Today on Repast, Michael, Diana, and Professors Amy Cohen and Susan Schneider look at the new Trump administration and food policy, discussing background policies, underlying trends, and state initiatives. The four discuss the complex political and cultural dynamics in food policy, agricultural policy and the USDA, nutrition initiatives and the FDA, and trade policy and international food law. They talk about the role of misinformation, big tech, the need for strong leadership, left-right alliances, and the transactional nature of the administration, among other things.

This podcast was recorded on January 24, 2025, before the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services or the Secretary of Agriculture was named.

Amy Cohen is Professor and Robert J. Reinstein Chair in Law at Temple University School of Law.

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

Michael T. Roberts is the Executive Director of the Resnick Center for Food Law & Policy at UCLA Law.

Diana Winters is the Deputy Director of the Resnick Center for Food Law & Policy at UCLA Law.

You can find Amy Cohen and Mathilde Cohen’s article titled “The 'Second Amendment of Food': Some Reflections on American Liberalism,” here.

As always, you can send questions or comments to Diana Winters at winters@law.ucla.edu.

In this episode, recorded in late December 2024, Michael and Diana talk with Dr. Darin Detweiler, a prominent food safety academic, advisor, advocate, and author. Dr. Detwiler has significantly influenced food safety policies through roles with the USDA, FDA, and others. He is a Professor at Northeastern University, an adjunct professor of food law at Michigan State University, and Founder and CEO of Detwiler Consulting Group. His career, spanning over 30 years, is highlighted in the Emmy Award-winning 2023 Netflix documentary "Poisoned: The Dirty Truth about Your Food."

In addition to traveling around the world as a keynote speaker, Dr. Detwiler’s work and insights appear regularly in various publications, news outlets, and podcasts, as well as his books: “Food Safety: Past, Present, and Predictions” and “Building the Future of Food Safety Technology: Blockchain and Beyond.” Notably, he is the recipient of the International Association for Food Protection’s 2022 Control of Foodborne Illness Award as well as their 2018 Distinguished Service Award for dedicated and exceptional contributions to the reduction of risks of foodborne illness.

Here, Dr. Detwiler discusses the recent spate of foodborne illness outbreaks, and he looks to the past to predict, and make recommendations for, the future.

You can find more information on Dr. Detwiler here.

You can read about the documentary Poisoned: The Dirty Truth About Your Food here.

Michael T. Roberts is the Executive Director of the Resnick Center for Food Law & Policy at UCLA Law.

Diana Winters is the Deputy Director of the Resnick Center for Food Law & Policy at UCLA Law.

In this episode, Michael and Diana talk with Nicola Twilley, the author of Frostbite: How Refrigeration Changed Our Food, Our Planet, and Ourselves (Penguin Press, June 2024), and co-host of the award-winning Gastropod podcast, which looks at food through the lens of history and science. They discuss supply chains, how refrigerated beef changed America, and the trade-offs of refrigeration, among other things.

Nicola Twilley is an author and podcast host, and you can find more information on her here.

Michael T. Roberts is the Executive Director of the Resnick Center for Food Law & Policy at UCLA Law.

Diana Winters is the Deputy Director of the Resnick Center for Food Law & Policy at UCLA Law.

You can buy Frostbite here.

You can listen to Nicky’s podcast, Gastropod, here.

You can find Nicky’s latest articles in The New Yorker here.

This month on Repast Michael and Diana talk with Amanda Howell, managing attorney at the Animal Legal Defense Fund. They discuss a recent petition by the ALDF to the FDA urging the FDA require the disclosure of animal-derived ingredients on package labels, along with other work the ALDF is doing right now.

Amanda Howell is a managing attorney at ALDF.

Michael T. Roberts is the Executive Director of the Resnick Center for Food Law & Policy at UCLA Law.

Diana Winters is the Deputy Director of the Resnick Center for Food Law & Policy at UCLA Law.

You can find ALDF’s petition to the FDA here.

A list of cases ALDF is involved in can be found here.

