USDA Attorney Advisor

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE (USDA)

Washington, District of Columbia
http://www.usda.gov

Organization Type: Other Government - Federal
Number of Lawyers: 100 +

Practice Areas: Legislative Policy, Regulatory Affairs

Description

In 1862, when President Abraham Lincoln founded the U.S. Department of Agriculture, he called it the "People's Department." In Lincoln's day, 90 percent of the people were farmers who were in need of good seed and information to grow their crops. Today, USDA continues Lincoln's legacy by serving all Americans, the two percent who farm as well as everyone who eats, wears clothes, lives in a house, or visits a rural area or a national forest.

USDA remains committed to assisting America's farmers and ranchers. USDA also:

• Leads the Federal anti-hunger effort with the Food Stamp, School Lunch, School Breakfast, and the WIC Programs;
• Stewards our nation's 192 million acres of national forests and rangelands;
• Encourages voluntary efforts to protect soil, water, and wildlife on the 70 percent of America's lands that are in private hands;
• Brings housing, modern telecommunications, and safe drinking water to rural America;
• Monitors the safety of meat, poultry, and egg products;
• Leads research in everything from human nutrition to new crop technologies that allow us to grow more food and fiber using less water and pesticides;
• Helps ensure open markets for U.S. agricultural products;
• Provides food aid to needy people overseas.

Contact Information:

202-720-4861
debbie.vota@usda.gov
1400 Independence Avenue, SW
Washington, District of Columbia 20250

Is Being a Professor in Your Stars?

NYC: NYU seeks Food Systems Visiting Professor

16JUL

New York University

The Steinhardt School of Culture, Education and Human Development

Department of Nutrition, Food Studies, and Public Health

Food Systems Visiting Professor

One year appointment, with a possible renewal

NYU’s Department of Nutrition, Food Studies, and Public Health seeks a one-year visiting professor in food systems.  The NYU Food Studies program takes an interdisciplinary approach to studying food production and consumption, particularly in urban settings.  The program examines the complexities of supplying the city, including food distribution and transportation, water and waste management, and the rural/urban interface.  Policy and health issues are also germane to issues surrounding food systems.

Qualifications:  Doctorate in related field, teaching experience, record of research.  We are willing to consider candidates with a range of research interests, which may include: environmental studies; urban studies or planning with a concentration in the rural/urban interface; waste and/or water management; public policy (i.e., agricultural policy and urban markets); political or cultural geography; agroecology; science studies; landscape design with a focus on the northeast.

Responsibilities:  We are seeking candidates who can contribute to the NYU food studies program, particularly courses in the masters’ program food systems concentration.  The candidate will be expected to be an active teacher and to engage in the intellectual life of the program and the department.  The position is to begin September 1, 2011 (sic).

More information here.

Public Justice Foundation: Food Project Fellow

FOOD PROJECT FELLOW

Washington, DC
Oakland, CA 

PUBLIC JUSTICE FOUNDATION

http://www.publicjustice.net

Date Posted: 08/31/2017
Job Type: Legal: Project-Based (e.g., Skadden)
Schedule: Long-term & full-time
Experience: Entry Level 0-3 years
Bar membership required: Awaiting Results

Practice Areas: Animal Rights, Consumer Protection/Debt, Employment/Labor, Environmental, First Amendment, Food and Drug, Litigation, Water Resources

Job Description

Public Justice is a nonprofit organization dedicated to pursuing high impact lawsuits nationwide to preserve the integrity of our society and the planet we call home. It seeks to host recent law graduates with outside fellowship funding, including fellowships through Equal Justice Works, Skadden, and law schools, as part of its Food Project.

Public Justice’s Food Project works to address the fact that our current industrialized factory farm system allows a few corporate actors to exercise extraordinary legal, legislative, electoral, communications, and market power, to the detriment of independent farmers, animals, the land, water, consumers, and the public. Our vision is part of the good food movement’s vision for a food and animal agriculture system that is just, sustainable and accountable. To attain our vision, Public Justice’s Food Project uses cutting-edge litigation that is coordinated with the larger good food movement to redress the structural and institutional inequities on which the current system relies. Our work falls under the following tactical umbrellas: (1) forcing the industrialized factory farm model to internalize impacts on farmed animals, neighboring communities, food chain workers, and the environment; (2) challenging misleading narratives, including consumer product information, and industry-sponsored laws that block transparency or seek to disguise the true nature of industrial production; (3) combating corporate consolidation and dominance of markets on behalf of independent producers; and (4) aligning ourselves with independent farmers and rural communities against an administration that purports to speak for these constituencies, but instead perpetuates corporate power.

