Roundup: March 17, 2021
Maybell Romero (Northern Illinois Law) has posted her forthcoming article, Low-Ball Rural Defense. This article critiques the privatizing of public defense functions in the criminal system generally and argues that these concerns are particularly acute in rural contexts, where the practice of contracting for public defense may also be more pervasive. This is a fascinating article, and Maybell also generously shared her ongoing work in this arena as part of our Rural Law and Policy seminar series this spring. Recording and more information on that seminar available here.
Hanna Love (Brookings) and Mike Powe (National Main Street Center) have posted a multi-chapter series, Building Resilient Rural Places: Strategies from Local Leaders to Strengthen Rural Assets, Diversity, and Dynamism, on the Brookings page. It is an incredibly detailed set of strategy briefs focused on equitable local growth and incorporates some significant on-the-ground research.
Melissa Ballengee Alexander (Wyoming Law) has published Rural Health Inequity and the Air Ambulance Abyss: Time to Try a Coordinated, All-Payer System in the Wyoming Law Review. The article addresses rural health disparities with a particular focus on the cost of transportation to access care, particularly in acute or trauma settings.
Lee Miller & Ryke Longest (both of Duke Law) have published Reconciling Environmental Justice with Climate Change Mitigation: A Case Study of NC Swine CAFOs in the Vermont Journal of Environmental Law. This article tracks the rapid consolidation and vertical integration of the hog industry in North Carolina and particularly critiques the environmental injustice caused when the waste from “Big Pig” operations disproportionately impacts low-income and BIPOC communities. The article was also recently selected by the Environmental Law Institute for inclusion as a top-20 article for the 2021 Environmental Law and Policy Annual Review.
Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems has published a new review article, Narrow and Brittle or Broad and Nimble? Comparing Adaptive Capacity in Simplifying and Diversifying Farming Systems, by a large consortium of authors. This article evaluates strategies for farms to increase adaptive capacity in light of climate change and related threats using five specific case studies of current challenges: foodborne pathogens, drought, marginal lands, labor availability, and land access and tenure. Authors are Margiana Petersen-Rockney, Aidee Guzman, Federico Castillo, Kathryn De Master, Kenzo Esquievel, Claire Kremen, James LaChance, Maria Mooshammer, Joanna Ory, Mindy J. Price, Yvonne Socolar, Paige Stanley, Alastair Iles, and Timothy Bowles (all of Berkeley Environ. Science, Policy, and Management); Patrick Baur (Univ. Rhode Island Fisheries, Animal, and Vet Science); S. Franz Bender (Univ. Zurich & Plant Soil Interactions Div. Agroecology & Environ.); Adam Calo (James Hutton Institute, UK); and Antoinette Dumont (Belgium - SAW-B); and Claire Kremen (UBC Zoology).
News
An under-reported provision in the recent American Rescue Plan (COVID stimulus legislation) includes major support, including roughly $4 billion in debt relief, for socially disadvantaged farmers, including Black farmers. Advocates call it “the most significant piece of legislation with respect to the arc of Black land ownership in this country.”
Upcoming Events
UC Davis is hosting its 9th Annual Native American Studies Graduate Student Symposium, From Red Power to Wallmapu Libre and Land Back: Engaging Hemispheric Indigenous Resistance Movements virtually Monday, April 26, 2021, to Thursday, April 29, 2021. The Call for Papers is due March 31, 2021, and graduate students from all disciplines are welcome to present. More details available here.