Student Scholarship Award

Each year, our organization presents AALA Scholarship Awards, which are intended to recognize and encourage scholarly work.

Criteria

In selecting student winners, the AALA Awards Committee considers the excellence in quality of writing, the relevance to important legal issues in agriculture, the clarity of analysis, and the potential effects on agricultural law studies. A student is defined as someone who is enrolled part-time or full-time in a law school or graduate program that relates to agricultural law. Membership in AALA is not required.

Any scholarly work (paper, article, comment, papers written for courses, etc.) that has been published or is accepted for publication related to agricultural law is eligible for consideration.

Nominations

Nominations open August 1. Forms and submission instructions will be posted here at that time. For reference, the 2025 nomination form is available here. Nomination Form

The award winner will be announced and presented a plaque on November 7th at the 2026 Annual Educational Symposium in Dallas, TX and subsequently announced via an AALA publication and press release.

Required Submission Information:

  • Name, phone number and email address of the author
  • Attachment (PDF or Word) or link to submission
  • There is no length requirement or limitation

 

Past Recipients

2025

Beyond the Bacon: Proposition 12’s Impact on the United States Pork Industry, forthcoming 2026.

Brooke De Noble, Drake University Law School

 
2024

Climate Change & Farm Bill Reauthorization: An Evaluation of the 118th Congress’ Challenged Capacity to Address Climate Change in the 2023 Farm Bill, 28 DRAKE J. AGRIC. LAW (2023).

Chance Mitchell, University of New Mexico School of Law

 
2023

Counting the Cost of California’s Proposition 12 Post-Ross, 69 S.D. L. REV. (forthcoming 2024).

Taylor Bushelle, University of South Dakota Knudson School of Law

 
2022

Saving the Little Guy: Estate and Inheritance Taxation on Generational Farmers and Ranchers, 13 ESTATE PLANNING JOURNAL 1 (2021).

Sarah Patterson, Texas Tech University School of Law

 
2021

The Growing Monopoly in the Corn Seed Industry: Is It Time for the Government to Interfere?, 8 Tex. A&M L. Rev. 633 (2021).

Bethany Sumpter, Texas A&M University School of Law

 
2019

Regulating What Can’t Be Measured: Reviewing the Current State of Animal Agricultural’s Air Emissions Regulation Post-Waterkeeper Alliance v. EPA, 19 Vt. J. Envtl. L. 246 (2018).

Kyle K. Weldon, Texas A&M University School of Law

 
2018

GMOs, Genetically Modified Organisms or Genuinely Mixed Opinions? A Reasonable Consumer’s Understanding of the Terms “GMO” and “Non-GMO,” and the Struggle to Set a Standard, 48 SETON HALL L. REV. 221 (2017).

Nicholas J. Kromka, Seton Hall University School of Law

 
2017

The Poultry Products Inspection Act and California’s Foie Gras Ban: An Analysis of the Canards Decision and Its Implications for California’s Animal Agriculture Industry, 104 CALIF. L. REV. 1009 (2016).

Kathryn Campo-Bowen, University of California, Berkeley, School of Law

 
2016

From Precision Agriculture to Market Manipulation: A New Frontier in the Legal Community, 17 MINNESOTA JOURNAL of LAW SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY, 489 (2016).

Neal Rasmussen, University of Minnesota Law School

 
2015

Unapproved Genetically Modified Corn: It’s What’s For Dinner, 100 IOWA L. REV. 825 (2015).

Kyndra Lundquist, The University of Iowa College of Law

 
2015

Agriculture Precision Farming: Who Owns the Property of Information? Is it the Farmer, the Company who Helps Consult the Farmer on How to Use the Information Best, or the Mechanical Company who Built The Technology Itself?, 19 DRAKE J. AGRIC. L. 239 (2014).

Jacob Strobel, Drake University Law School