The Food Allergen Labeling and Consumer Protection Act of 2004, discussed in the podcast, cab be found here.

In this episode, Michael and Diana talk with Catherine Sweetser, Deputy Director of the Promise Institute for Human Rights and the Director of the Human Rights Litigation Clinic at UCLA Law. Here, Professor Sweetser discusses her work against slavery and human trafficking in the global food supply chain, particularly in the context of chocolate production, the U.S. Supreme Court case Nestle USA Inc. v. Doe (2021), and how lawyers, advocates, and students can make a difference in this area.

Catherine Sweetser is Deputy Director of the Promise Institute for Human Rights and the Director of the Human Rights Litigation Clinic at UCLA Law.

Michael T. Roberts is the Executive Director of the Resnick Center for Food Law & Policy at UCLA Law.

Diana Winters is the Deputy Director of the Resnick Center for Food Law & Policy at UCLA Law.

You can find Nestle USA Inc. v. Doe (2021) here.

The book Bitter Chocolate by Carol Off, mentioned by Professor Sweetser, can be found here.

The citation for the law review article mentioned by Professor Sweetser is:

Burley, Anne-Marie, The Alien Tort Statute and the Judiciary Act of 1789: A Badge of Honor, 83 Am. J. Int'l L. 461 (1989).

This month, Repast welcomes Southwestern Law School Professor Andrea Freeman to discuss her book, Ruin Their Crops on the Ground: The Politics of Food in the United States, from the Trail of Tears to School Lunch, published by Macmillan Publishers in July 2024. This book describes and analyzes how food is used by the U.S. as a tool of colonization and oppression and discusses some avenues to alter this trajectory.

Here, Diana, Michael, and Professor Freeman discuss her theory of food oppression, government programs to supply food to people, the role of milk in food oppression and discrimination, the dietary guidelines, and possible avenues of change, among other things.

Andrea Freeman is Professor of Law at Southwestern Law School in fall 2023.

Michael T. Roberts is the Executive Director of the Resnick Center for Food Law & Policy at UCLA Law.

Diana Winters is the Deputy Director of the Resnick Center for Food Law & Policy at UCLA Law.

You can buy Ruin Their Crops on the Ground here.

You can find Professor Freeman’s bio and links to her other work here.

Professor Freeman was interviewed on NPR about her book here.

Our guest at Repast this month is Austin Frerick, author, and expert on agricultural and antitrust policy, talking with us about his new book, Barons: Money, Power, and the Corruption of America’s Food Industry (March 2024). In Barons, Frerick depicts the structure of the American food system by telling the story of seven food industry tycoons, delving into the monopolization of the food system and the resulting corruption. Here, Austin, Michael, and Diana discuss the problems with industry concentration, when strange bedfellows can make meaningful reforms, and how all roads eventually lead to Arkansas.

You can buy Barons: Money, Power, and the Corruption of America’s Food Industry here.

You can read about Austin Frerick and more about Barons here.

Michael T. Roberts is the Executive Director of the Resnick Center for Food Law & Policy at UCLA Law.

Diana Winters is the Deputy Director of the Resnick Center for Food Law & Policy at UCLA Law.

This month, Repast welcomes Sarah Lohman, culinary historian, author, and speaker, about her new book, Endangered Eating: America’s Vanishing Foods. In this book, a New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice, a Food & Wine Best Book of 2023, and an Eater Best Food Book, Fall 2023, Lohman explores the history and present of certain ingredients from the Ark of Taste, a list put together by Slow Food of important regional foods. She is also the author of Eight Flavors: The Untold Story of American Cuisine, which explores the cultural history behind eight particularly American flavors. Over her career, Sarah’s work has been featured in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, and more.

You can buy Endangered Eating: America’s Vanishing Foods here.

You can read about Sarah Lohman and her other work here.

Michael T. Roberts is the Executive Director of the Resnick Center for Food Law & Policy at UCLA Law.

Diana Winters is the Deputy Director of the Resnick Center for Food Law & Policy at UCLA Law.