 Well, it is almost 5 o'clock 10. We wanted to start at 10 o'clock 10, but anyways Good morning, everyone. That's Tuesday, January 17th. In the second half of the month. That's great and So we have Ellen Keeler with us and Jake Carlaw Clare And So we're gonna talk again about our food systems and how How and what we might be able to do to improve that for our citizens So And we've got until noon. So we got a long lunch Straight through time We'll take a little break. Maybe if we need to Like to Have the committee introduce themselves and then you folks can get those two chairs at the head of the table and But we'll have a presentation a good discussion. So Brian Yep, I was senator collar more from the ruttland district morning. Good to see you guys. Good to see you Hi, rain runner to the north Brian campion beddington county rich west linen land And i'm bobby stark from orleans county. So welcome and uh, and maybe uh, We have three new members here to the ag committee. Uh, so when you introduce yourselves, you probably give a little Spill on how long you've been doing what you're doing and how bad you've been doing Yeah, uh, no, it's great to have you both with us that We've done this for quite a while And uh, there's a few things I think we're doing good. So, so, uh, welcome and I don't know which one of you want to start out Sure So Let's go for it. Yeah. Well, thank you so very much. We always look forward to this conversation and especially because there are three of you who are new to this committee and Senator you're you're new to the whole Kid with the bootle here in the state house, right? I am and I should mention when I'm also in Fairfax with one town Yes, I know that. Yeah, great. So what we thought we would do for you today Um, typically what we've always done in the past and this is part of the statute of the farm to plate investment program that we administer Is we normally come in and provide An annual report of the last year's activities And we will be doing that with you next week in joint jointly with house ag. We often have traditionally done it as a joint Meeting so we'll be doing that next week To really focus in on the the fiscal 22 activities However, because so many of you are new because this is a new biennium We thought that it would be good to provide some history And some grounding in the state strategic plan for developing our food system so that you can then Have some more familiarity with it and be able to use it throughout the session As you're getting other people coming in to give you testimony give you a good strong grounding of what's going on out there on the land In our food manufacturing in our distribution the whole entire food system And happy to have this be as much of a discussion and asking of questions as is useful for you all because this is really This is really for you for you all is your time to learn more about The food system and Vermont so that you can do your work as effectively as possible I'm going to cover a little bit of the history And sort of what transpired over the first 10 years of the farm to plate investment program through this retrospective and then jake's going to walk you through the strategic plan for the current 10-year cycle that we're in And walk you through how to use this document as a as a resource and a tool for for your policy work. Okay So is this part of the agency of ag? No, no, I'll start there. Thank you. So this is enable jobs fund I'm the executive director of ross table jobs fund jake is the farm to plate director Which is a program within the jobs fund I've been there since 2005 The sustainable jobs fund was actually created by an act of the legislature in 1995 You were here senator for that and It was intended to be outside of state government. So we are a 501c3 Organization independent organization Our statute if you were to take a look at it online We'll show you that the secretary of commerce or designee is secretary of ag or designee and one Seat is is appointed by the governor and then we have eight independent members. So we're this interesting sort of quasi governmental entity and But very much a nonprofit with a 501c3 nonprofit status So we work very closely with various agencies through agency of commerce agency of ag natural resources health department fpnr We have very strong relationships and good good communication good working relationship So and we can do things often from a process standpoint that inside state government They have they may be more challenged to do because of the rules by which they are governed So having this sort of the inside outside kind of Connection it has proved to be actually very useful, right? there's lots of stuff at the agency of ag that really they are best suited to do and That we're like so excited that they're doing it and they're doing it well And then there's stuff that really is is better suited for an organization like us to do So that's how we sort of divide and conquer So When in 2009 the legislature asked created the farm to plant investment program It was an interesting first time ever really Initiative as you'll recall where house ag and commerce committee and the senate ag and senate economic development community committee worked collaboratively to create and launch that program With the because the notion was agricultural development is the same as economic development It is a form of economic development, especially for our world communities And but prior to farm to play that was not understood especially by the economic development community You take a look at just as a point of reference the The website of think vermont dot com back in 2008-2009 It was like no real reference to agriculture to breweries to the working landscape any of that Now it is front and center on their website, right? It is like come to vermont experience our working landscape Experience our breweries and drink our milk and have our maple syrup and take it back with you, right? Stay at our tiny farm Exactly. Exactly Wouldn't you say senator? It's like it is really quite a radical difference. Oh, right. Yeah, right So that is in part I I would like to say I I think it's because of the way we have come together as a community of Of organizations from nonprofits the business to the state government entities to capital providers to educators To really work together towards the greater effort It's in the statute of the outcomes for this program and the outcomes are around increasing economic activity and jobs within the farm and food sector to Work on improving water soil overall land use in a in a sound environmental way and then Providing healthy local food for all vermoner So there's the the