VERMONT NEWS
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FOUR MAJOR FARM AND FOOD INITIATIVES:
1. COMMUNITY SUPPORTED INITIATIVES IN THE GREEN MOUNTAINS
* This was taken from a commentary by Ron Krupp in January- 2120 on Vermont Public Radio
* This was taken from a commentary by Ron Krupp in January- 2120 on Vermont Public Radio
Last summer, I heard Woody Tasch speak at the annual meeting of The Vermont Fresh Network at Shelburne Farms. Tasch talked about investment strategies appropriate to the 21st century. He asked the following questions. Could there be an alternative stock exchange dedicated to small, local initiatives? And what if people invested 50 percent of their assets within 50 miles of their homes?
Sitting at the local authors table after the talk, I met James Macon of Criterion Ventures. His goal is to create innovative models that attract capital to local farm and food systems in Vermont. These models would act as catalysts to farm and food infrastructure projects. I found myself wondering why Macon would focus on Vermont businesses? After all, we're just small potatoes -1/500th of the U.S. population.
Macon explained that part of the reason for his enthusiasm is that per capita, the Green Mountains is the center of the local farm and food movement in the U.S. Vermont has more Community Supported Agriculture initiatives and farmers' markets than any state in the country as well as artisan cheese-makers, beer and artisan bread makers.
In the last three years people have begun to invest in local restaurants and general stores - like the Bees Knees restaurant in Morrisville and Claire's Restaurant in Hardwick.
This trend of cooperation and collaboration in a community setting is taking off in other directions as well. Regional food-hubs are meeting around the state to address issues like community food security, the development of slaughterhouses, canneries, cold storage facilities, and the creation of year-round winter markets.
This trend of cooperation and collaboration in a community setting is taking off in other directions as well. Regional food-hubs are meeting around the state to address issues like community food security, the development of slaughterhouses, canneries, cold storage facilities, and the creation of year-round winter markets.
When next I met with James Macon, it was over bagels and coffee, he told me he was working with Sugarsnap on an expansion plan. Sugarsnap is a small 1,000 sq.ft. catering, retail/take-out business that grows 3 acres of vegetables in the Intervale in Burlington. The plan is for Sugarsnap to expand their location on Riverside Avenue.
Their hope for the future is to be an anchor for a much larger centralized production kitchen in the Intervale as part of the new Food Enterprise Center. The waste heat from the McNeil Wood Burning Plant in the Intervale would provide energy for the Food Enterprise Center as well as warming a number of greenhouses.
One things for sure. There is a cultural shift taking place across the Vermont landscape. People are thirsting for community involvement in food and farming. The values of this new movement are preservation and restoration instead of extraction and consumption. It will be interesting to see what the future brings.
2. COMMUNITY FOOD SECURITY
*This was taken from a Vermont Public Radio commentary by Ron Krupp in August of 2009.
In the fall issue of Local Banquet, a Vermont farm and food publication, published in Saxton's River, there's a provocative article called Getting Everyone To The Table: Brattleboro's Community Food Security Project, by Angela and Richard Berkfield of Williamsville.
In it they write that while some people in Vermont are committed to eating fresh, locally produced food as often as possible, a large number of Vermonters are still struggling just to put food on the table. Many families aren't earning enough to buy staple foods, not to mention fruit and vegetables. For them, buying local and organic is out of the question.
The reality is that food reflects the class differences in our society where the bulk of economic and educational privileges are reserved for those in the middle and upper classes. Here are some recent statistics that back up this claim. In 2009, it was reported that 12 percent of Vermonters don't have enough food to eat. In other words, they are food insecure. The Vermont Food Bank reported a 44 percent increase food requests in 2009. Vermont is the 6th hungriest state in the nation. In 2008, one in ten Vermonters was on Food Stamps.
Back to the Berkfields and Brattleboro's Community Food Security Project. The Berkfields write that in order to address the problem of hunger in Brattleboro, the Food Security Project did an assessment of the needs of the community. The goal was to learn about the barriers to food security and come up with solutions. The assessment was conducted by people of low income, farmers, policy makers and nonprofit staff. All to often, the low-income community are left out of the decision-making process.
