10th Annual Food is Medicine Symposium
Community Servings and the Harvard Law School Center for Health Law and Policy Innovation celebrated the growth and advancement of the Food is Medicine (FIM) field over the last decade with an October symposium that gathered FIM leaders from across 17 states. Keynote speaker Catherine Oakar, the White House Special Assistant to the President for Public Health and Disparities, joined Emily Broad Leib, the Director of the Harvard Food Law and Policy Clinic and the Center for Health Law and Policy Innovation, for a fireside chat about the inclusion of FIM in the 2022 White House Conference on Hunger, Nutrition, and Health Strategy and the progress made since the historic conference.

PCAST Advancing Nutrition Science Workshop

On Nov. 3, 2023, FLPC Faculty Director Emily Broad Leib made a presentation focused on nutrition investment and nutrition education for doctors to the PCAST Working Group members at the White House. The event convened relevant government agencies / departments and key stakeholders from the private and academic sectors to identify scientific opportunities, gaps, and priorities to continue to advance nutrition science, with a particular emphasis on ensuring equitable access to the benefits of research. The event provided an opportunity for PCAST Working Group members and stakeholders to discuss possible strategies and recommendations that PCAST could make to the President.

2023 Food Waste Solutions Summit

Western North Carolina Food Waste Solutions hosted its third annual summit, gathering businesses, nonprofit organizations, and academic leaders to foster collaboration and identify solutions to reduce local food waste. Clinical Instructor Heather Latino presented at the November summit along with long-time FLPC partner Professor Alice Ammerman from UNC-Chapel Hill. Their presentation, Policy in Action – Tools, Programs and Partnerships that Advance State Level Policy, offered a deep dive into food safety research and initiatives supporting efforts to address food waste in North Carolina and across the U.S.

Lies in Your Grocery Cart: Panel Discussion

On Nov. 30, in partnership with the Harvard Radcliffe Institute and the HKS Food and Agriculture PIC, FLPC hosted an event titled "Lies in Your Grocery Cart: How Misinformation and Disinformation Impacts Food Choice." The event explored the tangled web of food misinformation to understand how fake news and misinformation impact consumer choice.
Speakers were Massimo Polidoro, Visiting Associate, Harvard Department of the History of Science; Erica Kenney, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health; Rebecca Tushnet, Harvard Law School; and Beatrice La Porta, Fulbright Schuman Visiting Scholar, FLPC. The event was moderated by FLPC Faculty Director Emily Broad Leib.

International Food Security Treaty

The Harvard Law School Food Law and Policy Clinic and the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health cohosted a seminar on World Food Day featuring John Teton (Harvard ’70), founding director of the International Food Security Treaty Association, followed by an interdisciplinary panel.

Protecting the Value of Food™ Roundtable

Harvard Food Law and Policy Clinic Fellow, Tori Oto, joined Divert’s August roundtable discussion on wasted food regulations. The roundtable aimed to increase awareness around regulation of wasted food at the federal and state level to allow participants to better navigate relevant policies while building a culture of sustainability.

Precarious Protection: Analyzing Compliance with Pesticide Regulations for Farmworker Safety

How can farmworkers gain better protection from dangerous pesticide exposure? This report, "Precarious Protection: Analyzing Compliance with Pesticide Regulations for Farmworker Safety" looks at compliance with pesticide exposure regulations — the shortfalls and the solutions. The report was produced by the Center for Agriculture and Food Systems at Vermont Law and Graduate School in partnership with Farmworker Justice and the Harvard Law School Food Law and Policy Clinic.

New Website for the Global Food Donation Policy Atlas

FLPC and our partners at The Global FoodBanking Network have launched a new website for The Global Food Donation Policy Atlas. The new site has refreshed branding, improved user experience and information architecture, and a more interactive map. These features better serve our audiences and partners and highlight Atlas policy solutions to alleviate hunger and reduce food loss and waste following COP28.