really those three components of the economics the environment and the social Justice and equity piece is baked into this statute. It is what governs us. It is what guides us And and it is absolutely the thread that links that that is embedded in the state in this plan that was created So we take it very seriously. We track metrics on it Oh every year and so that's part of what we do when we come in to you to meet with you is we share Where are we at? What are the trend lines saying? What's happening? So, um, so It was set up as a 10-year initiative in 2009 We published the first plan in january of 2011 when senator when governor shumlin arrived The legislature tasked the jobs fund was serving in this planning implementation Monitoring role rather than the agency Of agriculture, which was also very quite unique at the time. I think it was Actually a very useful way of doing a project like this or a program like this because It was basically saying we want to see a 10-year plan We know that there's going to be changes in administration So we need to have we don't want to have a plan that's you know Like for one administration and then a completely different plan for another administration and so and and As it is we've got we've been working with three different governors Right over this last period right and and that stability I think has been a really powerful part is given people sense like oh, we're all in this together It doesn't matter what the party is doesn't matter what's going on With who's the secretary like this is our collective plan Right. So and it was over a 10-year horizon So in 2019 we approached senator star and then chair partridge and said Do you want us to keep going with this? Do you want another 10 years or not? and we asked all of our partners in the field the same thing and You all felt like yeah, no, we can't stop now So in 2019 you all reauthorized farm to plate to do a second 10-year plan And to go go at it through 2030 and I think that it's also that that that From a policy perspective I think is really smart when you set something up as a legislative body for a 10-year time horizon to then Use that 10-year mark to like evaluate How are we doing is this worth continuing and then making a very intentional decision? Okay. Yes, or okay. No, and in this case you all said yes and so we set about in 2020 2021 and we worked very closely with the agency of agriculture to craft this document which is is now considered the state's food system development plan It has informed the governor's commission on the future of agriculture They use this as a big a foundational document I serve on that commission and I spent a lot of time Briefing the other commissioners about what's in here. They use it very Like it's it's the base. It's the foundation Jake served on the agriculture and ecosystem Committee for the Vermont climate action council and planning process He brought this to that process and so there's a lot of the recommendations stem from what's in this document The agency of agriculture and their strategic plan references all of this on a regular basis So we've worked really hard to in essence be in alignment with one another so that we're all we all have our different means Right and different focus, but we're all going in the same direction all pulling the wagon up. Exactly together Some going backwards Some sideways Exactly and it works It's really powerful. So far the school is embedded in this Right, the the universal meals is embedded in this. It's one of the core strategies So the work that the food bank is doing like all the food security stuff is in here, right? So this is the foundation That you know, you could very easily ask anybody that comes in to present to you How does it relate to the strategic plan and they should be able to tell you The last week we had some folks in Talking about Our own food how much but they they claim though. We're still short of food here in Vermont that Two in five or a number like that or food Insecure and insecure And dolly we we've been at this quite a while to still have some in trouble and We didn't question those numbers, but I know we certainly Have a lot more people Producing food than we used to have and it's helped our rural economy and rural areas of Very Yeah, and I think that speaks to The fact that the food system is not something that's in isolation to every other system So our overall economic system has created incredible wealth inequalities and has and we haven't we haven't got the child care system We need in the housing and the workforce and all these things interact They all intersect and it's one of the things that we plan to spend a lot more time on these next 10 years is Where there's overlap between these systems because we can't solve food food insecurity in isolation for a whole bunch of other other systems So just to give you a quick recap of the first the on page Seven of this document Just as a grounding. This is what we mean when we talk about a food system. It incorporates Inputs production processing wholesale retail The consumer aspect of it in terms of consumer demand. What are they what what ag literacy? What are people wanting to eat and then nutrient management? And then the outer ring serve and so the inner ring is really the private sector It's really what we're trying to do is to focus policy programs funding um alignments Strengthening the overall connectivity between businesses because the businesses are the ones that create the food for us Right and then it's the outer ring of policymakers like yourselves government agencies not profits like us food hubs um The educational system that is the support system for our food system Right and so we're trying to strengthen all of those components because they all interact when they're all important to each other so if you um Pop to page 10. There's a diagram there that just I don't know how to go into the details of it But over the once we released the plan in january of 2011 We then formed a network of organizations because the any the definition of a system is that it's complex And that no one organization can fix it The any you know can really truly transform interchange it it takes a collaborative multi organizational approach And so we built this network around The key areas of the food system that we learned through the stakeholder engagement process We did from the first plan about where there was real challenges So we learned about aggregation and distribution needs where small producers had trouble getting into markets Especially out of state and we want to talk more about that To see if you know if that needs improving Uh, there's something that we can do it