Writing Competition Award Winner: U.S. Withdrawal from Trans-Pacific Partnership Likely Won’t Affect Food Safety
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EmailVermont law professor Carrie Scrufari suggests that the Trans-Pacific Partnership likely would not strengthen food safety standards already being enforced by both the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade and the Food Safety Modernization Act.
EAST LANSING, MI (June 15, 2017) – Carrie Scrufari has been named winner of Michigan State University’s Food Law and Regulation Writing Competition.
Professor Scrufari’s entry, “Much Ado About Nothing: Does the Death of the Trans-Pacific Partnership Affect Global Food Safety?,” suggests that the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) likely would not strengthen food safety standards beyond what is currently being enforced by both the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) and the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA).
“We are delighted to award this year’s top prize to a recent graduate and new member of the legal academy in the area of food law,” said Jeffrey Carter-Johnson, Special Projects Coordinator and Adjunct Professor of the Global Food Law Program. “Professor Scrufari’s paper showed a depth of legal analysis that clearly placed her paper above the other entrants.”
Scrufari credited Professor Peter Teachout of the Vermont Law School and a course he teaches – The International Regulation of Trade – for providing the inspiration for her topic as well as the opportunity to use the competition entry as her final paper.
“Given press coverage of TPP (both prior to and during the U.S. 2016 presidential election) as well as media coverage of food poisoning and contamination outbreaks in recent years (both from domestically produced products and those that are imported from places like China),” Scrufari said, “I felt there was sufficient divergence on this issue to warrant a closer examination. Furthermore, the spotlight on global food safety standards had been sharpened by the Food Safety Modernization Act.”
In addition to receiving $1,000 for her first place award from Michigan State, Scrufari also was able to publish her work in the Environmental Law Reporter, a monthly law journal produced by the Environmental Law Institute that collects environmental statutes, regulations, court decisions and other documents, in addition to carefully analyzing developments in the field.
After completing her LL.M. in Food and Agricultural Law and Policy in December 2016, Scrufari joined the Vermont Law School Center for Agriculture and Food Systems as an Assistant Professor. She earned her J.D. from the University of Maryland in 2011, where she graduated as a member of the Order of the Coif and the Order of Barristers.
Professor Scrufari is a member of the New York bar and has clerked at the New York State Supreme Court Appellate Division Fourth Department and at the Court of Appeals in Albany. She has presented her research regarding farmland access, food systems, and food regulation at Harvard, Yale, Pace, and Vermont Law Schools. She has published numerous articles on issues concerning food regulation, sustainable food systems, animal welfare, and food security.
Professor Scrufari is a Food Systems Scholar and Researcher Reviewer for the Journal of Agriculture, Food Systems, and Community Development and a member of the Vermont Farmland Access and Stewardship Working Group.
“The Michigan State University food law program is pleased to support scholarship in this field and delighted to see it support a budding scholar,” said Neal Fortin, Director of the Institute for Food Laws and Regulations.
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About the Global Food Law Program (www.globalfood.law.msu.edu)
The Michigan State University (MSU) College of Law’s Global Food Law Program continues the land-grant tradition of cross and interdisciplinary education to prepare leaders to solve complex, practical problems related to the regulation of food. The Global Food Law Program provides students with knowledge that can shape food safety policy, interpret international laws and regulations, and bridge the gap between regulators and industry.
About the Institute for Food Laws and Regulations (www.IFLR.msu.edu)
The Institute for Food Laws and Regulations (IFLR) at Michigan State University offers U.S. and international food law courses taught online by an international network of food science, academic, and legal professionals, who understand the complex nature of food laws and how they impact the flow of food and agricultural products across national boundaries.
