Sustainable Agriculture & Food Policy

Building more meat processing plants won't yield more local meat unless farmers and processors change how they do business with each other, according to a new report. "Farmers say, 'There aren't enough processors.' But how can processors stay open, let alone grow, without enough steady, consistent business to pay their bills?" said lead author Lauren Gwin, a researcher at Oregon State University. "'I'll call you when I need you' is convenient in the short term but doesn't give either side any long-term stability or growth."

Four years ago, witnessing this rising interest in locally grown grains, it became clear to Ellen Mallory, a sustainable agriculture specialist at the University of Maine Cooperative Extension, that there was a need for more research on what it takes to grow grain in Maine and to produce educational resources for farmers interested in doing so.

Ildi Carlisle-Cummins traces her love of food to the afternoons and evenings of her youth helping her father prepare meals. But it was a study abroad trip to Costa Rica in 2001 that brought her interest in food and agriculture into sharper focus.

If one were playing a word association game and were asked what comes to mind when the terms “food” and “land use” are given, chances are high that the response would be “agriculture.” Yet every stage in the food system, from being grown or raised through being consumed, is place-based. Put differently, everything that happens with our food system involves land use in some way.

On February 23, 2013, the staff and board of the Maine Law Review organized a colloquium in Portland, Maine, focused on the future of the food system in the United States. The event brought together more than a dozen legal scholars from across the country (including New Hampshire, Vermont, Connecticut, Ohio, Nevada, Indiana, Idaho, Arkansas, Florida, California, Oregon, and, of course, Maine) to discuss and debate a wide range of issues in food law and policy. The colloquium was loosely organized around three broad themes:

What if you had to decide between feeding your family today and saving the environment for future generations? That's exactly the choice families along the stretch of river between Guatemala and Belize have to make. Switzer Fellow Dave Kramer of EcoLogic Development Fund is helping them find common ground to create a sustainable fishery that will serve everyone.