in the legislature to To expand that so that we aren't missing growers and they have an adequate place to take their Yes, absolutely. We'll we'll get with that with uh, we jump over to jake because that's definitely an area that we see some attention We did a lot on education and workforce development For instance, we published a career guide for jobs in the food system a few years ago We've done a lot and looking at farmland access We've looked a lot at strengthening the business and technical assistance service provision to farms and food businesses There's been a lot of of of real tangible projects a lot of Key documents really that have been developed and in part what we see is our role is to help with what we call sense making You know, everything is because things are so complex. It can often be challenging to really understand. Well, what's really going on? What's the stuff that's underneath? What might be visible to us and sort of in a crisis mode and what's really underneath that? And so a lot of what like for instance in the early days There are two quick examples A lot of producers were wanting to sell to sedexo into uvm and to the sedexo accounts in the institutions But there were some key structural things related to contracting practices that sedexo had that none of us understood And if you couldn't crack the the vendor contracting process how to become a qualified vendor You were never going to sell into sedexo. So we we did a whole forum We brought sedexo leadership together with producers and service providers and they they put it out on the table This is they said this is how you become a certified vendor with us and producers are like great Okay, I you know some of them said i'm not interested others were like no i want to do that The point is it was something that was not visible Right and we helped create a A way to make what was invisible visible and then producers could decide whether or not they wanted to take advantage of that Right the same thing was happening as senator star will know well during 2011 2010 2011 13 even up to 2014 There was a real lack of slaughterhouse capacity in the state and small producers were really struggling And so we pulled together people Businesses across the entire supply chain The first time really this has happened with small producers processors chefs distributors Service providers Vita was at the table Like the entire supply chain people that work in grocery stores at meat counters that were looking for qualified meat cutters Everybody together to really unpack and understand what's really going on here Do we because as senator star might remember the the the initial thought was well Let's just build more slaughterhouse capacity Right and what we found was that that wasn't really the issue We didn't have meat cutters and processing and storage for the animals that were like There was plenty of time when the kill floor space was not being used But it was the processing that was the bottleneck So had we not dug into that and really looked at what was really going on We would have potentially spent a lot of money to build slaughterhouses that we didn't actually need at that time Had no people to run home Right and no people to run them. So what that did though that process Mark Curran who was then owner of black river produce Was at those meetings and had sort of an inkling in his mind about meat He got really interested in this and then bought the old bed and jerry's facility down in north springfield and turned it into What then became black river meats and vermont packing house with as a joint project with Lorenzo Meads out in in wisconsin Minnesota and so now he sold that but That added capacity came on at a time that then for a period of time really Actually solved the problem. It actually was a major piece of capacity at scale that really supported things We've then heard a few years later From the processors. We don't have enough animals. We've got more processing capacity now. We need more animals, right? This is how supply and demand works So now we're back the pendulum has swung again and we don't have enough capacity and we have more animals We have more market opportunity. The pandemic really showed this, right? So now we're in a place again where and and there's been a lot more federal awareness about this federal dollars being put forward The usda and secretary tevitz has been a real his team has been a real leader on this Of really helping to get more funding to going to expanding existing processing Uh, there was just a really large was it a million dollar sig grant or 1.2 million dollar grant that the agency of commerce Awarded to vermont Water and need processing in ferrisburg ferrisburg 1.3 million dollars to expand that they said that's going to be about a four million dollar Total cost project when I get done. Yeah, they'll be able to run some animals through there Exactly and a part of the state that desperately needs that extra capacity, right? So that that that's the we have a convening power at this organization where we can bring people together who have vested interests Uh in the system working But they can't do it alone Right, they need to be connected to people on the other side of where they are in the supply chain To understand how the system works better so that they can then better Adjust their business to meet the market opportunity because the market opportunity is absolutely there, right? So if you flip to page 19, I'll just uh sort of uh on the bottom corner there sort of the big the big a-ha takeaway Highlights are that uh vermont's food system all in direct indirect induced sort of the size of the food system Is uh 11.9 billion dollars as of 2017 so by now it's probably well over 12 billion dollars Um and 2.9 probably now well over 3 billion are is just food manufacturing So again, we're talking big numbers. This is the in totality I mean dairy is the biggest within the food system But the food system compared to say tourism or other types of manufacturing or other types of services healthcare This is a big deal, right? And it's where our rural economies Connect the most so it is it is important. It is so vital You know from a working landscape a heritage a history as well as the economics People people don't understand how important our total agricultural Money is around the state and Yeah, they think of it as well as a few dollars here and a few dollars there, but boy when you add it all up Yeah, it used to be And not that many years ago Our milk production is down a little bit, but not not a lot They used to be like 85 of the milk went South to southern new england and in new york and and now You know 65 to 70 of