Luca Leone

European Food and Feed Law Review, Volume 14 (2019), Issue 5, Page 436 - 444

With the market for alternatives to dairy products growing considerably for reasons of animal ethics, environmental or health considerations, the need for legal clarity in sales denominations is rising among stakeholders. The US legal context, in this regard, oscillates from the courts’ faith in consumers’ reasonableness to the attempt of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to strengthen the enforcement of the regulated standards of identity. At the core of those divergent viewpoints stand the issues pertaining to the nutritional status or quality of both dairy and plant-based products, together with evolving consumer perceptions and changing dietary behaviours. This contribution looks at these opposing visions, casting light on the modalities through which the US authorities are divergently upholding their own beliefs and regimes of authority vis-à-vis citizens’ attitudes and knowledge in addressing the ‘legal identity’ of dairy and plant-based products.

Luca Leone

European Food and Feed Law Review, Volume 13 (2018), Issue 5, Page 421 - 436

This paper maps the huge and complex debate involved in the mid-2010 revision of the European (EU) rules defining the organic production system, laying the groundwork to illustrate if and how perspectival differences mattered in the final law-making process completed in 2018. Looking at the ways in which agri-food players sought to rethink organic rules, the analysis illustrates the epistemic and normative stakes associated with the reform process, and the disputes that inevitably rise when different modes of connoting agricultural practices – such as organics – come into contact and, often, conflict. The contribution reflects, in its final part, on the main issues the new Regulation brings to the forefront. Keywords: organic farming; European regulation; agricultural production

Luca Leone

European Food and Feed Law Review, Volume 12 (2017), Issue 6, Page 507 - 518

By looking at both the EU and US agricultural context, this essay reflects on the implementation of big data into agricultural legal practice, on regulations the implementation may require and on potential changes it brings into the legal realm of agriculture. The first part discusses big data’s potential for agriculture, together with problems and dilemmas arising from it. The second section reviews the main legal problems information exchange poses between farmers and ATPs, by analysing the normative questions on ownership, privacy and security of big farm data. The final part showes the possible perspectives the issue opens in the agricultural sphere, by using the concepts of “open data” and “data philanthropy” as institutional and procedural patterns to follow to achieve more knowledgeable and sustainable agriculture.

Luca Leone

European Food and Feed Law Review, Volume 10 (2015), Issue 5, Page 356 - 363

The role of Open Data in supporting and strengthening civic participation is still under development, but increasingly relevant. The aim of this paper is to examine the concept of Open Data in relation to a specific context, namely the food sector in the EU. A brief description of the state of the art of the EU legal framework on Open Data will serve as a departure point towards a deeper discussion on the relationship between Open Data and the food sector. Firstly, my intention is to comprehend whether and how Open Data could offer the citizenry new forms of communication and information sharing, through which interactive food-related choices and new research activities can be performed. Then, I will reflect on the consequences Open Data may have on digital interactions concerning ICT-mediated knowledge production and the food sector, by analysing the new Regulation on food information, and understanding the linked implications for civil society.