Skip to main content

Summer Interns Join VLS to Work on Food and Agriculture Law and Policy

August 21, 2020

We're thrilled to introduce the students who joined us (remotely) from law schools around the country as Summer Honors Interns at the Center for Agriculture and Food Systems.

Clockwise, from top left:

Summer Interns
 

Will Gallagher, a student at the University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law, helped Professor Emily Spiegel research patent practices related to seed banks and plant genetic resource repositories around the world.

Samantha Mikolajczyk is a JD candidate at Texas A&M University School of Law. She worked with Senior Legal Fellow Fran Miller to support National Family Farm Coalition’s advocacy by researching regulatory tools and legislation that could limit corporate investment in US land. She also helped partner organization Agrarian Trust on their new initiative Agrarian Commons.

MacKenzie Battle, who joined CAFS from American University’s Washington College of Law, worked with CAFS Director Laurie Beyranevand and Associate Director Lihlani Nelson on CAFS’s Labels Unwrapped project. She also worked with Clinical Teaching Fellow Whitney Shields and Laurie Beyranevand to develop a new section of the Farm and Food Law Guide focused on food and beverage law for attorneys in the Vermont Legal Food Hub.

Tessa Pulaski is a JD candidate at the George Washington University School of Law. She worked with Laurie Beyranevand and Lihlani Nelson to help CAFS partner organization Center for a Livable Future update their work on public health issues related to farm and agricultural workers by researching and analyzing state laws and regulations related to pesticide and heat related illness reporting. She also worked with Laurie Beyranevand and partners at the Harvard Food Law and Policy Clinic to update CAFS’s Blueprint for a National Food Strategy.

Jesse Gittemeier just finished her first year at Lewis & Clark Law School. She helped Professor Sophia Kruszewski to build a legal toolkit for food hubs, as well as develop a legal memo and fact sheet exploring the interplay between federal produce standards and state environmental laws for CAFS’s Extension Legal Services Initiative.

Bradley Adams is a JD candidate at Drake University Law School. He helped Professor Jonathan Rosenbloom expand the Sustainable Development Code, also worked with Laurie Beyranevand to update CAFS’s Blueprint for a National Food Strategy.

Thanks to all of the CAFS interns for their amazing work! CAFS will post information about their 2021 Summer Honors Internship early next spring; be sure to follow the team on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook to catch the announcement.