One idea that came out of the assessment was to create a local market at Westgate Housing - a 98-unit low to middle-income community in West Brattleboro. There were a number of meetings with residents along with Amy Frost, a local farmer and Jesse Kayan Westgate's community services coordinator. What evolved was a weekly "market basket." At first, a small group participated and then 15 families joined. Frost offered the residents a reduced rate of $15 for a weekly market basket. She also has a CSA and sells at the Brattleboro Farmers' Market. A key component of the pilot project is that families can utilize the food stamp program.
The Westgate initiative is one way to bridge the gap and make food affordable. The lesson is that projects such as Westgate need to be supported as they create community through democratic initiatives. They also break down barriers between classes of people and open up dialogues so people can learn from one another.
3. VERMONT'S REGIONAL FOOD CENTERS
3. VERMONT'S REGIONAL FOOD CENTERS
* taken from a commentary by Ron Krupp on Vermont Public Radio Fall 2009
If Vermont is going to cut its dependency on imported food, it will need to come up with some bold and new initiatives. In the past year, nine food and farm groups called regional food centers have been meeting and collaborating on how best to expand local food access, shorten the food supply chain, promote fair prices to farmers, support the success of food-related businesses and provide healthy food to under-served Vermonters.
Each regional food center is unique. They fill the gaps by identifying community infrastructure needs like slaughterhouses and storage facilities, and developing market opportunities like bringing a local food store in a town which doesn't have one like Bellows Falls.
The Greater Falls Regional Food Center Project includes Windham and Windsor Counties in Vermont and Sullivan and Cheshire Counties in New Hampshire. One of the main goals of this food hub is to make locally-produced food increasingly available and affordable to all people in the region while providing a fair return to area farmers.
The Rutland Area Farm & Food Link or RAFFL, is the regional food center in Rutland County. Tara Kelley, the director, told me that their greatest need is a central dry and cold storage, food processing facility for area farmers. RAFFL put out a locally grown guide earlier this year - jampacked with links to farmers, farmers' markets, value-added food processors, retail outlets, and restaurants. There were articles on health and wellness, kids and gardening and growing grains.
The Hardwick Regional Food Center has been working for a number of years on solving the food needs of the region. Two examples are the enrichment of the soil through composting at the Highfields Institute and seed production at High Mowing Seeds. Processing and storage of artisan cheese is provided at the Jasper Hill cheese cave in Greensboro. The distribution to low-income families of local food takes place through Salvation Farms and the Vermont Foodbank. The coordination of these activities comes from the Center for an Agricultural Economy located in Hardwick that sits between the Buffalo Mountain Food Co-op and Clair's Restaurant.
Some of the regional food centers have received funding from the New England Grassroots Environmental Fund or NEGEF whose offices are located in Montpelier. NEGEF also funds Localvore chapters, community garden start-ups and other food and energy initiatives driven by community groups. From farmers to funders, from volunteers to venture capitalists, there's a place for everyone at the table.
4. THE VERMONT FARM-TO-PLATE INITIATIVE
Vermont farmers often run into all kinds of challenges. Some of these are processing, storage facilities and distribution. If you're going to grow wheat for flour, you need the right varieties for your particular soil conditions, a combine, a mill, drying equipment and storage and a marketing plan. Slaughterhouses are in short supply. In many cases, farmers must make arrangements for slaughter 6 months in advance.
Vermont farmers often run into all kinds of challenges. Some of these are processing, storage facilities and distribution. If you're going to grow wheat for flour, you need the right varieties for your particular soil conditions, a combine, a mill, drying equipment and storage and a marketing plan. Slaughterhouses are in short supply. In many cases, farmers must make arrangements for slaughter 6 months in advance.
In June of 2008, the Vermont State legislature approved the Farm-to -Plate Initiative. The Initiative asks the Vermont Sustainable Jobs Fund (VSJF) to develop a ten year strategic plan for Vermont's farm and food sector. The plan is ambitious: it will lay out various options for increasing local food production. The goal is to have Vermonters eating between 10 to 25 percent local food by 2020. Currently, Vermonters are dependent on outside food sources - from 95 to 98 percent.
* In my book - Lifting the Yoke - I wrote about what I called the 25 percent change from 95 percent food dependency to 70-75 percent food dependency on outside food sources.
The first step is to inventory Vermont's current food system, identify gaps in infrastructure and distribution systems, figure out strategy's to address these gaps. The goal is to increase access to healthy food for all Vermonters - fostering economic development and growth jobs.
As part of the information gathering process, VSJF hosted a series of Local Food Summits in November and December of 2009. Some of the topics discussed were Farmland Access for New Farmers, Local Food Aggregation, Storage Distribution.
