Digital Commons Network^™

Federal Food Safety Framework: Where Does Seaweed Fit In?, Catherine M. Janasie

Journal of Food Law & Policy

When one mentions seaweed as food, what do you think of? The dried nori used to wrap your sushi roll or perhaps the seaweed salad on the side? In fact, seaweed has many uses, including as both a food source in its own right and as a food additive. While the seaweed market has been dominated by East Asian countries, seaweed is cultivated in about 50 countries, and the U.S. seaweed industry is steadily growing. The global seaweed industry is currently worth about $6 billion annually. Food products for human consumption account for about 85% of this value.

United States Food Law Update: Food Safely Planning, Attribute Labeling, And The Irradiation Debate, Bryan Endres

Journal of Food Law & Policy

This article summarizes significant changes and developments in food law throughout the second half of 2007. The previous edition of the Food Law Update noted the recent increase in imported food and the resulting stress placed on food safety agencies and customs officials. Detailed inspections of every food shipment entering the United States would quickly exhaust limited agency resources and cripple efficient international trade of food products. On the other hand, after several well-publicized food scares and the ongoing threat of international contamination, the public increasingly demands high levels of physical surveillance. As a part of this ongoing discussion, this …

United States Food Law Update: Moving Toward A More Balanced Food Regulatory Regime, A. Bryan Endres, Nicholas R. Johnson

Journal of Food Law & Policy

For decades, the federal government has played a significant role in promoting healthy eating. In the early 1900s, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) promoted a foundational diet of milk, proteins, fruits and vegetables, and grains. Most Americans are at least somewhat familiar, although perhaps confused, with the more nuanced healthy eating recommendations contained in the food pyramid - first employed in 1992. And virtually every American has experienced the federally supported school lunch program. In the first half of 2011, these two iconic programs underwent significant change as part of a stepped-up effort to improve the health of …

Toward A Constructive Engagement: Agricultural Biotechnology As A Public Health Incentive In Less-Developed Countries, Chidi Oguamanam

Journal of Food Law & Policy

Discourses on global public health crises, especially as they impact the less-developed world, focus mostly on the issue of access to life-saving drugs for needy populations. Also, they implicate the misalignment of global pharmaceutical research and development (R&D) agenda with the health needs of the poor. Equally attracting significant attention is the role of intellectual property in driving up the cost of drugs and exacerbating the drug access freeze to needy populations. More often, the conceptual strings of these discussions are woven around a complex interaction of themes, including those of globalization, the development narrative, and strategic changes in international …

Keeping The Farm And Farmer In Food Policy And Law, Neil D. Hamilton

Journal of Food Law & Policy

Thank you for the opportunity to be with you, it is always a pleasure to return to the University of Arkansas Law School where I began my teaching career in the fall of 1981. We are pleased Drake University Law School and the University of Arkansas College of Law have built and maintained a partnership on teaching and research that stretches back over three decades. I am especially pleased to be with you as we celebrate the 10th Anniversary of the Journal of Food Law and Policy, another part of the University's pioneering work in the area of food policy …

The Market For Drug-Free Poultry: Why Robust Regulation Of Animal Raising Claims Is The Right Prescription To Combat Antibiotic Resistance, Dorinda L. Peacock

Journal of Food Law & Policy

Since their introduction in the mid-twentieth century, antibiotics have become a mainstay of poultry production for purposes ranging from growth promotion to disease treatment and control. Nevertheless, for almost as long, there have been concerns about the role that these agricultural uses play in the development of antibiotic resistant bacteria. The issue of antibiotic resistance in general is fast becoming a public health crisis and scrutiny of agriculture as a contributing cause continues. Nevertheless, to date, neither regulatory efforts to curb agricultural usage nor private sector actions in response to consumer demand and public-interest campaigns have led to significant changes …

Beastly Bureaucracy' Animal Traceability, Identification And Labeling In Eu Law, Bernd M.J. Van Der Meulen, Annelies A. Freriks

Journal of Food Law & Policy

This contribution discusses animal traceability, identification and labeling requirements in European Union (EU) law. The requirements are lex specialis to more general requirements in EU food law. The aim is to set out this body of EU law and provide some understanding regarding its background. Along with the article by Margaret Rosso Grossman, it enables the reader to compare the EU system to the United States system.

