toolkit.
In collaboration with the Vermont-based nonprofit Migrant Justice, we created educational materials (published in English and in Spanish) that empower farmworkers to better understand their legal rights.
We partnered with the Northeast Center to Advance Food Safety and University of Vermont Extension to answer farmers’ and food producers’ pressing legal questions about food safety compliance.
In collaboration with Rural Advancement Foundation International-USA, we produced a guide to support plant breeders in preserving biodiversity by putting their innovations in the public domain.

Policy Counsel

We help food system organizations engage in legislative and administrative advocacy. For example:

On behalf of our client the State Innovation Exchange, we analyzed state laws that promote local farm products to create a menu of policy options for progressive legislators.
We worked with the regional organization Farm to Institution New England to identify policies that impact the prison food system. This collaboration also led to a report on The State of Prison Food in New England.
We have written public comments on behalf of a consortium of law schools called the Farm Bill Law Enterprise to call attention to food system challenges, such as the incongruity between federal nutrition policy and agricultural policy and the USDA’s implementation of the discrimination assistance program mandated under the Inflation Reduction Act.
We also assist organizations in the nuts and bolts of advocacy campaigns: from drafting policy recommendations and legislative language, to conducting legal research for public comment letters and amicus briefs, to submitting FOIA requests and developing communications advocacy strategies (e.g. testimony, talking points, and press releases).

Direct Legal Services

We periodically provide business-related legal services to food system organizations and enterprises. For example:

We conducted a regulatory assessment for Food Connects, a nonprofit organization and food hub in Brattleboro.
We reviewed a farm equipment use agreement for members of the Connecticut River Watershed Farmers Alliance.
We assisted the Vermont Farmers Food Center in Rutland on an intellectual property matter.

Given the teaching focus of our program and our obligations to on-going projects, the FAC typically is unable to assist in urgent matters. For legal services in such situations, we recommend reaching out to the Vermont Legal Food Hub at Conservation Law Foundation (CLF). The Vermont Legal Food Hub matches income-eligible food system stakeholders with free legal services. The Vermont Small Business Law Center also provides educational consults, attorney referrals, public educational events, and educational materials for small businesses based in Vermont.

From our Student Clinicians

“Not only has the experience given me something of substance to put on my resume, but it has also broadened my interests in agriculture law and has given me many networking opportunities.”

–Sedona Chavez JD’20

“[The Clinic] provided an invaluable experience to gain additional skills and work experience while maintaining the security of an engaged support system.”

–Alyssa Hartman MFALP’19, Executive Director, Artisan Grain Collaborative

“To be involved in this clinic is a unique and powerful experience, and I will be a better lawyer for it.”

–Lauren Wustenberg JD/MFALP’21

Highlights

CAFS Projects

Learn more about our work at the Center for Agriculture and Food Systems.

Get Involved

Are you an organization interested in working with the Food and Agriculture Clinic on policy advocacy or to develop legal resources for your community?

If so, please email cafs@vermontlaw.edu with “Clinic” in the subject line, and include a few brief statements describing: your organization, the legal or policy issue and/or the goals of your project, the type of legal or policy assistance you’re seeking, and an anticipated timeline.

Projects can run a single semester (generally August to December or January to April), though projects may span multiple semesters depending on the scope and final product. It generally takes a few months from when we first receive an inquiry to finalize a client engagement letter outlining the scope of work, so we encourage you to submit inquiries early.

Are you a Vermont farmer, food entrepreneur, or food system organization seeking legal assistance for your business? Please submit a request for assistance through the Vermont Legal Food Hub or the online intake form.

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