our milk stays home and it's being manufactured here. So it's given You know hundreds of people jobs and good jobs Like it been in jerry's or over at cabot or down the ogre plant And a lot of small Processors, you know, they process their own and and jasper hills got a big crew that works there and It it's good that our economy is Growing but it's all inclusive right here at home. You know, right and So it's giving a a lot of people work and certainly helped a lot of our rural communities Just the farmers markets are incredible to me from 20 years ago. I remember like craftsmanship He had just a few little things and now Yeah And you know, there's over 65,000 people that are employed in the food system 65,000 you I mean a lot of it is in restaurant, you know, a lot of it is in restaurant and food service But it's still like it's still connected to food. Yeah, right like you can produce all you want But if you don't have a needs of selling in and people to help sell it like Right, we're not going to do it all Unfortunately as great as as farmers markets and csa's are they still only represent about 3% of total farm gate sales in the state Right, very important. Yeah from a from an interface learning what the customer wants ag literacy those kinds of things But it's never going to be the big mover of large quantities of food as a market outlet, right? It has other functions So the other thing to know is that we back in in 2010 When we were in the process of developing the first plant we wanted to know well, how much local production was being consumed by Vermonters And there was no way to actually know that so we created a methodology with at the time uvm Professor david connor and a couple of his a grad student of his and back then Actually auditor hoffer was actually involved in the conversation because he's you know big data guy And anyways, we created a a methodology that actually has been since has been peer reviewed and is now like accepted as sort of a good process For trying to count up local food consumption at the time we could count Reliably only two and a half percent We estimated that we were probably consuming about five percent Which is like a pretty small number still and that was about 114 million dollars that we could count Right that we had a sense about in 20 and then we did the same count process every three years and in 2020 We had gotten up to 16 percent and 371 million So 10 year period about 257 million dollars more that of of vermont Produced and consumed here sales and that includes vermont restaurants You know people that eat away from home as well as buying to food for eating at home So huge impact But again because we were tasked by all of you to report back We took that very seriously and we built in the processes to be collecting the metrics to be able to Keep track of these trends right and that's been a really powerful way then You know the the economic development community for instance the regional development corporations the department of economic development As I said, they didn't really understand what they what was going on In in 2009 2011 when we started publishing the data that showed that that three billion dollars of food manufacturing was happening They could understand food manufacturing because it's manufacturing So they got very excited and now like they're like, oh, how can we help? You know, we've got businesses in our regions. How do we help them when they need to grow into a bigger facility? How do I help them find the places the in your region nvda has been instrumental instrumental Finding locations helping with federal funding Streams well on that yellow yellow barn project and hardwick, which is you know, it's close to home We're all in it together And that's going to be exciting and yeah, and we'll help too as we move forward But that that none of that existed back in 27 208 209, you know, just it wasn't so on pages 21 through 26 but definitely 24 34 sorry 21 to 34 what we tried to do in this document was to provide some results of over a 10-year time horizon So I won't go over this but just for your light reading, you know at night when you have nothing else to do Um, you know, you can take a look at these very quickly get some snapshots of the trend lines for things like land and agriculture and stream miles impaired and how that's been turning around and net losses and gains for farms and dairy sales and increased meat processing infrastructure and Beverage and manufacturing sales like all those institutional sales You know page 39 we made huge Changes and improvements in the institutional sales. Um, and then of course kovat happened and K through 12 sales Went up because we were investing heavily in making sure that kids had food During the pandemic, but take a look at the drop in higher ed You know hospitals went up in local food at page where i'm at page 29 But you know hospitals went up and but institutional sales colleges really dropped because schools are closed Yeah, you know, but but but that's the thing is like we can we tracking these trends So that we can see what might be going on And where there might be oh, oh, we better we better, you know Get in on this a little bit more and see what if there's a bottleneck that needs to be fixed That's this recovered by the way It has for this it has but we don't know what it is because we haven't done a count, but we expect that the next Yeah, 2020. Yeah, yeah Yeah, and I think higher ed will probably slightly below. What was the peak in 2017? And that's uh, you know, I think enrollment numbers and also just uh on campus Living situations are different. Um, yeah, so it might be slightly lower than it was previously But we may say something about higher ed It's interesting, you know, I'm also at Bennington college and Parents are so much different. Well kids are different today, of course, and it really matters what's in the cafeteria You know when they're coming through for admissions You know, it wasn't something that I thought about or parents necessarily thought about when they were visiting college and universities But today, especially a college in Vermont if they can say You know, like so bennington has like a little local products area and they try to get more local but as much as we can do to kind of Help them like one of the things I say to bennington college is You know, I'd love to see wilcox ice cream there. I don't know why I've not seen wilcox ice cream there But wilcox ice creams in orlington. It's I think it's the best ice cream Uh, you know, how can we I'm not sure what the hold-ups are there? So anything you can do to help those institutions I really appreciate it because it helps