Letter From the Chair

As chair of ISBA’s relatively new Food Law Section Counsel, I provide this update of the varied issues we have been addressing since our inception in 2019. Despite having conducted most of our meetings via Zoom, I believe we have moved the ball forward on many of the below goals we established for ourselves at our very first meeting. Those goals are:

• To educate ISBA members on food law and policy;
• To monitor developments of the practice area;
• To provide timely analysis of local, national, and global food laws and policies;
• To train and enhance the professional skills of practitioners in this area through continuing legal education programs;
• To review, monitor, and propose legislation impacting food law, consumers, producers, and regulators;
• To discuss emerging technologies related to food production, harvest, and distribution;
• To provide resources for Illinois businesses and industry.

As with all section councils, we perform our work through continuing legal education programs (“CLE”), newsletter articles, and input on legislative bills related to legal issues of interest to the food industry. As many of the issues related to food law cross other issue areas (environment, agriculture, public health, administrative law), many of our section council members, including myself, have served in a variety of capacities on those related ISBA section councils. However, at our inception, we deemed it wise to further delineate various issue areas related to laws regulating or governing food. Those issue areas involve:

• The beverage and food delivery system;
• Innovation, labelling and technology;
• Regulation and litigation issues;
• Environment, sustainability, agriculture and farm to table;
• Food law education.

Members of the section council have signed up to lead discussions and assist in formulating CLEs in those areas. To date, we have had six CLEs, all of which were well attended with participants indicating value received in the program. Our first program addressed food waste and was entitled, “Getting to Zero – Regulatory and Legal Programs to Reduce Food Waste in the Environment.” Addressing this issue were James M. Jennings, Illinois IEPA, and Shantanu Pai, Assistant Sustainability Researcher at the University of Illinois’ Sustainable Technology Center of the Prairie Research Institute. The two speakers were both involved in an Illinois task force researching issues of food waste in the environment and offering proposed solutions. (You will note in another area of this newsletter, that a bill is currently pending before the Illinois General Assembly related to reducing food waste in the environment.)

The next CLE program we conducted was entitled “Hot Topics in Food Labelling: Plant Based Products and the Federal Regulation of Cell Based Meats.” Again, this is a very hot topic in Illinois and nationally (and internationally) and was welcomed by those attending. On a more practical side, we next produced a CLE entitled, “From Farm to Market: Legal Help for the Farmer.” Also on the practical side, Rob Anderson of Anderson Law, a member of our section council who specializes in liquor licensing, organized and led a CLE entitled, “Illinois Liquor Licensing Overview.” We also addressed pesticide use in the production of food with the program, “Illinois Foods: Pesticides Used, Exposure and Worker Protection.”

Our most interesting and varied CLE, however, was one the Food Law Section Council co-sponsored with the University of Illinois College of Law. As part of the Bock Agricultural Law and Policy Symposium through the University of Illinois Department of Agriculture and Consumer Economics (“ACES”). It was a day long program held in Champaign, Illinois and provided 7.75 hours of MCLE credit. The keynote address was given by Susan Schneider, Director of the LLM Program on Food and Agriculture Law at the University of Arkansas. Her topic, “Food Law: A National Perspective,” was timely, thought provoking and engaging. See a summary of that presentation elsewhere in this newsletter.

Various other speakers at the Bock Symposium provided valuable instruction and insight into national and Illinois food law and policy. Tom Redick from the Global Environmental Ethics Counsel addressed “Product Liability Prevention & the PFAS Problem.” Jessica Guarino, a research post-doctorate at the University of Illinois, addressed, “Misleading Food Labelling and the Reasonable Consumer.” Michaela Oldfield from Gorman Heritage Farm provided a presentation on, “Food Policy Councils, A Lawyer’s Perspective,” wherein she provided everything a lawyer needs to know to establish or represent food policy councils.

The keynote lunch speaker, Professor Alexia Kulweic from the University of Wisconsin addressed, “Legal and Policy Challenges faced by Independent Farms and Food Producers.” Afternoon topics were equally engaging. Eric Greenberg, a Chicago attorney who regularly advises clients on regulatory compliance with the FDA, presented, “Two Hot Topics: Label Claims & General Recognition of Safety.” Section Council member Elaine Vorberg of McCarthy Duffy LLP presented on her practice area: “Legal Aspects of Financing a Food or Agtech Start-up.” Terence Centner, a professor with the University of Nebraska, presented on “Liability for Damages from Pesticides with Examples Involving Injuries from Glyphosate and Dicamba.” Section Council member Lynne Ostfeld, who practices food law internationally, provided a presentation on “Contracts and International Supply Chains in a Time of Uncertainty.” And finally, Bryan Endres, Section Council member and professor at the University of Illinois ACES (and coordinator of this excellent CLE program) presented on “Agritourism Risk Management.”

The Bock Symposium was an excellent example of what the Food Law Section Council can do in concert with others, here the University of Illinois ACES. This year, we plan to also again sponsor the Bock symposium jointly with the University of Illinois ACES Program, this time in Chicago. Details will be forthcoming.