Visit www.vsif.org and or contact Ellen Kahler at 828-1260 or 828-5320.
Visit www.vsif.org and or contact Ellen Kahler at 828-1260 or 828-5320.
OTHER VERMONT NEWS
Ron and Arnie Koss, the founders of Earth's Best Baby Foods will be coming out with a book soon on the history of the baby food company started in Vermont many years ago. It's called The Earth's Best Story: A Bittersweet Tale of Twin Brothers Who Sparked the Organic Revolution.
THE VERMONT DAIRY FARMER/ AN ENDANGERED SPECIES?
There's a lot of news these days about the growing number of young Vermont farmers who are supplying their neighbors with vegetables, bread, eggs, meat, and cheese. Between 2002 and 2007, direct sales to consumers from Vermont farms more than doubled, from $9.6 million to $22.9 million.
It's critical to point out that these sales pale in comparison to total milk sales which in 2007 totaled $518 million. Dairy farming has been the backbone of agriculture Vermont for decades. A veterinarian from Addison County told me that some dairy farmers were upset with all the news about "local this and local that" while they're going out of business in record numbers due to low milk prices.
The plight of the Vermont dairy farmer and why they're becoming an endangered species is simple. For the past 25 years, milk prices have remained low resulting in the decline in dairy farms. There are now only about 1,000 dairy farms left in the state.
The plight of the Vermont dairy farmer and why they're becoming an endangered species is simple. For the past 25 years, milk prices have remained low resulting in the decline in dairy farms. There are now only about 1,000 dairy farms left in the state.
The Federal Milk Marketing Order sets a minimum price on milk for dairy farmers. You can't stay in business for long if your receiving $14 for a hundred pounds of milk and it costs you $18 dollars to produce that milk. Consolidation at the retail and wholesale level have created a system where farmers have little control over what they receive.
Family dairy farms in Vermont parallel other dairy states across the U.S. The exceptions are the large western mega-dairies in California and the West where the average herd size is 1,000 milkers. Some dairy operations milk upwards to 5,000 cows three times a day. The Western mega-farms produce an over-abundance of milk and are one of the main reasons the smaller New England family farms are going out of business. Their large size makes it possible for them to flood the market with "cheap milk."
There is talk of radical change in the Federal Milk Marketing Order by using a supply-side management pricing system where farmers produce only the amount of milk needed. This would discourage the over-production of milk and result in higher milk prices for the family farm.
As we lose our dairy farms, there is the loss of a rural way of life along with the supporting infrastructure, such as the local farm machinery dealer and the seed and grain company. With the loss these farms, Vermont loses another piece of its community and history. Hopefully, the future will bring local farm and food initiatives along with fair and stable milk prices for the family dairy farm in the Green Mountains.
There is talk of radical change in the Federal Milk Marketing Order by using a supply-side management pricing system where farmers produce only the amount of milk needed. This would discourage the over-production of milk and result in higher milk prices for the family farm.
As we lose our dairy farms, there is the loss of a rural way of life along with the supporting infrastructure, such as the local farm machinery dealer and the seed and grain company. With the loss these farms, Vermont loses another piece of its community and history. Hopefully, the future will bring local farm and food initiatives along with fair and stable milk prices for the family dairy farm in the Green Mountains.
As stated earlier, the plight of the Vermont dairy farmer and why they're becoming an endangered species is not hard figure out. For the past 25 years, milk prices have remained low resulting in the decline in dairy farms. There are now only about 1,000 dairy farms left in the state. In 1980, there were 5,000 dairy farms in Vermont.
Just recently, anti-trust legislation was filed by the Justice Department against the nation's largest dairy processing company, alleging that Dean foods Co. purchased a smaller dairy company in Wisconsin to quash competition and drive up milk prices. In the last year, dairy farmers have been hit by sinking prices while milk processors and distributors have increased profits.
Family dairy farms in Vermont parallel other dairy states across the U.S. The exceptions are the large western mega-dairies in California and the West where the average herd size is 1,000 milkers. Some dairy operations milk upwards to 5,000 cows three times a day. The Western mega-farms produce an over-abundance of milk and are one of the main reasons the smaller New England family farms are going out of business. Their large size makes it possible for them to flood the market with "cheap milk."
