Fourth Annual Harvard-UCLA Food Law and Policy Conference: Food Innovation and the Law: Navigating the Next Frontier

October 13, 2017, 9:00 AM

The Food Law Lab at Harvard Law School and the Resnick Program for Food Law & Policy at UCLA School of Law hosted the 4th Annual Harvard-UCLA Food Law and Policy Conference, which this year addressed food sector innovation and the law. This event was cosponsored by the Animal Law & Policy Program at Harvard Law School and the Petrie-Flom Center for Health Law Policy, Biotechnology, and Bioethics at Harvard Law School.

This event was free and open to the public.

Description

Innovation is rapidly shifting the landscape of food production and consumption in the United States and globally. Innovation covers a broad range of activity within the food sector. Technological advances have led to a range of new products—for example, plant-based meat and dairy, edible insects, GM foods, and cultured meat, among others—that the law does not yet know how to address. Technology has also changed how we grow food, how we procure food, and how we invest in food, from apps that can optimize soil quality for production, to fresh food home delivery, to barcode scanning to determine a product’s supply chain, to venture capital and impact investing in purpose-driven food companies.

At the same time, food has increasingly become a platform for both self-expression and political engagement. For the first time ever, millennials believe they can effect greater change with how they spend their money than with how they cast their votes. This generation, which now constitutes the bulk of the workforce and consumer base, increasingly values purchasing nutritious, sustainable, and socially just products that are also reasonably priced. Companies are under mounting pressure to innovate in response to meet these demands.

How we innovate now and the legal framework we adopt in response will profoundly shape our food system. This one-day conference convened an interdisciplinary group of experts from law, politics, science, and industry to discuss issues in food innovation and consider the ramifications for navigating this next frontier in food. It took a broad approach to innovation and explored the implications for a range of stakeholders, including the government, sustainability and the environment, corporate law, entrepreneurship, animal law, and non-profits, among other areas.

Agenda

8:30am, Registration

9:00am, Welcome

  • Jacob Gersen, Professor of Law and Director, Food Law Lab, Harvard Law School

9:15am, Welcome from the Dean

  • John Manning, Morgan and Helen Chu Dean and Professor of Law, Harvard Law School

9:30am, Keys to Survival as an Innovator in the Food Regulatory System

11:00am, Lean, Clean & Sustainable: Creating Animal-Free Meat that is Healthier, More Humane, and Less Harmful to the Planet

  • Jonathan Lovvorn, Lecturer on Law, Policy Director, Harvard Animal Law & Policy Program, Harvard Law School

  • Mark Post, Chairman of Physiology Department, Maastricht University

  • Mike Selden, CEO, Finless Foods

  • Bruce Friedrich, Executive Director, Good Food Institute

  • Nicole Negowetti, Clinical Instructor, Harvard Food Law & Policy Clinic, Harvard Law School

12:30pm, Lunch

1:30pm, Wasting Innovation

  • Emily Broad Leib, Assistant Clinical Professor of Law, Director, Food Law & Policy Clinic, and Deputy Director of the Center for Health Law and Policy Innovation, Harvard Law School

  • Jen Faigel, Executive Director & Co-founder, Commonwealth Kitchen

  • Doug Rauch, Founder/President, Daily Table

  • Lorenzo Macaluso, Director, Center for EcoTechnology

3:00pm, Break

3:15pm, Disclosure, Health & Safety in the Regulatory Jungle

4:45pm, Closing Remarks

  • Michael Roberts, Executive Director, Resnick Center for Food Law & Policy, UCLA

  • Jacob Gersen, Professor of Law and Director, Food Law Lab, Harvard Law School

Learn More

To keep up to date on Food Law Lab program information and events, please visit the website or contact thefoodlawlab@law.harvard.edu.

To keep up to date on Resnick Program information and events, please visit www.law.ucla.edu/Resnick. For questions, or to be added to our mailing list for future events and opportunities, please email resnickprogram@law.ucla.edu.

Sponsored by the Food Law Lab at Harvard Law School and the Resnick Program for Food Law & Policy at UCLA School of Law, with support from the Animal Law & Policy Program at Harvard Law School, the Harvard Food Law and Policy Clinic at Harvard Law School, and the Petrie-Flom Center for Health Law Policy, Biotechnology, and Bioethics at Harvard Law School.

Tags

animals   bioethics   biotechnology   environment   food   food law lab   genetics   health law policy   innovation   market   regulation