Migrant workers have long been subject to unsafe working conditions in the meat-packing facilities. 2L staffer, Cierra Garcia, explores what can be done to safeguard these workers.
In this blog, 2L Staffer Georgia Arrington discusses how the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA) has missed its mark by neglecting to include golf course workers as a covered group under its Worker Protection Standards (WPS). In excluding these workers and excluding golf courses that are not used for sod production from the WPS, Arrington argues FIFRA is failing to provide meaningful protection from the dangers of pesticides on golf courses. Arrington illustrates that if the increased rates of Parkinson’s disease and non-Hodgkin's lymphoma in this cohort are not enough to demand regulatory reform, the EPA's continued approval of pesticides banned in other sectors but still used on golf courses certainly should be.
In this blog, 2L staffer Nicholas Marini explores the ramifications of a recent EPA ruling affirming the right to repair. For years, farm equipment manufacturers paid steep premiums to repair their equipment with the manufacturers, not because the quality was better, but because they were legally required to do so.
In this blog, 2L staffer Katie Collins argues that the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau should permit fruit wines, cider, and mead to display vintage labels, just as grape wines do. Collins takes the position that allowing for truthful, non-misleading vintage labels on non-grape wine allows for transparency to the consumer and creates consistency within the market.
In this blog, 2L staffer Jordan Guancione uses the reality television show Farmer Wants a Wife as a cultural lens to discuss the legal consequences of marriage and divorce on inherited farmland, arguing that because farmland is a unique, non-liquid asset, family law should prioritize keeping farms intact during divorce and succession disputes. Guancione advocates for stronger tools to adequately protect farmland, including Kentucky’s adoption of the Uniform Partition of Heirs Property Act to prevent forced land sales.
In this blog, 2L staffer Emma Jury illustrates how popular media often suggests that nature thrives when there is human withdrawal rather than human engagement. she examines how the Wilderness Act of 1964, though celebrated by some, now limits important scientific research and disregards Indigenous land stewardship in many laws. Jury contends that reimagining the wilderness and rewriting our laws to include responsible human use and protection may be essential to preserving our ecosystems and our unique biodiversity.