The Food Resiliency Project addresses key environmental and policy issues relating to all stages of the food system, including production, transportation, packaging, and consumption. These issues are examined through both a local and a transnational perspective. Local resilience to natural disaster and climate change is a key theme driving communities to develop self-sufficiency in their food systems. Important issues include patents related to modified seeds, land use reform to promote urban and household food production, use of public parks and spaces as “foodscapes,” use of conservation easements to secure urban farms, impacts from genetic modification of food and genetic pollution, transition from pesticides and herbicides, legal incentives to promote carbon sequestration in farming practices, global food trade, and international frameworks to ensure food sovereignty, security, and justice, among many more.
Recent Publications
- Michael Fakhri, The Right to Food, Violence, and Food Systems, T.M.C. Asser Press (2024)
- Michael Fakhri, Fisheries and the right to food in the context of climate change, UN General Assembly (A/HRC/55/49) (January 9, 2024)
- Michael Fakhri, Conflict and the Right to Food, UN General Assembly (A/HRC/52/40) (December 29, 2022)
- Michael Fakhri, The right to food and the coronavirus disease pandemic," UN General Assembly (A/76/237) (July 18, 2022).
- Michael Fakhri, Markets, Sovereignty, and Racialization, 25 Journal of International Economic Law 1 (2022).
- Michael Fakhri, Human Rights Principles for Trade, 116 American Journal of International Law Unbound 119 (2022).
- Michael Fakhri, Seeds, Right to Life, and Farmers' Rights, UN Human Rights Council (A/HRC/49/23) (December 30, 2021).
- Michael Fakhri, The Right to Food, UN General Assembly (A/76/237) (July 27, 2021).
- Michael Fakhri, A Trade Agenda for the Right to Food, 64 Development 212 (2021).
- Michael Fakhri, A History of Food Security and Agriculture in International Trade Law, 1945-2015, in Akbar Rasulov and John Haskell (eds.) International Economic Law: New Voices, New Perspectives 55, Springer (2020).
- Michael Fakhri, co-authored with Madeleine Redfern, Inuit Seal Hunting and the Construction of Indigenous Identity in Trade Law, in John Borrows and Risa Schwartz (eds.), INDIGENOUS PEOPLES AND INTERNATIONAL TRADE: BUILDING AN EQUITABLE AND INCLUSIVE INTERNATIONAL TRADE AND INVESTMENT AGREEMENT, Cambridge University Press (2020).
- Michael Fakhri, A History of Food Security and Agriculture in International Trade Law, 1945–2017, in J. D. Haskell and A. Rasulov (eds.), New Voices and New Perspectives in International Economic Law, European Yearbook of International Economic Law 55 (Spring 2020).
- Deb Mailander and Zoe Grant, When Honey Bees Hit the Road: The Role of Federal, State, and Local Laws in Regulating Honey Bee Transportation (May 2019).
- Michael Fakhri, Sugar, in Jessie Hohmann and Daniel Joyce (eds.), International Law’s Objects 478, Oxford University Press (2019).
- Michael Fakhri, Third World Sovereignty, Indigenous Sovereignty, and Food Sovereignty: living with sovereignty despite the map, 9 Transnational Legal Theory 218 (2018).
In the News
- Michael Fakhri (featured), "UN hunger expert: US must recognize 'right to food' to fix broken system," The Guardian (November 9, 2023).
- Michael Fakhri (interviewed), "The Sovereignty of Sharing: An Interview with Michael Fakhri (Part II)," OpinioJuris (July 6, 2023).
- Michael Fakhri (interviewed), "The Sovereignty of Sharing: An Interview with Michael Fakhri (Part I)," OpinioJuris (July 6, 2023).
- Michael Fakhri, "Hunger and famine are not accidents - they are created by the actions of people," Nature Journal (July 4, 2023).
- Michael Fakhri, Elisabetta Recine, and Sofia Monsalve, "A Human-Rights Approach to the Global Food Crisis," Project Syndicate (June 23, 2023).
- Michael Fakhri (featured), "Fighting Hunger from the Willamette Valley," Oregon Quarterly (Summer 2023).
- Michael Fakhri (interviewed), CFS Conversations Episode 10, Committee on World Food Security (December 13, 2022).
- Michael Fakhri (featured), "White House hunger summit failed to expand 'right to food,' UN expert says," The Guardian (October 4, 2022).
- Michael Fakhri, "Framing the Problem of Hunger and Conflict at the UN Security Council," Just Security (September 22, 2022).
- Michael Fakhri and Sofia Monsalve, "Ukraine helps feed the world - but its farmers, seeds, and future are in danger," The Guardian (June 13, 2022).
- Michael Fakhri (featured), "UN human rights expert welcomes Indian govt's decision to repeal farm laws," Business Standard (November 29, 2021).
- Michael Fakhri (guest), "The Great Food Reset," The Food Programme, BBC Podcast (July 25, 2021).
- Michael Fakhri, "The US Food System Creates Hunger and Debt - but There is Another Way," The Guardian (April 14, 2021).
- Michael Fakhri (quoted), "UN food systems summit quashes big business claims," Geneva Solutions (March 12, 2021).
- Michael Fakhri (quoted), "Farmers and rights groups boycott food summit over big business links," The Guardian (March 4, 2021).
- Michael Fakhri (featured), "COVID-19 Has Not Just Caused a Health Crisis but also a Hunger Crisis," AgriLand (February 9, 2021).
- Michael Fakhri (featured), "Can the United Nations protect human rights in the age of COVID-19?," Thomson Reuters Foundation News (October 23, 2020).
- Michael Fakhri, "Opinion: The future of food must include a commitment to human rights," Devex (October 16, 2020).
- Michael Fakhri (featured), "International community must support Lebanon and international agencies to avert hunger crisis, says UN human rights expert," Reliefweb (August 28, 2020).
- Michael Fakhri and Ntina Tzouvala, "To reduce world hunger, think beyond making food cheap," The Conversation (July 17, 2020).
- Michael Fakhri (featured), "People must regain control over food supply chain after coronavirus, says new U.N. envoy," Reuters (May 28, 2020).
- Michael Fakhri (featured), "UO law professor Michael Fakhri appointed to UN post," Around the O (March 30, 2020).
Faculty
FRP Fellows 2023-2024
Clark Barlowe - 3L
Clark grew up in the mountains of North Carolina, where his parents and grandparents taught him about the native plants, fungi, and wildlife. These experiences shaped and solidified Clark's appreciation for mother nature. Throughout seventeen years in the restaurant industry--which saw him travel the world and culminated with his ownership of Heirloom, a locally sourced eatery in Charlotte--Clark continued to learn about and develop a thirst to know more about our environment. In 2019, Clark and his wife sold Heirloom and moved to Springfield, Oregon, where they live on eight acres and maintain an active farm with fruits, vegetables, ducks, and snails.
During his first two years at Oregon Law, among other activities, Clark was very active with the local Native American Law Student Association (NALSA) Chapter, competing in the national NALSA moot court competition. As a 2L, Clark served as an Environmental and Natural Resources Law Center (ENR) Fellow with the Native Environmental Sovereignty Project. Now entering his last year of law school, Clark is excited to continue working as an ENR Fellow and learning with Professor Fakhri about how to better serve our communities through food systems.