A Q&A with Associate Professor Michael Fakhri, faculty co-leader of the Food Resiliency Project.

How did the Food Resiliency Project come about at Oregon Law?

Students at Oregon Law were one of the first in the country to organize themselves around food. Oregon law students understood that if our climate is changing in unprecedented ways then we need to be able to share and talk about food in new ways. At its core, the Food Resiliency Project was and is part of a burgeoning movement of farmers, consumers, students, lawyers and other activists who are challenging the status quo and working to create a new, more resilient, and sustainable food system. Our task as legal scholars is to highlight how law structures the allocation of power and wealth when it comes to food production, distribution, and consumption. We treat law as something that might make a food system more equitable among different communities and individuals.

What have you done over the last few years to “challenge the status quo” when it comes to food law?

For the first few years of the project, we spent researched the rich history of the right to food. This meant studying things like the food sovereignty movement, international trade, and agroecology. We have learned a lot by studying transnational social movements trying to change the global food system. But the Food Resiliency Project is not just about solving problems or developing specialized knowledge. It’s about creating new practices. So, we as a research group work in a way that ensures students have a significant amount of authority and autonomy to direct the nature of the work. We try and be as democratic and egalitarian as we can in our own work and relationships.

What lies ahead for the project – what new food law practices are being created?

Since we now have a strong foundation in the right to food, we are looking to provide legal analysis to community members that are committed to using food-making practices to make the world a fairer and more biodiverse place. If you look at how agricultural extension programs help local farmers and gardeners by openly sharing ecological knowledge, we are doing the same with legal knowledge. We partner with people, communities, legislators, companies, whomever… and work with them to think about their particular issue and provide legal research. We also make sure that the research is publicly available.

What is the future of food law?

I think to build a better future, people need a deeper understanding of the past. The Unites States used and continues to use agriculture, fishing, and hunting laws to displace and discipline indigenous people. It has done the same to reduce the value of people’s labor, whether it be through slavery or citizenship status. To create a new way of thinking about food law, requires tackling some of this country’s and the world’s most fundamental issues.

By Rayna Jackson, School of Law Communications