admissions. It helps everything. Yeah, no, it's okay. No I I was gonna say I think one of the other factors that to look at in these and it'll probably show in these numbers as well is labor At higher ed so a lot of inability to hire You know food service staff to to fully staff what they need and so in turn that's affecting their purchasing Decisions, so they're buying now more actually processed or pre, you know, kind of preprocessed So they don't have to pull with it. Yeah Yeah And so that in turn has shifted, you know, what types of local products fit that type of those types of requirements And there are products that do but there's still just some shift of trying to meet that now new demand for that type of like more processed product, you know, I mean the hospitals, you know, sit exo uvm, for instance They found that they if they bought Like say a whole squash, right? And and they processed that they could get a better price buying a whole couple of cases Of squash having the staff cut it up. They could freeze it. They could turn it into soups They could do all sorts of stuff with it, right? They could buy it when it was in season where they could get the least Where they could get a good price for it to meet their their numbers But that requires as jake said that you have staff on board to do the cutting And the dishwashing and all of that stuff and that's what we have found very directly hearing from jake serves on the advisory committee for Vermont for sedexo at uvm And that's one of the big things that we've learned from them on the inside is like they're like Our numbers aren't going to be as good, but it's not because of lack of try it like like they have you know, they might have 10 positions We've gone a month with we went a month with paper plates at the college Wow, so couldn't find anybody to help do dishes I mean, that's how bad the situation is out there Yeah, that's not good. Yeah, thank you. The land feels a lot right In a nice plate sitting covered right right So just last thing that I'll just say if you turn to page 43 42 43 before you leave 29 What about the institutions? You know the state Institutions, you know, it's really small and it's been one of those areas It's been really hard to get data because in order for us to get this data Somebody has to collect it organize it and and be willing to give it to us In the early year the early counts we had We had more ability to get those numbers and they just we just haven't gotten them It's also the case after we had Irene Trump's where I read and that cafeteria was a big one when ahs was you know over in waterbury And so just some of the physical locations just are not having cafeterias as much And so it's again, it's it's still a sliver. It's an important thing It's something you guys could absolutely push on So more now that we're you know getting on the other side of coven and things are opening back up, but You know upstairs. I know the abbey group to are they still the abbey group? Yeah, yeah, yeah, I mean they you know, they do a good job. They try to source as much local as possible Um, but like we I don't think we did we ever get data from them? No, I'm trying to think the last time that oh, yeah We do we actually we do have abbey group data. I'm not sure if it includes this That's part of it. Yeah, so it's not broken necessarily broken out when we get it So that's part of the data challenge is just collecting things in the way that Uh, we need it so um, but yeah, so I think we can keep pushing on that for sure Um, so uh page 42 43 just just so that you have a sense of the level of sort of where's the funding coming from all of for all of this Um, so over the 10 year period. We've raised Uh close to 5.8 million dollars For the farm to plate investment program Typically a hundred thousand dollars comes every year from a general fund appropriation through the agency of agriculture to us And uh, there are times when there might be like a working lands grant for a project that we are project managing It doesn't ultimately live with us and pay for our staff, but it flows through us to somebody else So that gets counted that way and we do use some of our agency of commerce funding Which is really operational support just sort of covers the basics of like fact that we have an office and that we have phones and we have staff and such But so the state contribution Really was a 1.6 million Um of the 5.8 million and so the rest of it's coming from foundations that we're raising funding for This is funding that the state government can't access because it's coming from philanthropic dollars some federal sources Sponsorships from uh businesses that have supported what we're working on And various miscellaneous other things the gathering and such which really were subsidizing the cost of the gathering But you can just get a general sense of how much goes towards personnel versus special projects over the years Um, and a lot of it is really the the majority of it really is going to the actual working of the network and the and the projects Um, uh, jake runs a a lean machine With very little staff and we rely on a lot of consultants to do various pieces One of the things he can touch on if you're interested is we uh in 2015 16 we started to provide free technical support to independently owned grocery stores food co-ops and um, and if you know other Stores were interested. We wouldn't say no, but we were really focusing on the independence and the co-ops About how to develop a stronger local sourcing Uh program in their store as a differentiator with say shaws or hana furs or whatever and because they're in rural locations We have we can have relationships with them. They live in the community They're more they tend to be more responsive to their customers and what they want So we uh annie harlow has been on contract for six years now to basically provide A whole range of training both one on one in the in the store as well as bringing Folks together from across the supply chain distributors. She has developed now a list A database basically of all the vermont products She's constantly adding to it the vermont products that are produced and which distributors are carrying them in which stores they're in So so when she goes and meets with a store it says, you know, I really would like to have you know More variety of this or I'd like to try this kind of a product I don't know. I have no idea how to find that She has a little database now. She can look at she can oh well There's this this and this and these are the distributors that carry them Oh, and you work with that distributor. Why don't you ask them if you can carry that if they could get that