The fellow would work with Food Project attorneys and other staff attorneys to develop and implement new legal strategies in one or more of these areas, expanding the Project’s tactics and docket. For example, we would be interested in speaking with candidates about ways to use environmental litigation to protect agricultural workers and their families, develop and implement a campaign to challenge laws that limit factory farms’ liability, or expand our efforts to obtain and publicize records that document the harms caused by industrial agriculture. Public Justice’s two Food Project Attorneys will enthusiastically collaborate with candidates on their fellowship proposals. The fellow could work in either Public Justice’s headquarters in Washington, D.C. or its Oakland, California office.

REQUIREMENTS:

• Superb analytical, legal research, legal writing, and speaking skills
• Ability to juggle multiple tasks at a time and work in a fast-paced environment
• Self-motivation and proven ability to work independently
• Ability to work well with others and diverse groups
• Excellent attention to detail and commitment to follow-through
• Positive attitude and can-do personality
• Strong organizational skills
• Willingness to travel for several weeks per year to visit and work with impacted communities
• Healthy sense of outrage and desire to change the world for the better

Public Justice is an equal opportunity employer with a non-smoking environment. Diversity valued. Applications invited without regard to race, gender, national origin, sexual orientation, age, or disability. For more information on Public Justice, please visit our website at www.publicjustice.net. For more information about the Food Project, please visit https://www.publicjustice.net/what-we-do/food-safety-health/.

Salary

$41k - $55k/year

Application Instructions:

Your application should consist of two electronic files: (1) your cover letter, resume, transcript and references in a single .pdf file; and (2) a writing sample in another .pdf file, comprised of a legal brief for which you were the primary author (please note the contributions of others). In your cover letter, please summarize your proposed contribution to Public Justice’s Food Project, provide the potential source(s) of fellowship funding, and specify whether you are applying to work in the Washington, D.C. office or the Oakland office. Applications will be considered on a rolling basis. Please send your application to Leah Nicholls at lnicholls@publicjustice.net.

Center for Food Safety: West Coast Staff Attorney

STAFF ATTORNEY

San Francisco, CA or Portland, OR

August 11, 2017

Position: Staff Attorney
Location: San Francisco, CA or Portland, OR.
Status: Full-time
Start Date: September 2017

Center for Food Safety (CFS), one of the nation’s top food and environmental advocacy non-profits, is seeking applications to fill a staff attorney position.  The position will be based in either the CFS San Francisco, CA office or the CFS Portland, OR office, with San Francisco preferred.

About CFS
CFS empowers people, supports farmers, and protects the earth from the adverse impacts of industrial food and farming production, and promotes organic and sustainable food systems. CFS uses legal actions, policy initiatives, scientific and policy reports, and corporate and grassroots campaigns to reduce the impacts of industrial agriculture on the environment and human health. CFS has an integrated suite of issue areas, including: GMOs, organic foods, climate change, factory farming, pesticides, pollinators, food labeling, food safety, nanotechnology, and more.

About the Position
CFS staff attorneys are responsible for developing, coordinating, and pursuing strategic litigation in federal and state courts on an ever-expanding variety of cutting-edge food and environmental issues, in support of CFS’s overall mission and its specific program areas, including:

·         Aquaculture

·         Climate Change

·         Food Labeling

·         Food Safety

·         Genetically Engineered Organisms

·         Industrial Animal Agriculture

·         Organic Integrity

·         Pesticides

·         Pollinators

·         Soil Protection

·         Water Privatization

More information is available on their website.

