 Good afternoon. It's House Agriculture and Forestry Committee. It is February 9th, 2022 and it is the afternoon, just after lunch and we are going to hear about food security and we have with us to folks from the agency of agriculture food and markets and we're going to start out with Diane Botfeld. So Diane, why don't you introduce yourself and take it away. Thank you, Madam Chairperson. Diane Botfeld, Agency of Agriculture Food and Markets, Director of Administrative Services and Dairy Policy. Here today to talk about the report that we were was requested last year and Act 47 regarding food security in the state as well as our emergency annexes how we how we address food and local food within our emergency activities for the state. I'm going to concentrate there and Abby will give you an overview of other activities that are going on. So it's kind of split on what occurs during an emergency, and then all the ongoing work around food security in the state. Emergency is, you know, could be a weather emergency. The state emergency operations center the SCOC is activated that pulls in many facets of state government agency of agriculture is certainly one of those but almost every agency and state government has a role at the emergency operations center. The roles are defined, but not tightly defined because what's the emergency what's happened. Is it a weather emergency is it a issue with, you know, we have we have gotten down into the weeds of somebody sprayed anthrax on State Street month or what what happens that so there's all these different potential emergencies out there. And currently the state emergency operations center is active, dealing with COVID, but they can also activate different agencies to the agency of agriculture is not activated in the current situation with we don't have the skill set they need. So at this point we're not active earlier on in 2020, the agency was activated and assisted with resources that we could bring the bear to help and, you know, this was a very terrible time and tremendous concerns but we were asked to find potential school cold storage if mortalities were so high that we didn't have mortuary to take care of the mortalities and so finding agricultural activities that would have large cold storage was part of our role so we get involved in some pretty interesting and wild stuff. Most of our activities are around animals produce. And the things that we regulate on a regular basis but the areas that we would have authority and are usually what we're involved in. So this was an addition to our emergency annexes and if you look at those documents that Linda has working on scanning and you can take a look but our our annex document is long and has a lot of things in it, besides the huge food security. So we have put together a document we made of three changes to that and they're pretty broad, but also give some direction of what we would do. And that is on page two of the report that we provided and Linda can give you the heads up of when those are available as, as we get checked out of what we provided to you for document security but one of the things that we will do in our emergency annex around food security and trying to get more local food products into emergency operations would be to appoint and maintain a permanent representative to the state emergency operations center mass feeding group. So we think about mass feeding what's mass feeding during an emergency. If you think about a flood situation and people have to be evacuated from some part of a town. So we looked at Barry downtown Barry or even downtown Montpelier with the river can certainly flood. If you had to evacuate people from Montpelier you would put them up in some high point maybe you take them up to Vermont college on top of the hill. That's where they're going to evacuate to they can you know be safe there out of the floodway. But if you're asking people to evacuate and go to an emergency shelter, you need to feed them. You don't want them going somewhere else to go find food and putting themselves at risk. So those would be a mass feeding situation of people have been asked to evacuate there an emergency shelter and they need to be fed. So the agency of agriculture won't be cooking soup and grilled cheese sandwiches that's not our role. Red Cross has tremendous resources the Department of Health buildings in general services there are a lot of other people that have a lot more skills in this than the agency of agriculture. What the agency of agriculture could and will do would be the potential of getting cabbage cheese into those grilled cheese sandwiches or apples from some of our local orchards or other products that can be located and provided but it is it is it has to be quite broad because where's the emergency and what's the impact. So in our response to this type of emergency in our document we have put in coordination with the SEOC mass feeding group. The agency will work to integrate Vermont grown food into emergency mass feeding response, when possible and appropriate by providing contact information for local growers, producers and processors in the state. So we would come forward. We're going to have apples in the mass feeding event at the emergency shelter. We would come forth with names of people who would have potential that many apples where they're located and who that contact is. There's a total logistics group in the operation center that they would do the rest. The agency might make that first phone call and say, hey, Apple Grower and Grand Isle. We need apples in Montpelier we need 20 cases. You're going to hear from the National Guard that's going to send a truck and get them can you do that and here's the price. Or maybe we know the price maybe we don't the rest goes off to logistics and the agency's done, but we can't say it's always going to be Grand Isle because maybe the roads are flooded and you can't get the apples out of Grand Isle you have to get them from Addison County and Portland County so all these variables are in there so it's very hard to be much more specific than that, but we will try to integrate more Vermont agricultural products into that mass feeding event. The next area that we changed in our, our emergency annex was the way there's a checklist that's used at the state emergency operations center of who does what that's easy for the, the person in charge of the state emergency operations center to see who does what so it's just a checklist. We added to that that we would assist the mass feeding group to locate and access Vermont food and farm products during mass feeding events as available and appropriate. So quite broad, but also that flexibility is there for us to be able to take part, have a representative and do that work to try to get more Vermont products into those mass feeding events. So that's the emergency aspect of it. And so I will stop and let questions begin if, if an Abbey will talk about the more non emergency or the work that went into we did bring groups together to get to