United States Food Law Update, A. Bryan Endres

Journal of Food Law & Policy

Michael T. Roberts and Margie Alsbrook noted in the Journal's inaugural Food Law Update that "[t]he one constancy about food law in the United States is change, especially in a rapidly-developing food industry." This observation holds true today and also augurs a change in authorship of this section of the Journal. I hope to follow my colleagues' lead and provide timely and cogent updates of the federal (and occasionally state) statutes, regulations, and judicial decisions impacting food law and policy. It is both an honor and a duty, as food and its legal implications remain in many respects "the world's …

Blockchain Meets Genomics: Governance Considerations For Promoting Food Safety And Public Health, Walter G. Johnson

Journal of Food Law & Policy

Foodborne illness remains an ongoing public health challenge in both the developing and industrialized worlds. In the United States, almost 50 million reported cases of infectious disease occur every year from a food product, resulting in substantial morbidity and mortality with economic burdens to health care and productivity. Despite recognition as a leader in food safety, the U.S. experiences longstanding and novel issues in food safety. Advances in whole genome sequencing (WGS) promise to bolster food safety regulators’ capabilities to identify pathogens and determine their source. However, inefficiencies in tracing food products through the supply chain remain.

The New Food Safety, Margot J. Pollans, Emily M. Broad Leib

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

A safe food supply is essential for a healthy society. Our food system is replete with different types of risk, yet food safety is often narrowly understood as encompassing only foodborne illness and other risks related directly to food ingestion. This Article argues for a more comprehensive definition of food safety, one that includes not just acute, ingestion-related risks, but also whole-diet cumulative ingestion risks, and cradle-to-grave risks of food production and disposal. This broader definition, which we call “Food System Safety,” draws under the header of food safety a variety of historically siloed, and under-regulated, food system issues including …

The Introduction Of Biotech Foods To The Tort System: Creating A New Duty To Identify, Katharine Van Tassel

Katharine Van Tassel

This Article examines the question of whether an unsuspecting consumer who dies from an allergic or toxic reaction to an undisclosed biotech ingredient in food can recover damages through the tort system. The surprising answer is that recovery is very unlikely. This Article outlines why this is the case, then evaluates the merits of several potential solutions to this problem including the possible creation of a common law 'duty to identify' biotech ingredients in food.

This Article is arranged as follows. First, a brief primer on the nature of biotech foods is provided. For the reader unfamiliar with the regulatory …

Impacts Of The Food Safety Modernization Act On On-Farm Food Safety Practices For Small And Sustainable Produce Growers, Aaron Adalja, Erik Lichtenberg

Aaron Adalja

We use data from a national survey of fruit and vegetable growers to examine the current prevalence and cost burden of food safety practices required in the proposed Produce Rule implementing the Food Safety Modernization Act. In particular, we analyze the influence of farm size and farming practices on the probability of adopting food safety measures that would be required by the Produce Rule; and we analyze how the costs of using those food safety practices vary by farm size and farm practices. Majorities of our respondents currently employ most of the food safety practices that would be required under …

Adoption And Coexistence Of Ge, Conventional Non-Ge, And Organic Crops, Aaron Adalja, Catherine Greene, James Hanson, Robert Ebel, Michael Barron

Aaron Adalja

The adoption of genetically engineered (GE) crop varieties by U.S. farmers is widespread for major crops—94 percent of planted acres for soybeans, and 88 percent for corn in 2012 (USDA-NASS 2012). The potential exists for GE crop production to impose costs on organic and conventional non-GE production via unintended presence of GE material along the supply chain through: • Contamination of seed stock • Accidental cross-pollination • Accidental co-mingling during planting, harvesting, handling, and storing of crops (Bullock and Desquilbet 2002). Maintaining the integrity of GE-differentiated product markets relies on segregation protocols such as: • Hybrid selection and seed purity …

Pasture To Package: Ensuring Food Safety Compliance And Animal Welfare Integrity In Grass-Fed Beef Production, Lauren Manning

Mitchell Hamline Law Review

No abstract provided.

Moving In Opposite Directions? Exploring Trends In Consumer Demand And Agricultural Production, Susan A. Schneider

Mitchell Hamline Law Review

No abstract provided.

A New Governance Recipe For Food Safety Regulation, Alexia Brunet Marks

Publications

Although food safety is a significant and increasing global health concern, international economic law does not adequately address today’s global food safety needs. While most countries rely on a collection of formalized legal rules to protect food safety, these rules too often fall short. As fiscal constraints impede raising the number of border inspections, formal international commitments (treaties) frequently limit governmental efforts to raise food safety standards. Private companies, meanwhile, can readily adopt higher standards to meet consumer demands and supply chain needs, thus demonstrating more nimbleness and flexibility in adopting the highest food safety standards available. Can countries learn …

Free Speech, Animal Law, And Food Activism, Howard F. Lyman

Animal Law Review

No abstract provided.