 Sarah, we're in congratulations on your new job running USDA Vermont. Tell us your proper title. Sure. My proper title is USDA Rural Development, State Director for Vermont and New Hampshire. Fantastic. Well, congratulations. You've worked so long and hard within Vermont and the rural communities of Vermont that this job really seems like a natural for you. How do you feel you've been prepared to do it? It's a great question. I feel like being a practitioner on the ground in communities doing rural development work, whether it's community development or economic development, is a big part of my preparation because I've actually gotten to learn a lot of the programs, the grant and the loan programs from the outside first. I have the perspective of having been on the ground and worked with many of the staff that I'm now getting to work with on the federal side. That's the biggest education is being on the ground and managing a federal grant as an applicant. Oh my gosh, yes it is. There's a lot of money that comes to Vermont through USDA, and we're going to talk about some of the infrastructure dollars. But just maybe you could clarify, how does USDA benefit Vermonters in Vermont based projects? It's a great question. Specifically, USDA is an enormous department. The Department of Agriculture runs national programs. So there are many, many programs that are run out of DC that anyone in Vermont can apply for, but they're going to be competitive nationally. What's cool about USDA rural development is that we've got offices right here at home. So our particular programs relate to rural housing services, rural utility services, and rural business services. So basically you think about the wraparound things that make a community work and that make a place to live quality of life, all of that good stuff. We're one of the mission areas of the larger Department of Agriculture. And what it means is, like with housing, we might actually be signing alone with a family who's getting into the very first house that they have ever owned in their lives, a low income borrower. Or with businesses, we might be guaranteeing a loan to a lender who then gives money to rural businesses. Or we might be working with a municipality to build out wastewater treatment facilities and improve local water quality. So we are really all over the map. Well, I imagine then that the infrastructure dollars that people are seeing coming in across the country and are going to be coming into Vermont fit. I mean, exactly with the kind of work you're doing. So maybe you can tell us about that influx of federal dollars and its impact on the state. Yeah, absolutely. You know, we have been really lucky, I think in Vermont, because we have some great, a great team who works in our community facilities and our water and environmental programs. And that's really where a lot of these infrastructure dollars land. Not all of them, but many of them. We've done a lot of work with rural emergency health health centers already. We anticipate a lot of work with early care and elderly care infrastructure. So buildings and facilities that house our seniors or that are taking care of our youngest kids. And then obviously broadband is one of the things that has getting a lot of attention right now. And we'll probably continue to get a lot of attention as we think about the most important issues facing small communities. So just say a little bit more about the broadband investment from the USGA side. I mean, I know there's a lot of money coming multiple ways on broadband, right? I mean, or is it just coming in through this one way? No, that's a great question. And it's often really difficult to understand how to match all these dollars. So, yes, the state itself has taken this initiative up. And so the state itself has money that it is dedicating. Now, these are funds that have come through federal funding streams. But the way the budget process works in Washington, DC is really tricky. And so the state gets money and we also get money. And in many cases, communities can match those dollars. Not always, but in many cases. So for us, the programs are ReConnect, which is a specific to broadband and telecom, the Rural Business Development Program, and a few and a few other programs like that that we're managing. But communities can kind of mix and match. And is the state coordinating these dollars? I mean, do you like how are those are they getting coordinated? Or are they just kind of streaming in and everyone's hoping for the best? No, you know, we are coordinating really as best we can, Lauren Glenn. And I think it's fair to say that there's no partner that we work with who doesn't want coordination to happen. Nobody wants to let these dollars go back and nobody wants to let these dollars get wasted. The hard part is sometimes they come with timelines. Sometimes they come with, you know, you have to use this in a few years or the allocation is gone sort of thing. So sometimes a state agency ends up creating a program that is very similar to the kinds of programs that we run. So I will say that one of the things that I'm really excited about in this work is to be able to really help coordinate. So, for example, we have done work around distance learning and health. We also have community facilities training and technical assistance grants. These are the kinds of things that allow us to play a bit of a flexible role. And then it's also just about networking, picking up the phone and saying, oh, we have a project here and we're excited to be in it. But, you know, how are your dollars playing? It's a I'll just I'll just geek out for a moment. When you're on the ground, the capital stack, the stack of money that you create to make a big project work can get really complicated. And it's one of the things that every single one of the staff who I'm getting to meet right now, every single one of them know how hard it is to manage a big project like building out your infrastructure. So our teams are really good at helping them to understand how those stacks can go together. Well, I imagine then what you're saying is that one of the real skills of the team at USDA in Vermont is your technical assistance. Is is right? I mean, not just distributing money, but you're also helping build capacity. Yes. Yes. And I think often what we leave behind leave behind is not just the grant or the loan and the relationship there, but we also leave behind some learning so that that borrower or that grantee could come back around three years later and do something again with us. And that's what we love the best. We