Developing Food Law – New Haven

Yale Law School presents Developing Food Law April 16-17, 2010.

Food policy implicates a broad range of pressing humanitarian, public health, and environmental challenges. These challenges include, among many others: ending hunger, promoting rural economic development, protecting the safety of the food supply, reversing the obesity and diabetes epidemics, and averting catastrophic climate change. Addressing any and all of these challenges requires the development of healthy, sustainable, and equitable food systems. The aim of Developing Food Law is to help participants bring about patterns of food production that honor the universal right to food, the health and well-being of communities, and the preciousness of natural resources. The conference will bring together leading policymakers, scholars, activists, students, and farmers to discuss strategies for achieving food systems guided by those values.

Developing Food Law will explore two distinct “tracks” for reform through two concurrently-run series of panels. The U.S Track will focus on interconnections among U.S. agricultural policy, public health, and the environment, while considering avenues for pushing food law in healthier and more sustainable directions. The International Track will examine reform strategies, both on local levels and in transnational fora, aimed at ensuring food access in the developing world. The conference keynote, issue lunches, and a concluding conversation will bring these two “tracks” together to reflect on common themes, such as the impact of technological innovation and the importance of a systemic approach to reform.

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