product for you So it's that kind of stuff that we can do getting again to the underneath So you might say well, why can't we get more local food and grocery stores? Well, there's a lot of structural impediments to doing that a lot of issues So we're trying now. We're really focusing spending a lot of time really trying to focus on How do we understand? How do we help producers get into more traditional retail stores? Because that's where the majority of vermonters and other people shop So we have to crack that nut and it's not easy It's more complicated and complex than the institutional markets And we need to understand how it works so that our producers have the best chance possible to get their products And what about school meals Through the prime of the plate or some of those groups Uh, do you work anything with them? Or is there's a lot of meals that? Yeah Yeah, I mean, I think universal school meals is really critical that the the additional local per plate Additional costs that you guys did last year is really important. It makes a big difference To their school's ability to source more um farm to school is the whole farm to school network is very much a part of of farm to plate and Jake serves on the Um Yeah, so we're part of that organizing like Higher level courting again, so we have coordination. So we have alignment so we can maximize And not duplicate effort Yep Brian so somebody were to ask me Please use me what you guys Like your elevator pitch what you do How would you describe it? Just Sure, so we is it really getting local local food onto the plates of reminders and restaurants That's your that's that's what drives you you guys every day Yes, okay. Whether it's in schools or restaurants. Okay. It's increasing local consumption among produced food But in order to do that, yeah, we have to understand all the ways that that happens And where there are bottlenecks where there's challenges where things are working good that need to be amplified And expanded and scaled properly. Okay, but ultimately the end of the day what we are guided by is the three outcomes of this legislative like the legislation that makes this Uh, and that's on if you look on if you switch now to the plan and also hand it over to Jacob and at page six up at the top our what guides us is the is the statue of Increasing sustainable economic development and create jobs in and Vermont's food and farm sector Improves soils water resiliency and working landscape and the face of climate change and improve access to healthy local food for all verminers That is that is mission one for us And we have said as jake will mention, you know, we have set a target that by 2030 We would like to get to 25 percent local food consumption in the state. We're at 16 as of 2020 It's a big lift There's a lot of you know, we got a lot of the low-hanging fruit was taken care of the stuff that's ahead of us is harder But I but what we've noticed is that people are even more focused and more like like Straight ahead like we this committed and motivated to to move forward and I will say That this what we're doing in Vermont is not in isolation Um Couple things to know this plan is considered the gold standard in the whole country People look to this we've gotten phone calls from had had the pandemic not happened I would have been on a plane to south korea to give a 15 minute talk about vermont farm to play Jake would have been for a whole week on a speaking tour in australia Literally like when the pandemic hit we had to cancel plans to make a decision on a friday Wow The saturday before I was flying oh if you're gonna gone you might have still been My brother works for the airlines and he said jake you go you're not coming back Right, so let's do something. Yeah Except he had a one-year-old so So the point is is that this we what we're doing in vermont is being watched across the country and in other parts of the on the planet And it is we are the leading edge the trend center for the other five new england states Right. I'm I'm actively involved with our counterparts in the other five new england states. The senator star knows we We have a project called new england feeding new england And we saw that yeah, and we're trying to get to the point of we set a target which is going to be Wicked hard to to reach if not Really, yeah But to get to 30 by 23rd in regional compute consumption What that means is vermont and main need to increase our food production Which means we need to secure in our land base We need more access to to To getting more ag land in product back into production We need to be able to get have a greater ability to get vermont products To the southern new england markets get into those markets get into grocery stores where most people shop And that involves distribution that involves storage and aggregations facilities. It involves more processing You know So so the work that we're doing in vermont has been over the last 10 years has been to solidify and strengthen Our leadership and our ability to to produce more and move more food into the vermont market But also the rest of new england and then this next 10-year period is How do we how do we really scale that and and do even more because we know that the majority of Rhode Island, Connecticut and massachusetts Other than maybe the pioneer valley in massachusetts and maybe a little bit over near clouster and some of the seafood Most of the production happens in main in vermont for the southern england. They are the eaters We are the producers Right And what about What about our processing ability And if that food is Processed here, then it needs to be Distributed from here Is is that coming along with the additional growers and and people that are bringing this to our You know forefront. Yeah, do you want to do you want to take that one because there's been I mean There's so many more smaller distributors now than there were even 10 years ago. Yeah. Yeah, so, um, you know a lot of the food hubs that started up in the 2010 or a few years before that have now You know evolved and scaled and they're they're actually moving food into You know the the mid-atlantic even at this point in coordination with other regional food hubs So looking more to the boston area new york city those metropolitan areas but the Some of the issues around that are Infrastructure for distribution. Yeah, so it's not just about you know having trucks It's about having cross docking that allows for efficient You know exchange of and packing and then movement of that food to to the locations that need it so That's an area that is ripe for investment I think also just thinking strategically as a region about where those