love being able to have partners who understand and get to get used to our programs and then can come back and use them again. So if you were to identify and we've been talking about federal money and its movement, but what do you think are the top three issues in the agricultural sector that Vermonters are facing? I mean, I know there's a lot where we're real state. But if you're to say the top three that get you fired up and you want your staff to be focusing on, what are they? You know, top three is hard, Lauren Glenn. I'm fine. All right. I mean, I think Vermont has always been known for small scale agriculture, for diversified agriculture, great local food system. But we've built that on a backbone of a long standing dairy ecosystem. Right. The farmers, the infrastructure, the marketing, the co-ops and so on. And what we see today in Vermont are farmers and producers who are doing incredible work with energy. We help with the Rural Energy for America program and with carbon sequestration and with climate smart practices. And I think more and more with this administration and with just knowing what we know about the world today, we are seeing farmers and producers being really careful about fuel use and about how they are going to generate and be climate smart with their practices, whether that's water quality or air quality, soil quality, nitrogen, etc. So that's one thing. But I think the other thing that USDA can help with and that I think is a high priority is market expansion. We need more and better markets for our Vermont producers and growers. And a lot of that, again, we see coming out of local food system design and developing, so whether it's the new Vermont way foods and food hubs, whether it is, you know, small scale agriculture that turns into a value added product. We have a value added producer grant, for example, where a producer can build something new and different and then market it. But we need ways to get our products out of state and the agency of agriculture is working really hard on this one. And then finally, you know, thinking about the clean energy use on farms as well. So I think all of those things are important. We are we are like all rural states facing also an aging population with our producers. So I will say that. Being able to access, bring in and coordinate with our partner agencies, things like the new and beginning farmer and rancher program work. That's a really important part of the ecosystem as well. Yeah, you know, at least in Burlington in the area, you know, there's farming certainly here in the intervail. A lot of the farmers seem to be young. I mean, there is a new generation. Right. Yes. Kind of exciting. It is exciting. It is exciting. But challenge with the new generation is. Again, it's just like a municipal project. How do they create the right capital stack to get on the land, make the infrastructure changes they need? Right. And then to actually build up their market. All of those things take a lot of money. And they take money in different ways, different kinds of money. And, you know, we can take a good friend of mine, Corey Pierce over at Bread and Butter Farm. Right. She and her partners over time have had to work with all kinds of different programs to create what's there today. And they're thinking about an agrarian comments, you know, it's really exciting what's going on. But that requires a lot of time and energy. And being able to have that sort of background is something that we're now asking our new farmers to do in a way of farmer from 50 years ago, maybe didn't have to rely on six or eight or 10 different funding sources. Well, and because the market, the channel, the market was well established at that time. And this is a new and changing world. Yes, I can see how, you know, there are challenges. And, you know, a lot of people just want to grow vegetables. They just love the land. They don't necessarily come with an expertise in business and marketing. I mean, all the things that you're talking about. Well, and it's it's digital expertise. And it's also I'm going to say I'm going to coin a new phrase. Are you ready? It's experiential expertise. You need to be able to differentiate the experience that you get eating the food, eating the product, coming to the farm, being a part of an event. So our producers agriculture is so different today at our scale than it used to be because it has become an experience that you can click on and watch the video or you can go and taste and smell and be a part of and that's a whole different ball game. That's a whole different ball game. And that's also why people like to come to Vermont increasingly. You know, that's that when people come and do the beer crawls, for example, they're basically imbibing an agricultural product and people that have added value to grains and marketed and packaged. And now you're going up to the middle of the Northeast Kingdom and get a keg of beer. I mean, it's kind of amazing. You got it. Now let me give you a quick example, Lauren Glenn, because this is where our deep programs become really important. When a local farmer wants to build out their infrastructure or a producer, like, let's say a brewery, right? Slotterhouse, etc. That is going to have impact on the municipal wastewater, right? So that's when what we need to see for agriculture and for rural business, no matter what it is, rural communities in the future is that partnership between business growth and municipal leadership to say, oh, this is what we need. How do we access the capital to enable your expansion to happen? And that's going to be a really, a really important thing that I'm hoping to make sure that the water, the waste disposal, we have loans and grants for all that kind of stuff as agricultural producers and products expand. Well, I can't think of a better person to be in this job. You have the ability to think systemically and also to understand the details of what it takes to get things done. And also, of course, your very cheerful disposition, which makes people want to want to go along with you. So that is a great combination. Senator Leahy was smart to assign you to this post. Oh, well, thank you, Lauren Glenn. I really, I really appreciate that. It is always such an honor to get to talk to you. It's always so much fun. And I know how important your voice is in the community. So thank you for doing these interviews. Well, it's great to see you, Sarah, wearing USDA World Development Director of the State State Director. Thanks for joining us today. Thank you. Have a good evening. OK, bye bye. All right. Bye.