Maine Farmland Trust announces inaugural Wang Fellow

L-R: David Wang, Ellen Griswold, Cecile Wang.

Ellen Griswold of Portland, Maine has been selected by Maine Farmland Trust as its inaugural Wang Fellow.

As a Fellow, Griswold will work for a year at the Trust researching current trends in Maine agriculture and fisheries. She will explore the greatest impediments and the necessary policies and programs for fostering the institutional purchasing and aggregation of Maine agricultural products, and explore the lessons that can be learned from other states in terms of market development for Maine agricultural products.

Griswold received her BA from Brown University in 2001 and her JD from Georgetown University Law Center in 2007. For eight years, she practiced primarily federal energy regulatory law at private firms in Washington, DC. Over the past few years, Griswold has expanded her practice to include advising clients on state and federal environmental regulatory requirements. That experience, coupled with her deep personal interest in the structure of our food system and its implications for the public health, the environment, and sustainable agriculture producers, led her to the realization that she wanted to pursue a career in environmental law and policy ¬– and agricultural and food law and policy in particular.

In 2015, Griswold began the Masters of Laws in Food and Agriculture Law Program at Vermont Law School, where she has been focusing on national agricultural policy, global food security issues, the regulation and policy of local food systems, and the public health implications of our food system. At the same time that Ellen began her current degree program, she and her husband and their two girls moved to Portland, Maine ¬– a city they have loved for some time and where they have family.

MFT created the fellowship in honor of David and Cecile Wang. The Wangs have provided critical support and trusted guidance to MFT over many years. The Wangs have a long history supporting organizational innovation, including their pivotal role with the Coalition of Immokalee Workers, which has done so much for Florida’s tomato farmers.