Baylen J. Linnekin is a licensed attorney and is the founder and executive director of Keep Food Legal Foundation, a Washington, DC-based 501(c)(3) nonprofit that promotes food freedom of choice—the right of every American to grow, raise, produce, buy, sell, share, cook, eat, and drink the foods of their own choosing. He serves as an adjunct professor at George Mason University Law School and an adjunct faculty member at American University, where his teaching focuses largely on contemporary food-policy issues. Linnekin is currently writing his first book, which focuses on the ways that government policies often thwart sustainable food practices, for Island Press. He is also serving as an expert witness in an ongoing First Amendment food-labeling lawsuit.
Linnekin’s scholarly writings on Food Law & Policy, Constitutional Law, and Legal History have appeared in many scholarly publications, including the Wisconsin Law Review, Hastings Constitutional Law Quarterly, Chapman University Law Review, Northeastern University Law Journal, Oxford Encyclopedia of Food and Drink in America, Routledge International Handbook of Food Studies, and elsewhere. He writes a weekly food-law column for Reason magazine’s website and has authored opinion pieces that have been published by the New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Baltimore Sun, Huffington Post, VICE, and many other publications.
Linnekin has presented his scholarly research on food freedom at Yale Law School, University of Chicago Law School, Harvard Law School, Tulane Law School, Pepperdine Law School, and many other top law schools and universities. He has offered expert commentary on BBC Radio, Fox Business Channel, Al Jazeera America, various NPR affiliates, and dozens of other radio and TV programs. He has been cited/quoted by the Wall Street Journal, Time, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Politico, Wilson Quarterly, ABA Journal, National Review, Bloomberg News, Reuters, Agence France-Presse, Voice of America, and many others.
Linnekin earned an LL.M. in agricultural and food law from the University of Arkansas School of Law, a J.D. from Washington College of Law, an M.A. in learning sciences from Northwestern University, and a B.A. in sociology from American University. He lives in the Washington, DC area with his partner of more than twenty years.