Dear Friends of the Resnick Center,

We’re excited to share some of the highlights from this past year at the Resnick Center for Food Law & Policy. From celebrating the FAO Constitution Exhibition in Rome to launching our new Food, Anti-Poverty, and Equity Initiative, it’s been a year full of growth, collaboration, and inspiring conversations about the future of food.

Our Repast podcast has kept the dialogue going with lively episodes on food policy and justice, while our Future of Food Fellows explored the evolving world of cell-cultivated meat and shared their work at a spring symposium. Students have worked with the L.A. Food Policy Council and tackled big issues like allergen safety in local restaurants.

As we move forward, we are grateful for your continued support and partnership. Your engagement makes it possible for us to keep pushing for a healthier, fairer, and more sustainable food system.

We’d love to hear from you—drop us a note at resnickcenter@law.ucla.edu to share what you’re working on, get involved, or learn more about our projects.

Thank you for being part of our community, and here’s to another great year ahead!

Thank you for your support, and best wishes,
Executive Director Michael T. Roberts and Deputy Director Diana Winters

Resnick Center Executive Director Michael T. Roberts was honored to attend the Constitution Exhibition in Rome in May 2025 that he was instrumental in creating. For the exhibition, Michael co-authored the inscriptions printed on large placards displayed in the exhibition phases with FAO’s Chief Legal Counsel, Donata Rugarabamu. The exhibition is part of the Center’s partnership with the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations and Michael has enjoyed collaborating with the FAO team including Director-General Dr. Qu Dongyu, the library staff, and the Office of Communications, FAO’s Development Law Service (LEGN).

You can read about the exhibition here.

UCLA Law’s Food Litigation course is entering its fifth year at UCLA Law, co-taught this academic year by David Biderman and Jasmine Wetherell, partners at Perkins Coie. It explores the evolving landscape of food-related legal disputes, and the role of class actions in our legal system. With a dynamic roster of guest speakers and real-world case studies, students gain critical insights into the intersection of law, public health, and consumer protection.

The Repast podcast series hosted by Executive Director Roberts and Deputy Director Diana Winters is in its fourth season, offering engaging conversations on the most pressing issues in food law and policy. Recent episodes have featured Professors Amy Cohen and Susan Schneider discussing the Trump administration’s food policy initiatives, and a panel with Kim Kessler, Dipa Shah Patel, and Paula Daniels on strategies to reduce chronic disease. The podcast continues to be a dynamic platform for amplifying diverse voices and ideas in the field and has gained a robust following. 

Throughout the 2024-25 academic year, two UCLA Law students, Justine Kim and Maria Trubetskaya, had the opportunity to be part of the inaugural Future of Food Fellows program. This program was a collaborative effort between UCLA STEM graduate students and UCLA Law students that focused on developing and navigating the future of the cell-cultivated meat industry. With the guidance of Deputy Director Winters, Professor Amy Rowat, and UCLA postdoctoral students, Justine and Maria researched domestic and global regulation of cell-cultivated meat and analyzed how future policies could address issues of neoliberalism, sustainability, ongoing statewide bans, and other gaps in this innovative industry. The year-long project culminated in the Future of Food Symposium held in April 2025, where each of the fellows presented their research and findings. Maria and Justine also presented their thoughts on cultured meat and the collaboration on a Repast episode, found here. 

A brand new initiative was launched this year by Executive Director Roberts, and UCLA Law 2025 graduates Lavanya Sathyamurthy, Heliya Izadpaneh, and Lucy Weiss. The Food, Anti-Poverty, and Equity Initiative aims to center racial justice in food law and policy. “We seek to bring discussions of race, migration, class, and intersectionality out of the shadows of food law through a holistic, systems-based approach,” writes the team of law graduates about the mission of the initiative, which is working to develop law school curricula and other resources. Lavanya also co-hosted a powerful podcast episode with Professor Cordova Montes from the University of Central Florida on a human rights approach to the right to food. 

Resnick Center Executive Director Roberts lectured in May at a seminar at Sant’Anna School of Advanced Studies in Pisa, Italy, titled, “Food, Law, and Governance: Rethinking the FAO’s Constitution’s Origins.” The seminar was organized in part by the PhD Program in Law at the University of Pisa, Department of Law. A special thanks to organizers and moderators, Mariagrazia Albrese, Associate Professor of Agricultural, Food and Agri-Environmental Law at Sant’Anna, and Silvia Rolandi, Assistant Professor at the University of Pisa and an International Affiliate Scholar for the Resnick Center.

The Resnick Center continues its longstanding collaboration with the Los Angeles Food Policy Council (LAFPC), supporting their mission to ensure food is healthy, affordable, accessible, fair and sustainable for all people across the entire food system. Since 2011, the LAFPC’s pillars for their mission have been Food and Nutrition Security, Economic Resilience, and Environmental Sustainability, which it works to support community-wide. UCLA Law Resnick Center-affiliated students contribute by tracking federal food policy developments and communicating real-time updates to LAFPC for their local partners. 

Melissa Deng, former co-president of the Food Law Society and rising UCLA Law 3L, has been working on a project to increase food allergen training in Los Angeles County restaurants. She authored a compelling blog post titled “To Eat or Not to Eat” which examined the life-or-death implications of food allergen labeling in cities without clear ordinances. Melissa’s piece explained that she worked with a professor and clinical immunologist at UCLA who research instances of food-related anaphylaxis in Los Angeles to answer two questions: 1) How do restaurants communicate allergen information to their consumers; and 2) Are they effectively training their personnel in allergen disclosure for menu labeling or food handling?

Read the entire blog post here.

At the Third Annual Academy of Food Law & Policy (AFLP) Conference, hosted by the Loyola University Chicago School of Law in November 2024, Executive Director Roberts workshopped a draft paper with co-panelists Emily Broad Leib from Harvard Law and Maria Cudowska from Syracuse. Deputy Director Winters, a member of the AFLP Board, spoke on a panel about the future of the discipline of food law and policy. 

Thank you for being a supporter of the Resnick Center for Food Law & Policy. We look forward to a great year ahead!

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