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Food, Farming, and Sustainability

Readings in Agricultural Law

Agricultural Law is the study of the network of special laws and exceptions that apply to agricultural operations. These operations are often treated differently than other businesses, and this unique legal status gives rise to special study. Agricultural law includes the many areas of law where farms are provided exemptions such as environmental law and labor law, as well as the special laws and programs enacted specifically to apply to farms, including the farm bill programs, "climate smart" initiatives, and H2-A guestworkers.

 

In recent years, the study of agricultural law has expanded beyond its traditional boundaries to include the full scope of our food system - literally from farm to fork. Popular interest in agriculture has increased as consumers seek to know more about their food and where it comes from. The connection between agriculture, food, and health is coming into sharper focus. Climate change has also created greater interest, as our food system is both a contributor to greenhouse gases and vulnerable to its effects.

 

This book provides an issues-based study of these complex topics. It is divided into units designed to introduce some of the critical legal and policy issues of our time:  federal farm programs, the structure of farms and industrialized agriculture, environmental concerns, migrant labor issues, farm animal welfare, agricultural commercial law, climate change, and food safety. Few things are as important as our food system, and agriculture is where it all begins.

About this website:

 

Notes from Professor Schneider

I created this website to supplement Food, Farming, & Sustainability, to provide additional resources for those who use it, and to assist in my own use in teaching and scholarship. In doing so, I am not trying to provide a comprehensive clearinghouse of agricultural law materials. That's far too big a task. Rather, my goal is to provide a repository for some of the foundational resources that I find most helpful in my teaching and research and to offer updates to my work on the book.

It is my hope that these resources will be helpful. 

 

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About This Website
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Susan A. Schneider
Author and Editor

Susan  Schneider is the William H. Enfield Professor of Law and serves as the Director of the LL.M. Program in Agricultural & Food Law at the University of Arkansas School of Law.

 

Professor Schneider grew up on a family farm in Minnesota and throughout her 30+ year career as an attorney and law professor, she has advocated for a better food system, first through her work on behalf of family farmers and second through her leadership in food law & policy. She has written dozens of articles spanning the full spectrum of agricultural and food law topics. She is a frequent speaker at conferences, has served as President of the American Agricultural Law Association (AALA), is the recipient of the AALA Distinguished Service award, and was one of the founders of the Academy of Food Law & Policy. For the last two decades she has been a tenured law professor and directed the LL.M. Program in Agricultural and Food Law at the University of Arkansas School of Law, teaching core LL.M. courses, mentoring students, and maintaining its strong alumni network. She is a graduate of St. Catherine’s University (B.A. Phi Beta Kappa), the University of Minnesota Law School (J.D., cum laude) and the University of Arkansas School of Law (LL.M.).

Located in Durham, North Carolina, for more than forty years, Carolina Academic Press has published successful coursebooks and monographs in diverse subject areas.

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Food, Farming, and Sustainability: Readings in Agricultural Law was first published in 2010. A second edition was published in 2016. The third and current edition was published in February 2025. 

 

Supplemental resources and updates will be available from this website at Legal Resources, chapter by chapter.

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