this point, but I would let Abbey talk about that more than the actual operations of a of the state emergency operations center. Thanks Diane questions from the committee. Can I, this is Heather, this might be whimsical but I'm fine with that for myself. We talked about wanting to reach out to local growers and Vermont growers in order to have that capacity to know who we can reach out to in the moment of emergency. But do we talk about wanting to grow certain storage crops for those moments like beans or wheat or corn to grind for those instances to and I wonder if we ever think about reserving land for those purposes of food security to on a grander scale because those last also. Yeah, I think that's an important aspect and I think that may be more suited to where Abbey will go in the in the further discussion of food security for the whole, the whole state and what's going on regionally. I think it's a being cautious of, oh please grow corn in case we have an emergency isn't where we want to go, we want people to have a market, and you know, have some because maybe an emergency never happens and what do you do. We're not proposing that the agency of agriculture or any else anyone else in state government purchase products to hold in a warehouse just in case, because that we don't know and that's in a way potentially wasting food. You know we bought all this corn and held it or these beans and held it and they do last a long time but then when they do reach their date of no longer being viable what do we do with it if there was no emergency so it's more of a just in activity than a build a warehouse hold all this food in case there's an emergency at some point. Sure, and I guess that is a good point to think about to, I guess additionally, I'm sure you could find a place for that food if it was grown on like an annual basis of preparation or something along those lines of of donating it or using it to feed communities instead of holding on to it but. Absolutely I hear that point too. All right, any other questions for Diane. That sounds good. I am glad that you know we're sort of shifted our attention on this topic and. And so why don't we move on to Abby Abby, thanks for coming. Thank you Diane for your time. Thank you and I'll I'll hang in until close to 130 and then exit to go talk to Senate appropriations thank you very much. Hi, Abby Willard from my agency of agriculture food and markets. So representative super not I'm happy to kind of address your question and I and I think. What Diane just described was a relatively simple addition to the agency's emergency annex that we were able to do to just ensure that food security was captured under the agency's responsibilities and therefore as Diane said we would be activated in an emergency that required some feeding. In the conversations that we had around making these very simple modifications to our emergency annex we recognize that there is this greater statewide need and effort already underway around establishing a food security plan and that we really intentionally decided to hold that effort. Aside and teach and treat these as two separate initiatives. So when the Vermont Sustainable Jobs Fund and the agency collaborated on the creation of the agriculture and food system strategic plan. About a year ago, one of the goals was. It reads Vermont's food system is resilient and able to provide adequate and accessible healthy local food in the face of emergencies including climate related natural disasters. One of the objectives was that we would update the agency's annex but the other objective is that Vermont would establish a statewide food security plan. And so that effort is underway led by the Vermont Sustainable Jobs Fund and Farm to Plate. They're thinking of this as a two plus year process that really focuses on preparing for the next emergency and creating a statewide security, a statewide food security plan for for Vermont. And that plan is where I think some of that thinking ahead of land production and storage crops and storage locations would really come into play. As you were as you were discussing and proposing the plan that is underway is really focused on looking at long term food security for the state and food access for our most vulnerable populations. And doing that during a time of emergency so it is designed to be normal day food security ensuring that we have less food insecure individuals in the state, but also figuring out how we respond during time of emergencies. That process is going to have a really robust stakeholder engagement process so engaging with the impacted individuals and communities to understand what they need what would work for them. What efforts would be kind of most desired and hopefully many of those aspects being captured in the food security plan. And the interplay that we've talked about is that the state's emergency operations center mass feeding group, and the agency of agriculture's annex would really be embedded efforts within this statewide food security plan as to how the state of Vermont government entity responds when we face an emergency that includes some food security concerns. So if it's helpful I could share and you know Ellen Taylor is really the lead and the vision behind this food security plan they have. So Ellen I think in her staff could offer additional details but my understanding of this food security planning process is that the farm to plate network has established a food security group. The agency of agriculture has a representative on as too many others. They've hired a food security project manager, her name is Becca Warren, and she's leading the conversations and the development of how this food security plan would come into place. Some of the first steps are both assembling the group, but also aggregating research on the causes and contributing factors to food insecurity in Vermont. And then acknowledging that probably throughout the process but also in the latter part of the plan development would be this robust stakeholder engagement process that's really designed to help determine what the critical components of the plan would be and how it should be implemented. So that efforts underway. And I hope that that sort of describes how it interplays with what's happening with the mass feeding group and the inter connection between what our annex will do in the time of an emergency and our role as an agency in this statewide planning process. So representative super not did that address kind of your thoughts around where where those planning efforts might take place. Thank you. Yeah, you're welcome. All right, Abby, do you want to tell us more about this food security planning situation. I'm not sure that I have a lot of other details to provide those questions. All right, Tom. Abby. Just from from the citizens point of view. The hurricane hits tomorrow night. And it's, it's threatening my home and my family. What do I do. Who do I call. What's, what's the point on this. I can, I will try to address that representative