Who We Are
Baylen J. Linnekin, Executive Director
B.A., American University
M.A., Northwestern University
J.D., Washington College of Law
LL.M., Agricultural & Food Law, University of Arkansas School of Law
Baylen Linnekin, a licensed attorney who holds an LL.M. in agricultural and food law, is the founder and executive director of Keep Food Legal. Linnekin’s writing has appeared in the Chapman University Law Review, Hastings Constitutional Law Quarterly, Northeastern University Law Journal (forthcoming), Nexus Journal of Law & Policy (forthcoming), Journal of Wine Economics, Reason magazine, Baltimore Sun, Washington Times, and elsewhere. He is co-author of a chapter on food and the law in the Routledge International Handbook to Food Studies, a forthcoming academic textbook, and author of the entry on “food bans” in the forthcoming second edition of the Oxford Encyclopedia of Food and Drink in America. He has presented his research on food and food law at University of Chicago School of Law, Harvard University School of Law, Tulane University School of Law, Chapman University School of Law, Northeastern University School of Law, Suffolk University School of Law, Washington College of Law, Boston University, University of Arkansas, American University, Rochester Institute of Technology, and elsewhere. Baylen been interviewed by the New York Post, Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg News, Washington City Paper, Freedom Watch with Judge Napolitano, the Rita Cosby Show, Reason.tv, and numerous other print, radio, television, and online outlets.
Baylen loves local and distant foods, meats and veggies, fine beer and cheap wine, dining out and cooking at home, and shopping in enormous grocery stores and at tiny farmers’ markets. Baylen kept an organic garden plot in Washington, DC’s best-known Victory Garden for six years. Baylen lives with his partner of nearly two decades, Roxanne, in the Washington, DC area.
Download a hi-res photo of Baylen Linnekin here.
Jackson Kuhl, Communications Director
Jackson writes about history and science. His work has appeared in The Hartford Courant, Connecticut Magazine, Reason, and elsewhere; and he frequently contributes to Dig and Calliope, magazines about archaeology and history for middle-grade readers. He is the author of a recently published colonial biography, Samuel Smedley, Connecticut Privateer. Prior to becoming a freelance journalist, Jackson was the Senior Producer and the Sci-Tech Producer for FOXNews.com. Read his writings at his personal website, JacksonKuhl.com.
KFL has assembled a tremendously diverse, accomplished, and respected group to sit as members of its Board of Directors. Current board members are:
- Didier Durand Chef Didier owns Cyrano’s Farm Table in Chicago. He co-founded the nonprofit Chicago Chefs for Choice, the group that led the successful fight to overturn the foie gras ban in Chicago.
- Nick Gillespie, Ph.D. Nick is editor of Reason.com and Reason.tv, former editor of Reason magazine, and co-author of the book The Declaration of Independents.
- Brian Wansink, Ph.D. Brian is the John Dyson Endowed Chair in the Applied Economics and Management Department at Cornell University, where he directs the Cornell Food and Brand Lab, and is the bestselling author of the book Mindless Eating.
- Liz Williams, J.D. Liz is author of the book The A-Z Encyclopedia of Food Controversies and the Law and is founder and president of the Southern Food & Beverage Museum in New Orleans.
*Baylen Linnekin also serves on the Board of Directors.
