Projects
The Center for Health Law and Policy Innovation (CHLPI) works to carry out its mission through discrete, targeted projects. These projects serve to deepen our impact within CHLPI’s focus areas as staff and students take concrete action to make real change. Explore our current projects below, and find relevant resources, information about our partners, and what we’re doing to make a difference in our health and food systems.
Access to mental health care is among the most important and underappreciated aspects of the health care system for chronically ill people. While federal law creates a requirement that health insurers provide coverage of mental health services on terms that are on par with medical and surgical services, these rules are severely under-enforced. Investigation and factual development of this complex area is needed.
...The rising demand for locally produced food in the United States has fueled a dramatic increase in small-scale food production in recent years. Offering the opportunity for the sale of home-produced foods also supports economic development and food justice, as it reduces barriers to entry and the majority of home cooks are women, immigrants, and other historically marginalized individuals. All fifty states now allow at least some cottage food sales, which generally include low-risk value-added products such as baked goods, jams, granola, popcorn, candy, coffee, and tea. Many states are now allowing a broader range of foods through “food freedom” laws and laws that allow home kitchens to sell prepared meals with few restrictions. Cottage food operations, home kitchens, and food freedom laws support culturally distinct foods and create economic opportunities for residents. However, the laws regulating these operations vary widely from state to state and have been in flux with many states updating their laws in recent years.
...The Delta Directions Consortium (DDC) is an interdisciplinary network of individuals, academic institutions, non-profit organizations, and foundations that work together to create positive social change in the multistate Mississippi Delta Region. The Food Law and Policy Clinic (FLPC) has been a key member of DDC since its inception. Our goals include improving public health and promoting socioeconomic development. We partner across the academic/community divide and across disciplines to bring resources, research, policy, and potential solutions to communities throughout the Mississippi Delta; provide educational opportunities for students to do engaged scholarship and translational work and for regional, national, and global leaders to learn about challenges and opportunities to support the region; and disseminate, replicate, and expand our methods, findings, and successes, both within the Delta and to partners in similar rural regions.
...The U.S. is facing rising rates of viral hepatitis – despite the availability of vaccines for hepatitis A and B, and a cure for hepatitis C – and reports show that the country is not on track to meet the World Health Organization’s goal of eliminating viral hepatitis by 2030. While effective clinical interventions have reduced the morbidity and mortality associated with viral hepatitis, the opioid epidemic has spurred new cases at alarming rates that disproportionately burden already disinvested communities.
...Every 5-7 years, Congress passes legislation known as the “farm bill.” The farm bill is an omnibus piece of legislation that affects every aspect of the food system; including financial support for agriculture, nutrition programs, rural development, trade, and many others. Historically, the farm bill has faced shortcomings in terms of supporting small-scale and regional food systems; minority and female farmers; and conservation and environmental goals. In order to foster a better farm bill, since 2016, the Food Law and Policy Clinic (FLPC) has led the Farm Bill Law Enterprise (FBLE), a national partnership of law schools working toward a farm bill that reflects the long-term needs of our society. FBLE values economic opportunity and stability; public health and nutrition; c...
Each year, 38% of food produced in the U.S. goes uneaten, Each year, the United States generates a huge amount of food that goes uneaten or unsold–over 241 million tons. Of that, 80 million tons of food winds up in landfills, is incinerated, is left to rot in the field, or otherwise goes to waste. This waste consumes 22% of all fresh water and 16% of cropland in the U.S., and makes up 24% of landfill inputs. The U.S. has attempted to address food waste through a range of policies, such as offering liability protections to food donors and food recovery organizations, providing tax incentives for food donations, and supporting new funding and programming for food waste reduction through the 2018 Farm Bill. In addition, recent federal agency actions at the U.S. Department of Agriculture, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and U.S. Food and Drug Administration have aimed to reduce food waste, but there is still more that can be done.
...The Center for Health Law and Policy Innovation’s (CHLPI’s) federal policy work focuses on systems-level change to improve access to care for people and families with low incomes, emphasizing the care and treatment needs of people living with HIV, hepatitis C (HCV), and other chronic health conditions.
...Transgender and gender diverse individuals regularly face discrimination in health care settings and often lack access to affordable, high-quality health care coverage that includes gender-affirming services. The Center for Health Law and Policy Innovation (CHLPI) works at both the federal and state levels to fight against health care discrimination and increase access to care.
...The novel coronavirus (COVID-19), identified in December 2019, has become a major outbreak and has recently spread rapidly across the United States, impacting life and society in many ways, including our food systems. The Harvard Law School Food Law and Policy Clinic (FLPC) is engaged in an emergency response effort to address the impact that COVID-19 is having on our food systems. Our efforts include initiatives supporting donations of excess food due to closures of universities and other venues, analyzing opportunities to increase low-cost home food delivery, and shoring up emergency food systems.
...Despite the essential role workers play in supplying the nation with food, food system workers have historically experienced high rates of poverty, poor working conditions, and discrimination. Farmworkers, in particular, are excluded from many worker protection laws and often face resource barriers linked to immigration status, language differences, and geographic isolation. Workers in the meat and poultry industries also face wearying and dangerous working conditions that threaten their health and safety, a problem that gained increased public scrutiny as the COVID-19 pandemic swept through these facilities. Food service workers, too, work in an industry plagued by discrimination, harassment, and low wages, exacerbated by the sub-minimum wage laws for tipped workers that persist at the federal level and in many states. The Food Law and Policy Clinic (FLPC) works to advance the rights, well-being, and empowerment of workers across the food system.
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