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Cultivating Change: Professor Margot Pollans on Food Law, Power, and Policy

Professor Margot Pollans joined the Elisabeth Haub School of Law at ���ҹ����� faculty in 2015. She is the Faculty Director of the ���ҹ����� Food Law Center, the Joseph P. D’Alessandro Faculty Scholar, and also served as the James D. Hopkins Professor of Law for the 2023–2025 academic years. Previously, she served as the Shamik and Adrienne Trivedi Faculty Scholar from 2020–2022. During her time at the Law School, she has been a leader in building the national reputation of the ���ҹ����� Food Law Center. Professor Pollans is an accomplished scholar whose primary research interests lie in the areas of food and agriculture law, environmental law, administrative law, and social justice and her academic work has appeared in a variety of prestigious journals.

Can you tell us a bit about your background leading up to law school?

I have been interested in agriculture and environmental issues since I was in high school. I did a summer program after 9th grade in downtown Boston where I had an internship with a community gardening organization. Looking back, it was such a logical start for me, but I remember being disappointed at the time because I wanted a different placement. I returned to the issue as an undergrad. I studied environmental history, with a focus on agriculture. I was interested in the interplay of cities and rural areas. In college, I had the opportunity to spend a semester at Biosphere 2 outside of Tucson, Arizona. At the time, Columbia University ran an earth systems science semester field course there. After college, I became a high school teacher. The plan was to do it for one year while I applied to grad school, but I stayed for three because I loved teaching. I was also the cross-country coach. That was a fun gig.

Did you always intend to or want to work in academia?

Not at all. In fact, as an undergrad, I decided not to apply for history PhD programs, because I didn’t want to be a researcher. I went to law school planning to pursue a joint degree in public policy and to go into urban environmental policy. But I loved law school, and I was drawn into the kinds of research and analysis that legal academia makes possible. I also looked around at the law professors that I knew and saw a lot of people doing really cool stuff—launching research centers and clinics, lobbying congress, pivoting into public sector jobs, engaging in pro bono representation. It felt like a path that would let me carve out my own space.

Your research interests and areas of expertise include Administrative Law, Food and Agriculture Law, Environmental Law, Social Justice, and more – what is it about those areas that hold your interest?

When I first started out, I was interested in questions related to how to make the world a better place—where did the law fall short and how might it be reformed? These were policy questions. My research has evolved in recent years to focus more on using the law as a lens to understand structures of power. For instance, how does food regulation reflect social hierarchy and how does it reinforce social hierarchy? Food is a life-long obsession for me, but as an academic pursuit it is just one possible access point to understanding power.

My research has evolved in recent years to focus more on using the law as a lens to understand structures of power. For instance, how does food regulation reflect social hierarchy and how does it reinforce social hierarchy? Food is a life-long obsession for me, but as an academic pursuit it is just one possible access point to understanding power.

You are Faculty Director of the ���ҹ����� Food Law Center – can you talk a bit about the importance of the work of the Center?

The Center is the home for ���ҹ�����’s Food and Farm Business Law Clinic. The Clinic, run by Professor Jon Brown, provides transactional legal services to farms and food businesses in New York. The kinds of businesses the Clinic works with are essential for rural economic development and food system resiliency, but they often struggle to access the legal services they need to remain viable. The Clinic plays a really important role here. A little-known fact about ���ҹ����� Haub Law is that we have one of the largest food law faculties in the country. We use the Center to build our research capacity, to support students interested in careers in this area, and to engage with other law schools working on food law advocacy. For instance, we are part of the Farm Bill Law Enterprise, a consortium of law schools, headed by the Harvard Food Law and Policy Clinic, that conducts research and advocacy on the farm bill.

You teach several classes at ���ҹ����� Haub Law – do you have a favorite to teach and if so, why?

Right now, my favorite class to teach is Property. It is a really fascinating subject. Property law lies at the heart of our economic system. I try to teach students to unpack the normative assumptions embedded in property doctrine. Much of property law rests on the assumptions that property should be put to productive use and that private ownership merits robust protection. Why? It’s fun to invite students to question assumptions they have lived with their entire lives.

What are some of your current research interests and projects?