locations are where they can improve efficiencies Um, there's yeah, and then there's also just a lot of labor shortages in trucking itself. So that's a big Uh, a big issue as well that's holding back some of our distribution Um, and then yeah ware warehousing in stores. So you've got you know different types of storage needs plan like Where these Buildings or processors should be located and we we're working on it We have there is a wreck there's a specific recommendation to to fund the development of of that plan because it isn't You know something willy-nilly that you just kind of pointed somewhere on a map Yeah, there's all planned and thought exactly and and and one of yeah one of the big impediments to say getting into new york city is When you start getting into the city things start slowing down And with all of the our requirements for drivers and and other issues gas prices Right though unloading having full trucks There and back becomes really essential to make the you know the distribution business cost efficient so working out Those issues that are very like analytical level is something that we're interested in looking to do More of and to have then more of a plan that we can say we need investment in these 10 facilities in these locations But regardless of that I think likes our our our independent distributors our food hubs they have also just storage And say cross-docking infrastructure needs just for their own Sites right now that they clearly could probably put together a number and it it'd be in the You know we're talking like millions Just in you know amongst a number of distributors in the state of Vermont see With the after funds, but Those go away in 26. Yeah, we've only got you know a few years of that left but You know we ought to be getting some of that money to Put into the food systems. Yeah to protect our people So that we have you know, yeah have a system we We should have one well set up We've only got what? Three four years to capitalize on that. Yeah, and I also I know that There are You know some conversations happening around how can federal transportation dollars be used more for these types of food infrastructure Transportation infrastructure projects So trying to connect more dots there or you know sort of move move money At the federal level to the state level then to these You know food food infrastructure distribution infrastructure needs. I think is another potentially right area and I think the The IRA bill for the federal government the infrastructure reinvestment act is probably more applicable than ARPA In from because one of the things for instance you all approved last year one time two million dollars To add to the working lands enterprise fund It turns out that it was ended up being ARPA dollars rather than general fund dollars And as a result those two million dollars are heavily restricted. It can only go for actual farm producers or loggers Can't even go to sawmill owners right on the on the working landside So the point is is that those dollars the ARPA dollars are very focused on proving that you have a covid negative impact The reality is what we really want to be doing at this point is investing in the future And that's not what ARPA was designed for Right, but the IRA bill is so the infrastructure getting the the infrastructure bill Like better dial in in terms of what the opportunities are for individual businesses or for the state to go after That's where we think the bigger play and the transportation money those kinds of things that um That's where the money could get Moved in in service to what we really need on the distribution front Do we have do you know if we have any These produce growers that are making a living from What they're growing or the the larger ones absolutely the challenge with the larger ones They have been around longer and Succession is a big challenge Because they many of them do not have the next generation lined up Some of them are the largest producers in the state And so there's a little bit of a crisis for sure that we're that we're that we're like Right part of it is and we and again i'll hand it over to jake here But the the um one of the recommendations is that we need more boots on the ground of people that are that are technical and business service providers Because what we don't have is enough people who are skilled and helping to work with farm families To help them with their succession plan, which sometimes can take three to five years to make to make happen Right, you see Gus always had somebody that they're adding but it's still not enough It's like the the the scale of what the problem is Is not something that adding one or two more people is going to do it It really needs to be we counted up from all the recommendations from the different briefs You know there's like 33 additional service providers that were needed And that's not just succession. That's like technical aspects around vegetable production getting into wholesale markets Working with distributors like the whole range more business planners the whole range of service providers including environmental And and working on water quality soil health all those kinds of technical types of entities So the point is is that it's not just putting more land into production and then just like oh, okay We got you know 500,000 more acres going. It's like you got to have the capital You got to have the people you got to have the the infrastructure. That's the right type of infrastructure You got to have the technical service and business planner service providers You know helping to figure out what's the business model that's going to work All those kinds of things go together Yeah, we we on the just succession planning technical assistance alone We accounted for Additional FTEs needed to to dedicated to dairy to for other types of farms and I think produce would probably be You know definitely one of those two Yeah So so so these people they've been at it long enough So they they're old enough to move Retires exactly. Yeah, you think about the deep root co-op organic co-op, right? That's a lot of the growers are in your area and then southern Quebec They're all in their 60s and 70s. Yeah And there's something that the most experienced The the the largest acres under production selling into wholesale markets We're really worried about them And and then I think on the the younger side Is there are profitable, you know young produce Producers who are probably right now leasing You know land from some of those more established growers Yeah, and and they might be you know leasing five to ten acres looking to purchase But now purchasing five to ten acres is a potentially