This summer, eight summer honors interns are joining the Center for Agriculture and Food Systems (CAFS) from across the country. Each intern will focus on a specific facet of the work done by CAFS faculty and project partners, bringing in their unique perspective to further law and policy goals. Here's a quick introduction to our interns and a little about what they're working on:
Alicia Borg, a 3L at Vermont Law and Graduate School, is developing a short resource for farmers engaged with the USDA National Appeals Division that will identify pitfalls in the loan application process and how to avoid them, along with partners Farm Aid and the Rural Advancement Foundation International - USA. She is also working with farmworker advocacy organization Migrant Justice to update a handbook for dairy workers on housing and employment law.
Callum LaFrance, a rising 3L at Vermont Law and Graduate School, is supporting the work of Rural Coalition and the Natural Resources Defense Council to research the various federal definitions of "Socially Disadvantaged Farmers and Ranchers," aiming to ensure that USDA programs benefit producers who are members of groups who have faced racial or ethnic prejudice.
Cameron Briggs Ramos, a rising 3L at Vermont Law and Graduate School, is working on the Farmers Market Legal Toolkit with our partners the Farmers Market Coalition and the Northeast Organic Farming Association of Vermont, using an anti-racism perspective to make improvements to the toolkit, and researching and drafting a new short resource for market managers on management and employment issues.
Christina Karem, a rising 2L at Vermont Law and Graduate School, is providing research support to help finalize a report that provides a survey of state laws focused on social equity in cannabis regulation. She is also providing research support for a paper on the Animal Welfare Act for the Brooks Institute for Animal Rights Law and Policy’s Animal Law Fundamentals series.
Eric Sugarman, a rising 3L at Lewis & Clark Law School, and Hazel Spires, a rising 3L at the University of Oregon School of Law, are investigating the role of compliance in protecting farmworkers on the job, with a focus on pesticide protections. They are working with partners at the Harvard Law School Food Law and Policy Clinic (FLPC) and Farmworker Justice to finalize a report on compliance with the EPA’s Worker Protection Standard (WPS).
Liam Bules, a rising 3L at Indiana University Maurer School of Law, is researching alternative models of land access and ownership that are likely to work for local Agrarian Commons projects in terms of business entity choice, tax questions, etc., and how Agrarian Trust can ensure its principles are abided by without its controlling the individual local Agrarian Commons organizations.
Maggie Israel, a rising 2L at CUNY School of Law, is creating additional state fact sheets for the Farmland Access Legal Toolkit that will discuss the legal issues that arise for heirs’ property owners. In addition, she is conducting legal research and drafting policy memos regarding state level policies that are supportive of heirs’ property owners and will identify and share promising laws for other states to consider.
Want to learn more about CAFS internships? Keep an eye on our Current Openings page for upcoming opportunities!