EMERGENCY DAIRY PAYMENTS APPROVED
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced in December 2009 plans to distribute $290 million to dairy farms. The program is called the Dairy Economic Loss Assistance Program. The Farm Service Agency of USDA will administer the funds. The $290 million is a large part of the $350 appropriation sponsored by Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont. $60 million will purchase cheese for food banks and nutrition programs. This will provide about $8,000 to the typical Vermont dairy farmer with 125 cows producing 20,000 pounds per cow.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced in December 2009 plans to distribute $290 million to dairy farms. The program is called the Dairy Economic Loss Assistance Program. The Farm Service Agency of USDA will administer the funds. The $290 million is a large part of the $350 appropriation sponsored by Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont. $60 million will purchase cheese for food banks and nutrition programs. This will provide about $8,000 to the typical Vermont dairy farmer with 125 cows producing 20,000 pounds per cow.
The average price paid farmers received for their milk fell in 2009, to a low of $11,30 per hundred, down from $19.30 in July 2008. Prices have recently (December, 2009) rebounded to $15 per hundredweight. It costs farmer at least $18 per hundredweight to produce milk. As prices plunged, family farms in Vermont and around the country went out of business.
Farmers that participated in the fiscal year 2009 USDA dairy program - Milk Income Loss Contact (MILC)- will not have to sign up for benefits since the USDA already has their milk production records on file. The USDA estimates that 95 percent of eligible producers will not need to apply.
NATIONAL NEWS
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ORGANIC CONSUMERS ASSOCIATION (CSA) NEWS DECEMBER, 2009
The Department of Justice is investigating how global biotech and food corporations, including Monsanto are monopolizing and controlling the seed industry and food and farming.
The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is one of Monsanto's key non-profit partners, forcing hazardous GM organisms on farmers and consumers worldwide including farmers in poor African countries. The foundation claims the GMOs can feed the world and reduce poverty with high-priced GM varieties, which supposedly increase yields, resist drought and improve nutrition. This claims are questionable. GMO crops don't produce more, contain dangerous pesticide residues, and are not drought resistant. Organic crops our-produce chemical and GMO crops by 70 percent under drought conditions.
CropLife, which represents pesticide and GE companies, including Monsanto, used its PR apparatus to chid the First Lady for planting a pesticide free organic garden. Some of the seeds came from High Mowing seeds in Vermont, an organic/biodynamic seed company.
National Public Radio uses commercials from Monsanto's - Produce More- Conserve More campaign. Monsanto won the Angry Mermaid Award for being one of the world's most hated corporations at the Copenhagen Global Warming conference.
Three major GMO's corn varieties were recently approved for use by farmers. These corn crops may pose health risks to the public. See more on Monsanto and GM crops in the Organic Consumers Association on-line newsletter.
MORE ON GMO'S
GMO's are now being used by the big GMO corporations in the Hawaiian Islands as a test site for new GMO's which have not yet been tested.
Monsanto's patented Roundup resistant or Bt seeds and pesticides are now spliced into millions of acres of corn, cotton, soy, sugar beets and alfalfa. Alfalfa is the fourth most widely grown crop in the U.S. and a key source of dairy forage and hay. It is open-pollinated by bees, which can cross-pollinate at distances of several miles - spreading to organic crops. Alfalfa is the first perennial crop to be genetically engineered.
GMO's are now being used by the big GMO corporations in the Hawaiian Islands as a test site for new GMO's which have not yet been tested.
Monsanto's patented Roundup resistant or Bt seeds and pesticides are now spliced into millions of acres of corn, cotton, soy, sugar beets and alfalfa. Alfalfa is the fourth most widely grown crop in the U.S. and a key source of dairy forage and hay. It is open-pollinated by bees, which can cross-pollinate at distances of several miles - spreading to organic crops. Alfalfa is the first perennial crop to be genetically engineered.
A 2009 study showed that, over the last 13 years, Roundup Ready crops have increased herbicide use by 383 million pounds. In addition, once GM alfalfa and other Monsanto crops are planted in the open environment, they contaminate non-GMO and organic varieties.
COMMUNITY FOOD SECURITY COALITION POLICY (CFSC) NEWSLETTER 12-2009
* Please see more CFSC email newsletters on ending childhood hunger, new childhood nutrition legislation, taking time to eat well, bringing groceries to under-served neighborhoods, how more fruits and vegetables are coming to the WIC program, how the health community is speaking out against hormones and antibiotics in our food supply. (See article below on antibiotics.)
