50 million American people face food insecurity, what can be done to help?
As the US reels from the damage caused by COVID-19, one of the long-term impacts will be on food poverty and food security. A staggering 50 million American people will experience food insecurity, including 17 million children, a level of hunger not seen in the US since the Great Depression.
At Food Matters Live in March, a panel discussed the challenges the country faces as it tries to tackle inequality, and lack of access to healthy food, that sit in the way of building an inclusive food system. Taking part are Michael T. Roberts, Executive Director, Resnick Center for Food Law and Policy, UCLA, Danielle Nierenberg, President & Founder, Food Tank, Dr. Sally Rockey, Executive Director, Foundation for Food & Agriculture, Anne Byrne, Phd Student, Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management, Cornell University, Caitlin Welsh, Director, Global Food Security Program, Center for Strategic and International Studies, and Dr. Travis A. Smith, Associate Professor, Department of Agriculture and Applied Economics, University of Georgia.
Join this special episode of Table Talk, hosted by Stefan Gates, that looks at the highlights from this fascinating live panel discussion to determine what can be done to improve American food insecurity.
About Michael T. Roberts
Michael T. Roberts is the founding Executive Director of the Resnick Center for Food Law and Policy at UCLA School of Law. Roberts is a thought leader in a broad range of legal and policy issues from farm to fork in local, national, and global food supply systems. He taught the first food law and policy course in the United States in 2004 and served as the leading force in the development in 2005 of the first scholarly journal – Journal of Food Law and Policy – devoted exclusively to the field. Since his arrival to UCLA in 2013, Roberts has authored and edited major foundational publications on food law. He authored the first major treatise on food law, titled, Food Law in the United States (Cambridge University Press 2016). He is also co-editor of a case book, Food Law: Cases and Materials (Wolters Kluwer 2019). He is currently editing Research Handbook on International Food Law (Edward Elgar Publishing, forthcoming). He has also written several other chapters, articles, and papers on food law topics.
Roberts is also actively involved in the global development of food law and policy. He has lectured on food-law subjects at law schools, workshops, and conferences in a number of countries, including the United States, China, Korea, United Kingdom, Italy, Belgium, Canada, Spain, Romania, Turkey, and Russia. He is a Research Fellow for Renmin University School of Law’s Center for Coordination and Innovation for Food Safety (Beijing). He is an Adjunct Professor of Law for East China University of Science and Technology (Shanghai), where he lectures annually on food law topics. Roberts recently led the Resnick Center into a partnership with the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) on a series of research and advisory initiatives to confront global food security, nutrition, safety, and quality.
