Even during the social distancing era, VLS students found opportunities aplenty to gain on-the-ground experience last summer. We caught up with some of them to learn more about the virtual positions they held. Read more throughout this issue.
Suhasini Ghosh JD’21 POSITION: Summer law clerk at Dunkiel Saunders Elliott Raubvogel & Hand, a missiondriven law firm; remote research assistant at VLS’s Center for Agriculture and Food Systems (CAFS) PERSPECTIVE: “One of the most fascinating aspects of [the clerkship] is the opportunity to engage in the different stages of environmental litigation. Being able to take part in drafting documents and attending hearings has been extremely valuable. I am also a research assistant for the Center for Agriculture and Food Systems. I am researching and drafting updates and additions to the Farmers Market Legal Toolkit, which includes updates related to COVID-19. Even though both positions have been virtual, I have been able to connect with, meet, and work with a lot of amazing people in the field.” PURPOSE: “I am passionate about environmental law and both of these experiences have supported my goals to engage in environmental practice after graduation.”
FOOD JUSTICE
Through Farmland Access The Farmland Access Legal Toolkit aims to make farmland more accessible to new and beginning farmers while supporting conservation efforts. Developed by students, staff, and faculty at the Center for Agriculture and Food Systems (CAFS), the online resource helps break down complex legal processes that come with acquiring, transferring, and leasing farmland. “The original version of the toolkit does a great job of confronting some of the obstacles to access for young and beginning farmers,” said CAFS Director Laurie Beyranevand JD’03. “But we know that not all farmers face the same challenges. BIPOC farmers, for example, face discrimination and the legacies of structural racism that have unfairly shaped the U.S. agricultural system and access to land. That’s why we’re expanding the toolkit—in the hopes that it can provide resources for more underserved and under-resourced communities.” In 2019 CAFS hired Senior Legal Fellow Francine Miller LLM’17 to do just that. Miller teamed up with Deborah Nares, a consultant with decades of experience working with Spanishspeaking farmers. The first Spanish-language section of the toolkit, which deals with leasing arrangements, was published in August, with more culturally-appropriate resources in the works. Miller is also building out a new section of the toolkit focused on a significant cause of involuntary
The Center for Agriculture and Food Systems (CAFS) trains law and policy students to develop real-world solutions for a more sustainable and just food system. At CAFS’s in-house Food and Agriculture Clinic, student clinicians and research assistants work with local, regional, national, and international partners to solve food systems challenges.
Latest Podcast Episode Explores Farmworkers’ Rights They keep our farms running and our communities fed. But farmworkers suffer some of the most dangerous work conditions in the country. And as a predominantly immigrant workforce, the challenges they face—from exploitation to exposure to COVID-19— are magnified by racism and the threat of deportation. In the latest episode of the Environmental Law Center’s Hothouse Earth Podcast, find out why the law fails to protect these essential workers, and follow along as hosts visit nonprofit organization Migrant Justice and a local dairy farm to learn how advocates are stepping in where the law falls short. Visit hothousearthpodcast.com or subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.
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F rancine Miller LLM’17 with the Eady family at the National Heirs Property Conference sponsored by Federation of Southern Cooperatives. The Eadys have 75 acres of property in Newton, Georgia, and are farming corn, peanuts, peas, watermelon, and animals (cows and goats). They are working on clearing title to their land and resolving all ownership issues so that the land can stay in the family. Black land loss in the United States: heirs’ property. Heirs’ property is land passed to family members by inheritance, but usually without a will. Descendants inherit the land but as “tenants in common,” owning interest in the property without a clear title. And that makes the land prone to unscrupulous acquisition by real estate developers. A 2001 report from the US Agricultural Census estimated that about 80 percent of Black-owned farmland was lost between 1969 and 2001, and half of that was due to partition sales of heirs’ property (the forced sale of the land for much less than it is worth). It’s a legal issue with major implications—and the “Land Transfer” section of the toolkit would be incomplete without it. In partnership with the Federation of Southern Cooperatives and the Socially Disadvantaged Farmers and Ranchers Policy Research Center at Alcorn State University (and with help from Food and Agriculture Clinic students), Miller is creating legal resources for owners of heirs’ property: fact sheets specific to 13 different Southern states, plus essays by lawyers or practitioners in each state that help families understand what they’ll need to bring to a lawyer an attempt to resolve the issues, and preserve and build wealth from their land. “Especially in this moment of reckoning with racial justice issues, we think it’s important to directly reach out to Black, Indigenous, and Spanish-speaking farmers in particular,” Miller said. “Resources are more limited for those folks, and providing legal educational materials is what we do at CAFS. We want to use our resources to support those farmers.”
WANT TO LEARN MORE ABOUT HEIRS’ PROPERTY ISSUES? In September, CAFS hosted a panel on the topic titled “Rooting Out Structural Racism in American Agriculture.” Watch a video of the event at: livestream.com/vermontlawschool.
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