Your Winter 2014 cover feature titled “Thought for Food” reflects the activities of the HLS Food Law and Policy Clinic and the Food Law Lab. Congratulations. It took HLS a long time to come to the realization that this was an important part of the legal education.

By comparison, back in 1955, as a quizzical 1L, I would ask teachers at HLS why there was no course or seminar on food and the law. “Fooood?!” exclaimed one professor in astonishment at the very question. Their replies boiled down to this: Food law had not developed either in a regulatory or judicial sense to a level of sufficient complexity to warrant becoming a sufficient intellectual challenge for the students. “Unlike tax law,” another respondent declared.

Makes us think about what may be missing today from the law school’s curriculum and culture.

Thank you so much for the Winter 2014 issue of the Harvard Law Bulletin, half a century after I attended Harvard Law School, which enabled me to enter the German Foreign Service with ease. This, in turn, eventually led to my working—for altogether nine years—as ambassador both in Algeria and in Morocco. I was glad to read of the appreciation for Professor [Terry] Fisher [Letters] as well as Professor Yochai Benkler’s defense of and appreciation for Bradley Manning and Edward Snowden [“Blowing—and Twisting—in the Wind”]. The latter, at least, is now considered a hero in Europe. I was sad to learn that my Harvard roommate, Samuel Henes ’62, has passed away.

Credit: Jon Chapin

I was saddened to read in the Bulletin that my classmate Professor Detlev Vagts has died. He brought great distinction to HLS and HLS ’51. As a 1L, my seat assignment in Professor Lon Fuller’s Contracts was next to Det. As I struggled to grasp everything Professor Fuller threw at us, Det seemed to know all the right answers! He was one of the brightest, and nicest, people in our class. My son Mark (HLS ’95) was fortunate to have had Det as his adviser for the joint J.D./M.B.A. program.

The law school has lost one of its giants.

Tama Matsuoka Wong

I congratulate you on an exceptionally fine Winter 2014 issue of the Harvard Law Bulletin. I was particularly interested in your story on Tama Matsuoka Wong [“One Woman’s Weeds”] and her work on food from “weeds” and her book on “foraging,” written with chef Eddy Leroux.

I would be interested in an article on the methods you use to cover the activities of so many people—law students, faculty, alumni/ae and the dean. I am thousands of miles away and never knew Dean Minow, but your coverage really brings her alive. Your stories remind me of many old acquaintances.

Credit: Andy Martin

My congratulations on a beautiful winter edition of the Bulletin! The photos were outstanding and the articles concise and interesting. Keep up the good work!