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, 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
Corinne Gibson - 2L
Corinne grew up in Central California, an agricultural hub that is ironically also a food desert. While studying anthropology and ethnobotany at Fresno State, Corinne interned at a local food bank, working with children facing food insecurity. The intersection of culture, natural resources, and agriculture sparked her interest in environmental law and sustainability. Corinne worked as a high school teacher, caterer, and ombudsperson before attending Oregon Law. She spent her first law school summer working for Youth, Rights, & Justice in Portland. Outside school, Corinne loves to garden, cook, do yoga, and annoy her cats.
Maxwell Graves - 1L
Born in the Midwest, Maxwell enjoys being in nature. While living in his hometown of Indianapolis, Indiana, he worked at Indy Urban Acres, a mission-based urban farm that provides fresh-grown produce to local food banks. There, Maxwell discovered and nurtured his passion for helping create, promote, and protect spaces within communities to grow healthy food and educate others on sustainable practices. These formative experiences led him to pursue his undergraduate degree at the University of Montana, Missoula, where he graduated with a B.A. in Environmental Studies. During his studies, Maxwell continued to pursue his interests in sustainable agriculture, participating in the Program in Ecological Agriculture and Society. He spent two semesters learning about sustainable agriculture and working on a farm growing food for the Missoula Food Bank.
Before starting at Oregon Law, Maxwell worked in the Immigration Practice Groups at Fragomen, LLP and Gibney, Anthony, and Flaherty, LLP in New York City. Maxwell believes everyone should have equitable access to healthy and nutritious food. He is eager to expand on his interests in agriculture and food policy through the Food Resiliency Project.
Dillan "Bubba" Smith - 3L
Bubba grew up in southwest Virginia spending his time hiking and exploring in the Blue Ridge Mountains. This time spent in the mountains instilled in him a love for the environment. While studying Cognitive Science at the University of Virginia, he took a course in sustainable agriculture that reignited his passion for nature and concerns about climate change.
In his second year at Oregon Law, Bubba took courses in agriculture law and environmental justice that further fueled his interest in food law and policy. This interest led Bubba to write an article examining contemporary food waste policy through an environmental justice lens.
Bubba enjoys hiking, paddle boarding, trail running, reading, and spending time with his cat, Whisk.