JASON J. CZARNEZKI

Vermont Law School is pleased to announce that Laurie Ristino has been selected as the first director of the law school’s recently created Center for Agriculture and Food Systems. Laurie also will serve as an Associate Professor of Law. She is currently a senior counsel with the Office of the General Counsel at USDA in Washington, D.C., where she advises the Natural Resources Conservation Service and the Forest Service on a host of legal issues. A national expert in the
conservation and preservation of American working lands, she has advised the USDA on conservation program implementation under the 2002 and 2008 farm bills and has been advising on the development of the 2012 farm bill. She also is a professorial lecturer in law at George Washington University Law School, where she teaches a course that explores the critical need to develop sustainable American food systems.

Yesterday was the third annual Colloquium on Environmental Scholarship at Vermont Law School. We had an impressive schedule this year. In terms of session highlights (of the ones I attended), Sarah Schindler’s "Banning Lawns" proved provocative, and the panel with Todd Aagaad and Jan Jans lead to an great conversation about what should be considered "environmental law." Now I have 48 hours to relax until trying to pick a date for next year’s Colloquium!

NYT: Fearing Tainted Imports, Hong
http://mobile.nytimes.com/2012/10/04/world/asia/fearing-tainted-imports-hong-kong-squeezes-in-farms.xml

“[G]rowth alone, even at sustained, spectacular rates, has not produced the kind of life satisfaction crucial to a stable society — an experience that shows how critically important good jobs and a strong social safety net are to people’s happiness.”

“It is noteworthy that at a time when the need for a strong safety net is under attack in the United States, the world’s most fervent capitalist nation has inadvertently demonstrated its critical importance for people’s happiness.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/28/opinion/in-china-growth-outpaces-happiness.html?hp

“Huang Qingjun has spent nearly a decade travelling to remote parts of China to persuade people who have sometimes never been photographed to carry outside all their household possessions and pose for him.”

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-19648095

This week I’m the Uppsala Forum Visiting Fellow at Uppsala University in Sweden. Tomorrow I’m giving a talk on "States as Market Participants in the U.S. and EU? Public Purchasing and the Environment." Generally speaking, I need feedback to improve my understanding of EU law as it relates to public procurement and the environment. Today, I’m meeting with my Uppsala colleagues about collaboration in relation to China given our successful workshop in Guangzhou two weeks ago. Once again I have an office on the Uppsala University campus with a window overlooking the beautiful Uppsala domkryka.

http://youtu.be/X0jSCEJF5m4

On Friday September 28, Vermont Law School will hold its inaugural Conference on Agriculture and Food Systems to help mark the launch of the law school’s new Center for Agriculture and Food Systems. The conference website and conference brochure are available here:

http://www.vermontlaw.edu/AgConference/

The keynote address will be presented by Kathleen A. Merrigan, Deputy Secretary of Agriculture.

Panel speakers will include other government officials, academic experts, and farmers and other food producers. Some of the participants in this list who will be speaking at the conference include Marc Mihaly (newly installed VLS Dean and President), Robert Adler, Jan Laitos, Laurie Beyranevand, Lisa Heinzerling, Rebecca Bratspies, David Wirth, Michelle Nowlin and Bill Eubanks.

I have been in Shanghai for the last two days, and have been amazed by the blue skies, sunny days and starry nights, which locals chalk up to the typhoon on the way to Korea and a depressed economy. I’ve met with faculty and prospective students at East China University of Political Science & Law and Fudan University, as well as attended a gala charity event for the environmental NGO Shanghai Roots and Shoots. But perhaps most overwhelming about Shanghai is that it feels more like L.A. than the China I have been accustomed to.

For two days I’ve been in Ningbo, China. Yesterday evening I gave a lecture at Ningbo University on climate policy. The students were extremely engaged, not only asking questions about environmental law and policy, but also about the recent tensions between China and Japan. The cultural highlight was at dinner. While I am completely used to unique Chinese dishes and while live seafood that can be purchased and cooked is commonplace in restaurants, I had never before seen live animals inside a restaurant. These animals included duck, pheasant, and something that looked like a small groundhog. Today’s meal included octopus eggs. Today I visited a Chinese factory for the second time, and it was much like an American tool and die-casting small business, with fewer worker safety supplies (e.g., work googles). I left feeling that there is significant potential to work with Chinese businesses to improve environmental and worker safety conditions if consumers demand it and thus larger businesses, that use Chinese companies to manufacture parts, ask for and pay for the needed changes.