Center for Agriculture and Food Systems at Vermont Law and Graduate School

05/07/2026

In a webinar from the Farmers Market Legal Toolkit (FMLT), CAFS is hosting Brett Stokes, Director of the Center for Justice Reform at Vermont Law and Graduate School, for a practical discussion on how farmers market vendors and managers can navigate interactions with law enforcement. This webinar will cover situations when vendors are required to comply with officers, the specific obligations of market managers, the difference between public and private space at farmers markets, and how rules and regulations might change depending on a market’s location. CAFS Legal and Policy Fellow Bella O’Connor will also share updates on a forthcoming FMLT resource on this topic.

Register here: https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_UIVqSpD8SMm9MI0kh7c1zw #/registration

04/29/2026

In the U.S., Regional Fishery Management Councils set annual catch limits and, in some fisheries, divide those limits into catch shares allocated to individual fishermen or entities. A new CAFS report “Fair Shares? An Analysis of Catch Share Programs in the U.S.” examines how these catch share programs can raise important challenges for fishing communities. These include the consolidation of allocations in the hands of fewer entities and the emergence of de facto private property rights, which can create significant barriers for small-scale and new entrants to the fishery.

Authored by Emily Spiegel, Lindsey Connolly, Wendy Chen, Johanna Silva, and Andrew Hockenberry, in consultation with the North American Marine Alliance, this report identifies opportunities to better align catch share programs with their purpose to sustain fisheries and the livelihoods that depend on them.

This report discusses some of the challenges of catch share programs in U.S. fisheries and their impacts on coastal communities.