the, if you're in that emergency situation and you're worried of flooding or wind damage or those kind of things the first the first call is to local. The, the town the local sheriff, depending on where you're at what do you got what do you what's in your town. They would not be calling the agency of agriculture if the floodwaters are rising and they need help. There's an outline number for the state emergency operations center who would also potentially dispatch, you know, swift water rescue or, you know, there's a lot of resources there. And everybody, it's really, it's extremely prescribed. This is your lane and you stay in it. You know agriculture isn't supposed to go, you know, moving over into other areas so the, the example of Irene when the towns of Rochester were cut off and hand cock the roads were just decimated and you couldn't get there. We got in a little bit of trouble. Lots of food was going in there and the National Guard was utilizing helicopters and moving product and we heard that people needed dog food and pet food and so we organized that and got it already. And the, the pallet got onto the helicopter and then we got really scolded of how to do that well, our resourceful folks and we're at the SEO seat and got it all done, but they were really focusing on human food and we're not happy that we, you know, got that pallet of dog food even though, you know, it was needed. But so everybody has a lane and they really are to stay in their lane so if you are in trouble during one of these weather type emergencies, it is your local assistance, then not potentially the hotline into the state emergency operations 911, etc. But then the resources come at you from the SEOC back out if it's a farmer that's calling in saying the floodwaters are rising and my cows are in trouble and you know I'm stuck and I think that it does come to the agency because it's agriculture, and we would work. Some of the examples I guess from Irene again we're, you know, what can we get to those animals that were isolated in Rochester when Irene flooded everything out. The agency of agriculture really comes in and the emergency aspect after the, the holy moly or there's other words for that, the holy crap moments that things that people are in extreme danger, it is dangerous out there that those are not our skill set at the agency of agriculture, but the rain has stopped, the flooding waters keep rising we got to get these cows out of here, the agency would utilize its contacts with the license. The stock dealers we have, is there anybody in the area can we get farmers to bring their their trailers can we get those cows out of there you know that's that's where our skills start to come in and that kind of example so it, it really is a stay in your lane kind of activity at the SEOC. And there are tremendous number of resources to be allocated, and it is it is a, if at some point if you could ever go there when it isn't full activation it is very impressive of how that is managed and operated and and done statewide, if you ever get a chance. But that would mean things are in a very bad place and maybe you don't want to go there because you can't get there from here. And that I would add to Diane's example is it again using Irene time where the agency of agriculture gets involved is around adulterated food so if food gets flooded and then the farmer has a question as to whether that product is suitable for sale or suitable for human consumption. So again, you know it's either dealing with their, their livestock and their animals and barns but also the food that then they might want to engage in the marketplace. And currently there, if you haven't seen the news today there is a outbreak of avian influenza in a commercial turkey farm in Indiana. And so the, the state emergency operations center could be operate could be brought into operation just for an agricultural industry, which if we had avian influenza in any of our commercial flocks here in Vermont or even on a few farm with the few chickens that would probably the agency would be highly involved. We would have to have the Department of Public Service Police sheriffs and probably a and r potentially of high mortality of how do we get rid of lots of dead chickens and turkeys but those. There are ways that just agriculture gets involved and others, not many others would be involved, but so there's there's lots of potential there. So, lots of activities. All right, thank you. Other questions from the committee. I know that you all support the governor's budget. But I do understand that there is a request. I suppose that Ellen is making not you for $150,000 to go toward food security effort. And I'm wondering if you can say something about what that effort might be. If the money was forthcoming. So yes, Chairperson Partridge we do support the governor's budget as proposed but I would let Abby state more clearly what if money were to be found. Of course not us asking for it but what would that be useful. Yeah, right. So there's always that that tricky piece. I think we're really fortunate to have the Vermont sustainable jobs fund and the farm to plate network taking the lead on the development of this statewide food security plan. I think some of the steps that I outlined earlier about standing up the working group, hiring the food security project manager, working on aggregating the data on the root causes of food insecurity, and then that stakeholder process would all be I would imagine components over the next two years that those resources would be critical for. So my understanding from from Ellen is that there have been some dollars committed and obligated to the creation of this plan, but that they may not have the full budget for the two two and a half year process required for the creation of the food security plan. I really, you know from my perspective on the plan being led by farm to plate feels like the appropriate place to me, especially since this plan will be robust and utilized if it has lots of public engagement. I think they are well equipped and situated to lead a really kind of engaging public participation process and I think that'll be really essential to a plan that will then be implementable and and that people will have confidence in relying upon or taking response various responsibilities for different goals and objectives within the plan if if they've had a hand in its development. Anyway, I'm very grateful that they've taken this responsibility there's always that that burden that accompanies the responsibility is figuring out how to pay for it and finding the staff capacity within their team to lead it and then kind of gathering all the voices and all the research to to put together a really meaningful document. Great. Thanks, Abby. Any questions, comments for Abby. All right. Abby, did you want to add anything. I don't think so it's nice to see you all. I feel like we can chat about a myriad of other topics, but I think this is what we have today for food security planning. Well, thank you.