Mississippi Delta Celebration 

The Mississippi Delta Project (MDP) hosted its annual Delta Celebration with a lunch panel on Bridges to the Delta – Community Empowerment in Rural Mississippi featuring Delta Legal Fellow Jillian Morrison, 3Levate founder Deeneaus Polk, and Mississippi Delta Public Health Fellow Sophie Hathaway. An evening reception brought together Harvard community members, the Delta Directions Consortium, MDP student leaders, and guests with a shared commitment to the Delta region to celebrate and connect.

Atlas Team Travels to Mexico

In November, the Global Food Donation Policy Atlas team that has been working with Bancos de Alimentos de México (BAMX), a network of 57 food banks throughout Mexico, traveled to Mexico City to meet with the BAMX team and its in-country partners. The Food Law and Policy Clinic’s four-person team, including two law students, has been working with BAMX to identify strong and innovative state-level food donation policies that can serve as models for future policy change and to explore other legal or regulatory changes that could increase the donation of safe, edible surplus food while decreasing food waste in Mexico.

Climate Symposium 2023

Clinical instructor Heather Latino discussed food supply chain and waste policy measures, including the need for federally standardized date labels to reduce consumer confusion and increase food donation, at the 2023 Harvard Business School Climate Symposium. Heather and her fellow panelists explored businesses’ role in addressing food waste in the U.S., where nearly 40% of the annual food supply goes unsold or uneaten, costing $444 billion each year, and generating 380 million metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions. 

Reducing Emissions from Waste Disposal 

In August, Clinical Instructor Heather Latino spoke about the critical role of state food waste policies in reducing methane emissions at a gathering of the Re-Amp Network, a collaborative of Midwest organizations working to equitably eliminate greenhouse gas emissions in their region by 2050.

Achieving Zero Food Waste

The West Coast Climate and Materials Management Forum invited Harvard Food Law and Policy Clinic Fellow, Tori Oto, to share how the Zero Food Waste Coalition’s Achieving Zero Food Waste: A State Policy Toolkit can be used to shape local climate action plans to include food waste reduction measures that reduce methane emissions. The EPA is providing $5 billion in grants to states, local governments, tribes, and territories to develop and implement plans for reducing greenhouse gas emissions through its Climate Pollution Reduction Grants program.

Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation

Clinical Instructor Trevor Findley attended the annual meeting of Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation’s (APEC) Agricultural Technical Cooperation Working Group in Seattle, Washington to share FLPC’s research and analysis of food donation laws and policies around the world and the Global Food Donation Policy Atlas, which features an interactive map allowing users to compare policies across countries.

California didn’t ban Skittles. But it tackled a food safety problem the FDA hasn’t solved
Published by Los Angeles Times
Written by Emily Broad Leib

CA issues historic ban on four food additives and dyes - here's why that matters
Produced by KCBS Radio

Community fridges don’t just fight hunger. They’re also a climate solution.
Published by Grist
Written by Max Graham

Thanksgiving Leftovers Are Good for Longer Than You Think
Published by Bloomberg
Written by Zahra Hirji

Tackling climate change and alleviating hunger: States recycle and donate food headed to landfills
Published by AP News
Written by David R. Martin and Michael Casey

If a single farm produced all the food wasted in the US, it would be the size of California and New York combined. We're the culprits.
Published by Business Insider
Written by Tim Paradis

Penn grads to launch reimagined corner store for Philly families in need
Published by WHYY
Written by Aaron Moselle

How bad is food waste in the US? New study reveals problem and what you can do.
Published by USA Today
Written by Camille Fine and Javier Zarracina

Federal lawmakers introduce bipartisan legislation to cut food waste, expand USDA programs
Published by Waste Dive
Written by Jacob Wallace

Expiration dates can actually do more harm than good
Published by The Week
Written by Brigid Kennedy

Luca Greco Joins Harvard’s Environmental and Energy Law Program

Former FLPC clinical student, Luca Greco, joined EELP as a Legal Fellow to work on environmental justice initiatives, including disaster justice and recovery and climate change adaptation. Congratulations, Luca!

Join Our Team!

Check out these new job openings for law school students and recent graduates:

• Clinic Fellow, Harvard Law School Food Law and Policy Clinic
• Mississippi Delta Fellow
• Summer Internship, Harvard Law School Food Law and Policy Clinic