Right now, I am working on several interrelated projects examining patterns in regulation across a variety of different areas—food, toxic exposure, gun violence. We are currently in a moment of regulatory decline, at least at the federal level. The regulatory state is being decimated. I am trying to deepen my understanding of why it is so unpopular.

What general advice do you have for law students?

Read a lot. Use AI, but only as a thinking partner. When in doubt, make your sentences shorter. Spend some time reflecting not just on what subject of law you want to practice but also on how you want to spend your time. Do you want to be in court? Do you want to be reading and writing? Do you want to be out talking to people and organizing? Do you thrive if your day is full of meetings? Or do you thrive if you’re left alone all day to get your work done?

How do you spend your spare time?

I used to spend an enormous amount of time baking. I got into wedding cakes for a while, and, very briefly, had a cooking blog. These days my small kids take up every second of free time, but they are getting old enough to participate. They bake with me, and I am trying to get them into gardening with me. That’s a new hobby. We’ll see if it takes (for me or for them).

For Amanda (Mandy) Howerton-Fox ’27, deciding to attend law school was not just a career shift—it was a natural continuation of her lifelong commitment to advocacy. A former teacher of the deaf, Mandy’s passion for special education and disability rights first led her to pursue a PhD and become a tenured professor of education. Now, she has embarked on a new path at the Elisabeth Haub School of Law at ���ҹ�����, with a goal of effecting change through law and policy while advocating for people directly.

“Both of my parents were first-generation college students, and I am the first in my family to earn a doctorate and attend law school,” Mandy shared. “I pursued a PhD to drive change in deaf education through research, teaching, and advocacy, but I realized I wanted to have a more direct impact. That’s what led me to ���ҹ����� Haub Law.”

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Mandy’s experiences as an educator and through her educational pursuits have given her a unique perspective as a law student. Today, she balances her legal studies with continued advocacy and academic leadership. Mandy is on the editorial board of the American Annals of the Deaf, one of the two premier academic journals in deaf education, and is also a reviewer for the American Board of Deaf and Hard of Hearing Specialists. With a strong passion for education, she is an Adjunct Professor at Iona University and co-directs the Interdisciplinary Advanced Certificate in Working with Young Deaf and Hard of Hearing Children and their Families (IACD): an advanced certificate program for special educators and speech language pathologists who want to work in early intervention with deaf and hard of hearing children. Impressively, Mandy co-founded the program with a $1.25 million grant from the U.S. Department of Education.

Having just wrapped up her 1L year, Mandy has found ���ҹ����� Haub Law to be “an incredibly warm and supportive environment with a deeply engaged student body and an impressive range of clinical opportunities.” She has found Professor Randolph McLaughlin and Professor Camila Bustos particularly inspiring, Professor Leslie Tenzer an extremely dedicated and caring educator, and even found an interest she did not expect in property law after taking the course with Professor Margot Pollans – a subject she now describes as fascinating. “There is no shortage of amazing teachers at the Law School. They are all incredibly supportive and engaging.” Mandy has also found community within several student organizations. “I serve as the Vice President for the Public Interest Law Students Organization (PILSO) and Older Wiser Law Students (OWLS). A student organization like OWLS has been an opportunity to connect with other career changers who have come to the law with clear intentions and who are also juggling work and family responsibilities. I enjoy the energy of my younger classmates, and it’s been equally nice to meet law students with shared life experiences. I have also joined the Law School’s Honor Board.”

Mandy will also work as a research assistant for both Professor Michael Mushlin and Professor Camila Bustos and she has joined the competitive ���ҹ����� Law Review. This summer Mandy will participate in an internship position with NYU’s Center on Race, Inequality, and the Law. This fall, she has accepted an externship opportunity at the Hudson Valley Justice Center. Next summer, she will work as a summer associate with Davis Polk & Wardwell LLP. “My journey at ���ҹ����� Haub Law has just begun and I am excited to see where it takes me,” said Mandy. “Right now, my passion lies in civil rights litigation, and I would be thrilled with any position that allows me to advocate for marginalized individuals and groups.” With her unique background and ambition, Mandy is poised to make a lasting impact in the legal field wherever her path may lead.