The Center for Agriculture and Food Systems (CAFS) at Vermont Law and Graduate School (VLGS) is fortunate to be able to engage in the work done over the past year in support of our partners and students. CAFS’s new Year in Review, covering July 2024 through September 2025, highlights major publications—resources that examine the agreements that farmers sign to grow commodity seeds, farm to school policy trends, local food procurement strategies, fair labor labeling claims, and more—and spotlights some of the legal technical assistance CAFS team members provided stakeholders and organizations across the food system.
This year’s report also celebrates the extraordinary contributions of our students and alumni. Their efforts as clinicians, interns, advocates, and practitioners continue to shape food and agricultural law and policy.
Explore the full Year in Review below to learn how the CAFS community of staff, faculty, students, and partners is engaging in innovative and practical work that spans the food system.
A Few Highlights from CAFS’s Year
Urban Agriculture and Innovative Production Policy Project Launch
This fall, CAFS launched its Urban Agriculture and Innovative Production Policy Project, based on a two-year research effort that drew on policy scans of 17 cities and more than 120 interviews to understand the local policy landscape and identify strategies to help city policymakers and food producers support urban food production.
New Website and Resource Library
Earlier in the year, CAFS completed its redesigned website at cafs.vermontlaw.edu. The new website includes a resource library—home to the more than 130 open-access reports, guides, issue briefs, case studies, fact sheets, and other resources CAFS has published over the last decade. The new library, organized by topic and target audience, offers easier access to the full breadth of CAFS’s research.
Team Updates
This year brought exciting growth across the CAFS team. CAFS welcomed two new legal and policy fellows, Haley Rowlands and Bella O’Connor JD’24, and a new communications manager, Austin Price. Callum LaFrance JD’24 completed his fellowship with CAFS and the Environmental Justice Clinic. Several team members stepped into new positions: Liz Turner wrapped up her two-year fellowship and joined the faculty at VLGS as a visiting assistant professor; Emily Spiegel became CAFS’s first director of research; and CAFS Director Laurie Beyranevand JD’03 was awarded VLGS’s first named professorship, the Pescosolido Professor of Food and Agricultural Law and Policy.