Experienced Litigator - Sustainable Food and Farming

Earth Justice Wants Experienced Litigator to Join the Team as a Staff Attorney

We are now accepting applications for a Staff Attorney to work with the Sustainable Food and Farming Program to be based in Earthjustice’s Washington, DC, New York, or San Francisco office.  We seek an experienced and skilled attorney to join our growing team to develop and deploy legal strategies to reform the industrial food system, ensure safe food, promote sustainable agriculture, and reduce agriculture’s climate, environmental, and social impacts.   

Earthjustice is expanding its work on sustainable food and farming, building on its vast experience litigating to protect the environment and public health, and its successes reducing pesticide use, toxic food additives, and water pollution.  Agriculture and food issues represent the next frontier for more sustainable production to satisfy human needs while minimizing environmental, worker and consumer harm.  We represent environmental organizations and consumer watchdogs as well as farmworkers and sustainable producers, grassroots organizations and environmental justice communities.  We focus on three areas: safer food -- protecting people from toxic chemicals in foods and minimizing diet-related disease; sustainable farming -- limiting reliance on agricultural chemicals, reducing agricultural pollution, and fostering responsible methods of crop and animal production; and climate-friendly farming -- reducing the food system’s contribution to climate change and increasing farms’ resilience to climate shocks.  The Staff Attorney will work closely with the rest of the sustainable food and farming team based in NYC to develop and deploy new strategies in all these areas.

RESPONSIBILITIES

• Develop cases and legal advocacy strategies to support program goals.
• Litigate cases from beginning to end, performing all aspects of litigation.
• Conduct administrative and legislative advocacy, including comments, testimony, petitions, media, and coalition building.
• Supervise the work of Associate Attorneys.
• Collaborate with colleagues and coalition partners.
• Manage relationships with co-counsel, clients, and coalition partners.
• Serve as spokesperson for client partners and for Earthjustice.
• Work effectively with other departments within Earthjustice, including Communications, Development, and Policy and Legislation.

Qualifications and application information here.

Earth Justice Litigation Associate

Earthjustice is now accepting applications for an associate attorney to join our International Program, located in San Francisco, CA. The International Program works with public interest and community groups around the world to establish, strengthen, and enforce national and international legal protections for the environment and public health. 

Core focus areas of Earthjustice’s international efforts include combating climate change, reducing the world’s dependence on coal-fired power and promoting clean energy in its stead, building marine resilience to ocean acidification, and promoting citizen participation in environmental protection. At the heart of our work is the principle—which we were the first organization to advocate internationally—that all people have a right to a healthy and sustainable environment.

The Associate Attorney program comprises a two-year position with a possible extension for a third year. This program is designed to help attorneys develop into thoughtful, professional, and effective advocates skilled in the various phases of public interest litigation. Many associates have gone on to other positions within Earthjustice or with other public interest organizations.

For more details and to apply, click here.

Buy The Farm!

Atlanta Harvest is looking for a new owner.

Mission:

Atlanta Harvest is committed to producing naturally-grown food in the city. With an innovative high-tunnel farm design, we supply the city of Atlanta with fresh, leafy greens.

Summary:

Atlanta Harvest presents a unique turnkey opportunity for an experienced farmer to purchase a fully operational urban farm in the heart of Atlanta. The farm features 6 -150€™ High Tunnels. These tunnels are optimized for ventilation and can produce year-round. Although many potential models could fit the space, the farm currently functions as a wholesale lettuce producer, regularly growing 1,500 pounds of lettuce per week for several established wholesale customers. During peak production, monthly revenues can average $12,000.

Current ownership is dedicated to local farming, and wants to provide a dedicated farmer with a long-term ownership opportunity. Ownership doesn't have farm expertise, and wants to transfer ownership to someone who does.

More details on business operations and terms here.

Associate Director - Cornucopia Institute

The Cornucopia Institute is seeking a full-time employee to join our team.  The Associate Director will assist with the overall management of Cornucopia’s operations in support of its mission.

The Associate Director will oversee the organization’s financial management and development activities (including supervising staff involved with proposal writing and grants administration, fundraising mailings, occasional fundraising events, etc.).  This person will also be involved with overseeing communications (publishing research reports, electronic and print newsletters, and web and social media, etc.) and related staff supervision in addition to overall HR management.  The Associate Director will report to and work closely with Cornucopia’s Director to carry out organizational activities.

For more information, click here.