* This is one of my top ten websites.
ANTIBIOTICS AND THEIR USE IN MEAT AND HOW THEY AFFECT HUMANS
Researchers are stating again that the over-use of antibiotics in humans and animals has led to a plague of drug-resistant infections that killed more than 65,000 people in the U.S. in 2008 - more than prostrate and breast cancer combined. (The U.S. used about 35 billion pounds of antibiotics in 2998 - 70 percent of the drugs or 28 million pounds on chickens, pigs and cows. Worldwide, it's 50 percent. The FDA approved use of antibiotics in animals in 1951, before concerns about drug resistance were recognized.)
Researchers are stating again that the over-use of antibiotics in humans and animals has led to a plague of drug-resistant infections that killed more than 65,000 people in the U.S. in 2008 - more than prostrate and breast cancer combined. (The U.S. used about 35 billion pounds of antibiotics in 2998 - 70 percent of the drugs or 28 million pounds on chickens, pigs and cows. Worldwide, it's 50 percent. The FDA approved use of antibiotics in animals in 1951, before concerns about drug resistance were recognized.)
The rise in the use of antibiotics is part of the growing problem of drug-resistance. Killer diseases like malaria, tuberculosis and staph are resurging in new and more deadly forms.
America's farmers are giving pigs, cows and chickens more antibiotics each year - about eight percent more in 2008 - to heal lung, skin or blood infections. However, 13 percent used on farms were fed to healthy animals to make them grow faster. Antibiotics save 30 percent in feed costs among young swine, even though the savings fade as the pigs get older. These animals can develop germs resistant to antibiotics.
What the public needs to understand is that antibiotic resistant microorganisms don't stay on the farm - according to the Union of Concerned Scientists. They stay in the meat and are passed onto humans. An example is Cipro, the antibiotic which has stopped working 80 percent of the times on some deadly human infections. The resistant bacteria also goes into wastewater and aquaculture ponds. There is no system in place to test meat for dangerous antibiotic resistant bacteria.
New legislation would prohibit the use of antibiotics on animals unless they are sick. Farmers and drugmakers are fighting back with millions of dollars - close to $200 million.
Source: The Associated Press, December 29, 2009, Mason and Mendoza
WHERE DOES YOUR ORGANIC FOOD COMES FROM?
In Vermont, many food co-ops and natural food stores like to talk about how much local, organic food they purchase. In fact, most of the organic products sold at these stores are not local. During the growing season, only about 30 percent of food comes from local farmers and vendors. In the winter less local food is available. City Market/ Onion River Co-op purchased 29 percent of its food from local vendors in October of 2009.
Managers of local food stores say they are dependent on large distributors for organic food products and some of that organic foods (fresh & frozen) comes from overseas. Frontier Natural Products Co-op and United Natural Foods (UNFI) are two of the dominant distributors of organic foods in the U.S. They ship organic food products from China, India and South America to Vermont co-ops and natural food stores. The National Co-operative Growers Association says UNFI distributes 70 to 90 percent of organic foods sold at coops in the United States. There are 12 warehouses including one in Chesterfield, NH. UNFI is the second largest distributor of organic foods in the U.S. behind Wal-Mart.
Many of the products now grown in China for the U.S. organic market, like garlic, used to be grown in the U.S. Bulk-bin items listed by UNFI include pine nuts, pumpkin seeds, black beans and soy beans - all sourced from China. China sells more than half of the fresh garlic consumed in the U.S. Hunger Mountain Co-op can't supply its members with enough garlic year round. there is not a national movement to ensure success for local organic foods.
Certain foods - organic nuts, produce, frozen vegetables, meat and seafood - must be labeled under the new country-of-origin labeling law known as COOK, but origination information for other organic foods is optional.
Woodstock Farms, a house brand owned by UNFI, distributes imported Chinese vegetables like broccoli, spinach, peas and frozen foods which include cauliflower, broccoli and carrots from China.
Most bulk-bin items don't provide country of origin labels and where do all the ingredients come from in soup mixes and snack foods
Source: Seven Days 12-22-09 Originally taken from vtdigger.org.
Anne Galloway is the editor. VT.digger.org is great new website from Vermont.
Source: Seven Days 12-22-09 Originally taken from vtdigger.org.
Anne Galloway is the editor. VT.digger.org is great new website from Vermont.
