2019 CAFLP Annual Conference Panel Recap: “Emerging Voices in the Academy and Practice” (Student Competition)

"University of Toronto" by Gazoni is licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0

On the opening day of the Canadian Association for Food Law and Policy conference, three JD students, Stephanie Gellatly, Jenna Khoury-Hanna and Lauren Wustenberg, presented their research to a panel of judges in the context of an “Emerging Voices” competition. 

All three students spoke on issues affecting groups that are marginalized by a food issue. The topics ranged from the role of social enterprises in addressing food insecurity for people experiencing homelessness to the role of restrictive covenants in communities affected by food deserts in Halifax to small-scale farmers struggling with new food safety compliance in the United States. 

Presenting on Homelessness and Hunger: How Social Enterprises Can Help Fill Empty Plates, Stephanie Gellatly outlined the need to view food security as a social justice issue, especially when looking for solutions to food insecurity. In the gap that exists between government funding and the need for resources to address food insecurity for people experiencing homelessness, there may be a space for social enterprises to lend a hand. Stephanie looked to the Food Donation Act, which limits liability for donating food, as a potential avenue for social enterprises to fill a resource gap.     

In Preliminary Exploration on the Use of Grocery Store Covenants in Halifax, Jenna Khoury-Hanna exposed the practice of placing restrictive covenants on supermarkets in Halifax. Covenants, an old English legal concept that allows restrictions to be placed on a piece of land even after it is sold, allow companies such as Sobeys and Loblaws to prevent other supermarkets from building where their stores used to be. There are several food deserts in low income neighborhoods in Halifax, which seem to be related to the use of food retailer covenants. Jenna suggests more research is needed on the impacts of the restrictive covenants, especially the impacts on food security for low income neighborhoods. 

Lauren Wustenburg spoke of the new regulatory framework for produce-producing farms in The Road to Implementation: Produce Safety Regulation in the United States. The Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) in the United States poses major compliance challenges for small and very small farms. One specific issue with FSMA is that the framing comes from a biomedical approach which requires a level of sterility that is incompatible with the reality of farms. A more localized approach to regulation would be most effective, which is more in tune with the reality of local farms. Lauren highlighted that it seems that Canada’s Safe Food for Canadians Act will look similar to FSMA. 

The presentations each raised important questions about the role of law in exacerbating food issues for marginalized communities and, on the flip side, how law can be a tool to address these same issues. All three speakers emphasized the need for legal solutions that are specific to the issue at hand and informed by the community's needs. 

Congratulations to Jenna Khoury-Hanna who won the 2019 “Gowling WLG - Joel Taller Prize for Emerging Voices in Food Law”!