Law Commons^™

Regulating The Impending Transformation Of The Meat Industry: "Cultured Meat", Jaden Atkins

Journal of Technology Law & Policy

Imagine the ability to create up to 80,000 burgers from one single sample of a cow’s leg and a simple serum. The impacts would all be enormous, from the reduction in land use and resulting environmental impact, to victories for animal rights, to human health impacts. This may sound far-off, but it could soon be our reality. Cell-cultured or simply “cultured” meat is in development and is expected to be widely available in the next few years. While this technology’s potential impacts are incredible, cultured meat challenges our current framework of food regulation, requiring new solutions to old problems. The …

Deadly Delay: The Fda's Role In America's Covid-Testing Debacle, Barbara J. Evans, Ellen Wright Clayton

UF Law Faculty Publications

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) published a series of 2020 guidance documents on how to seek Emergency Use Authorizations (EUAs) for new SARS-CoV-2 tests. These guidance documents suggest EUAs are needed for laboratory-developed tests (LDTs), a type of test created and used in-house by high-complexity clinical laboratories that already are regulated by the Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments of 1988 (CLIA). These CLIA-regulated laboratories traditionally have provided a rapid response to emerging epidemics. Many laboratories viewed the FDA’s 2020 guidance documents as having a practical binding effect even though the FDA lacked clear …

Patents, Hidden Novelty, And Food Safety, Jeanette M. Roorda

Florida Law Review

This Note discusses how federal agency policy results in a lack of access to patent-protected genetically modified organisms (GMOs) for independent food safety testing. The U.S. GMO policy is a combination of biotechnology regulations and biotechnology intellectual property protections. Intellectual property protection for the developers of new organisms has increased as the technology has advanced from manual pollination to genetic modification methods. Initially the only protection available was in the form of trade secrets, but the protection has increased incrementally to now include full utility patent protection. This Note evaluates the interactions between U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) GMO …

Small, Slow, And Local, Mary Jane Angelo

UF Law Faculty Publications

The United States is in the middle of a significant cultural shift. Until very recently, United States citizens and policy-makers were willing to accept, or at least tolerate, what has become our food status quo--a highly subsidized, centralized, industrial food system that is environmentally harmful and unsustainable and encourages unhealthy eating habits. Many citizens and policy-makers are now demanding that we re-evaluate our entire agricultural system from farm to table and look for ways to develop a new food paradigm that is environmentally sound, sustainable, socially equitable, and that makes healthy whole foods available to all.

During the summer of …

Patents, Genetically Modified Foods, And Ip Overreaching, Elizabeth A. Rowe

UF Law Faculty Publications

Genetically engineered plants and animals have become and will continue to constitute a large part of the food we consume. The United States is the world's largest producer of genetically modified foods, making American consumers the most exposed population to these products. Agricultural biotechnology patents spur and support innovation. Accordingly, patent law is one of the main contributors to this phenomenon that has changed not only the kinds of food we eat, but the nature of the agri-business industry that produces these foods. This Article takes on an area of concern involving the patenting of food that has remained unexplored: …

Genetically Engineered Plant Pesticides: Recent Developments In The Epa's Regulation Of Biotechnology, Mary Jane Angelo

UF Law Faculty Publications

This paper examines the EPA's new policy regulating plant pesticides and presents the legal, scientific and policy issues surrounding the regulation of genetically engineered plants. Part I introduces the concepts covered in this paper. Part II.A. discusses products that have originated from biotechnology. Part II.B. describes the EPA's legal authority for regulating plant pesticides and other biotechnology products. Part II.C. presents the history of federal regulation of biological pesticides and biotechnology products. Part III examines the controversy surrounding the use of genetically engineered plants, including the potential risks and benefits of genetically engineered plants and the public's perception of these …