An Introduction to the Plan
Delivered to Governor Phil Scott: November 15, 2021
Vermont agriculture is about more than growing food. Farms and farmers are central to Vermont’s identity and character. Without open working lands, rolling pastures, and miles and miles of diverse recreational trails, Vermont just wouldn’t be Vermont — for its residents or visitors. To keep our state healthy and vibrant, we need to nourish agriculture and strengthen its steady beat throughout the state. It is not a foregone conclusion that a cold-weather, mountainous, and heavily forested state will remain a robust agricultural producer or that our rural communities will thrive. If we value what we have, it is essential that Vermont remains a state of and for farmers.
Despite its importance, Vermont agriculture is at a critical moment of promise and peril. The state’s dairy sector, the foundation of its agricultural economy, is under threat from a confluence of factors mostly outside the state’s control.[1] Dairy’s vulnerability underscores the extent to which the success of Vermont farms and farmers depends on larger market forces. Simultaneously, the Covid pandemic revealed the importance and fragility of local and regional food systems, as the state experienced record levels of food insecurity and national supply chains broke down from 2020 into 2021. Despite these challenges, local farms and food businesses stepped up to keep shelves stocked, communities fed, and local markets operating.
These immediate crises are taking place in the context of significant long-term challenges to the sector and the state’s agricultural land base. These include an aging cohort of farmers reaching retirement without a succession plan; economic drivers that encourage converting agriculture land to development; financial barriers to entry for would-be agricultural entrepreneurs; tight profit margins across the industry; limited public understanding of the sector’s role in supporting communities, the economy, and the environment; a lack of racial diversity within the state overall and the agricultural sector in particular; and long-term threats to the state’s natural and working lands posed by climate change, water pollution, and degraded soil health.
These challenges underscore the urgent need for the sector to continue to adapt. The future of Vermont agriculture will and must look different from its present, and the state’s ability to navigate this transition effectively will have enormous implications for its landscape, economy, and way of life.
Fortunately, the members of the Commission are optimistic for multiple reasons. First and foremost are the state’s farmers themselves: hard working, resilient, welcoming, innovative, and invested in pathways to success, with a wealth of technical knowledge and experience.
Generations ago, Vermont farmers navigated an enormous economic transition, as dairy replaced the state’s once-thriving sheep industry in the early 20th century. The Commission is confident farmers will meet present-day challenges with similar resolve. Vermont farmers are currently advancing one of the most sophisticated Farm to Plate efforts in the country, involving a diverse network of stakeholders selling an expanding and evolving suite of products through every market channel available, from farmers’ markets to CSAs, restaurants, and retail and institutional outlets across the Northeast. They are exploring new value-added products like artisan cheese and reinventing older ones like grass-fed beef. With appropriate supports, there is good reason to believe they will successfully navigate today’s threats to dairy and agricultural lands overall.
Vermont has a wealth of resources that will help the sector to adapt: a strong cultural history and collective identity connected to agriculture and the land, valued by both residents and visitors to the state; geographic proximity to large retail and tourist markets in the Northeast; high-quality and award-winning agricultural producers; a strong brand identity and reputation for producing authentic, sustainable, and high-quality local products; a largely intact supply chain infrastructure that provides access to parts, supplies and equipment; excellent support systems available through the state, nonprofit organizations, and technical service providers; and a new Agriculture & Food System Strategic Plan 2021-2030 that stakeholders have already begun implementing.
With the right collective strategy and a robust commitment to investing in appropriate programs and policies over the next ten years, the future for Vermont agriculture will be bright. In this future, Vermont will fuel opportunities for farmers and food producers across a diverse range of enterprises to innovate and grow. While dairy’s share of farm gate sales may remain volatile or decrease overall, the strategy will focus on maintaining a strong agricultural base in dairy. This focus will be crucial to ensuring that dairy can continue its role supporting infrastructure across the sector, maintaining a working landscape, and to retaining the valuable talents, skills, and knowledge of existing farmers. Vermont will help dairy farmers identify the assets they need to compete at the national level over the long-term and continue to explore value-added opportunities, and will help farmers without these assets transition into alternative, profitable agricultural production. Meanwhile, Vermont will bolster production of maple, meat, produce, value added products, and other agricultural goods, with strong supports in place to enable new and diverse types of farming and farm businesses
Effective state-level policies and programs will support increased margins and efficiencies and additional revenue streams across all industry sectors. These will include new payments for ecosystem services, support for the development and deployment of new scale-appropriate agriculture technologies and climate-smart practices, a strengthened Current Use tax program, a streamlined regulatory process, and expanded access to capital. The state’s robust technical assistance programs will receive an infusion of funding and expertise, allowing them to better support a wide range of farms and farm businesses regardless of their size, stage of development, or target markets. Investments in strategic infrastructure, including storage, distribution, and the meat processing and waste industry, will unlock opportunities for entrepreneurial farmers to succeed using new business models and to market and sell new farm products. These investments in scaling food production will pay enormous dividends for the state, resulting in an estimated $50 million in annual local food sales by 2025 if Vermont reaches its current procurement targets.
Vermont will and must do better at bringing new and diverse talent into the sector and attracting more Vermonters who want to live and work here. Dedicated supports for new farmers, including down payment assistance, increased financing options for farm enterprises at various stages of development, and improved mentorship, education, and training opportunities will lower financial barriers to entry, support generational transfers of farmland, attract new entrepreneurs and workers, and inject new dynamism into the sector. A renewed focus on racial equity across all strategies will increase diversity across race and class and enhance Vermont’s reputation as a state that is just and welcoming to all.
Vermont will also redouble its efforts to connect Vermonters to their local food system, improving the public’s experience of the benefits of healthy local food and a thriving agricultural economy, and improving food security for the most vulnerable Vermonters. To support these efforts, Vermont will invest in a strategic branding initiative. The initiative will solidify the state’s reputation as a source of high-quality, sustainable, and community-oriented agricultural products; increase margins and profitability; and help attract new Vermont citizens excited about participating in the state’s dynamic agricultural economy.
Overall, the sustaining of a competitive and resilient dairy foundation will support and enable innovation and growth across a wider range of sub-sectors, from maple to produce to meat, grains, hops, honey, cheese and more. Rather than there being a single “model” for the successful Vermont farm, the sector will be dynamic and innovative, with a diversity of agricultural enterprises by scale (micro, small, medium, and large), development stage (from startup to mid-stage to mature), distribution model (direct to consumer, direct to retail, and wholesale) and target market (local, regional, and global). A focus on promoting diversity among those who make a living from food and fiber, equitable access to land and capital, and healthy soils, clean water and regenerative natural systems will further buttress the system overall. As depicted in the graphic to the right, the result of all these efforts will be a healthy, diverse, and resilient agricultural ecosystem.
Commission Co-Chair Secretary Kurrle noted, “The Commission’s overarching mission is to help ensure that Vermont remains a vibrant agricultural state. It found that while Vermont agriculture is resilient, it needs attention and care.”
Secretary Tebbetts added, “The Commission reiterated that investment in a robust agricultural sector is essential to supporting Vermont’s residents, building its rural economy, employing its citizens, drawing visitors, and maintaining Vermont’s unique character and beauty.”
Moving forward, the Commission will engage the Legislature and all Vermonters on strategies to realize Vermont’s goals. Click here to read the full report.