a million dollar Deal rather than you know hundreds of thousands or low hundreds now Even working through the land trust it gets to be very expensive Yeah, because I don't see why they couldn't grow veggies on Conserved line and along it. I mean that the conservation process takes time So sometimes trying to line up How quickly that can happen with how quickly you need to get onto a parcel of land To really make your business grow You know lining those things up takes time And I think the rate at which we need things to happen is quicker than the rate at which the tools we have right now Allow for change Would you define for me What a food hub is what what it is and where they are in the state Yeah, yeah, I wish I had the the formal definition Yeah, just give me a sense so you can think of it as I mean it could it's Oftentimes it the term is used for nonprofits, but it could be a for-profit that Aggregates stores and distributes food That's you know and part of that could also be marketing the marketing and sales of that food So there might be like a brand component to it And in in relation to like food hubs You know they emerged as meeting a market need to sell local food to institutions Because institutions needing more like volume Rather than buying from individual producers could go to a food hub who could say yep We've got you know the the volume of carrots you need that we're sourcing from multiple farms So they provide also I think like a logistics service in that as well. I know a hard work. I think does No, I know yeah, yeah center for ag economy. I mean they they took over the operation of farm connects Right, which was an independently owned, but then when he wanted to retire They needed they were going to lose all the trucks on the road. And so the center for ag economy Which also manages the vermont food venture center They took over that distribution business and now what are they? I mean john's got like 10 trucks on the road Yeah, yeah, it's growing exponentially and and they farm connect services green mountain farm to school So they are in essence like the freight service for green mountain farm to school but green mountain farm to school takes in the orders and They are like the platform for schools to order the food Where are they in vermont right now? Where are our food hubs? So there's the farm connects, which is northeast kingdom. We have food connects down in browborough. Okay The service is a little bit of anything. Yeah, and and and and then there's the intervail food hub We used to have the mad river food hub, but that is now is that gone? Yeah I think they might still shoot a beer technically. No, I don't think that's not right. Yeah, okay. Yeah and then there's also the Farmer's Food Center in rutherland And then there's also acorn in addison, which is the asin county localization network And and so green mountain farm to school Um Intervail food connects And ciayi work. They they also have a collaborative agreement So they're trying to work out like shared inventory and sales and logistics of you know farm connects sort of taking in An order and then moving it to our food connects taking order But getting that product from say farm connects up in hardwick But when we first started and these and these nonprofits in in particular, we're just really getting going I think at the time intervail was probably at about 400,000 500,000 sales something like that And now collectively combined. I bet they're what they're probably north of five million together So it has really grown They're they're doing a lot more food and they're doing a lot of the last mile stuff That is the hardest and it's stuff they're picking up stuff that black river produce will never will no longer do because they were taken over by Reinhardt which them was taken over by performance performance food group one of the largest Distributors in the country multiple billion dollar business. So um So yeah, they they serve an important role and and part of what they've been trying to do is to get to scale Some of them are thinking about spinning off the food distribution component to being an l3c private enterprise rather than a non-profit That's all still in very much in discussion But you know, they're they're sort of growing up so to speak As as food hubs just as this work Intuit systems has been growing up over the last 10 years. So they're not the only appropriate I don't know if you have you help with the bennington one. We got the appropriation from welch. It's getting close to We'll have to talk. Okay. There's some changes. Okay Um, yeah, so there's yeah, there's definitely some some funding needs, but you know the working lands enterprise board has definitely been trying to to to encourage proposals and fund proposals that That are strengthening that distribution and storage and aggregation function within the food system. So There has been a lot of movement in that area, but more and more to go but you would think that You know, if if you're a farmer and you sell Your property to the through the land trusts or conservation programming I don't see why if if we're putting the money In and others are to buy those conservation rights Why some of that shouldn't be kind of Certain pieces of it shouldn't be set aside for vegetable and produce because you You can't grow Veggies in certain types of cereal and You know most farms have a combo of soil types And most farms are You know, we have a lot of people that want to have small farms and I don't see why they need An 80 or 100 cal size farm to keep 50 on or 40 on and why some of that land couldn't be Set aside to be sold to a veggie producer Yeah, there's You can't afford I don't think you can afford to pay Four or five thousand dollars an acre right for property to grow veggies Yeah, I mean, you know one of my Neighbors of a sword a couple miles down the road that we have a that we're he's who we buy our winter csa share from Burt rock farm. It's in hanksville huntington area and it's in the huntington river valley there And you know, he started off bought an old Farmhouse and and he actually had originally worked for david zuckerman on full moon farm before starting off on his own I don't know 10 12 years ago and You know, he started off with I think probably about Less than about 10 acres something like that a little less than 10 acres Diversified he decided he was going to not do you did winter farmers markets winter farmer market And he was going to really focus on wholesale production of root crops and stuff that was like winter storage crops That was going to be his niche and he has steadily grown that business Incredibly, I've watched it over the years But what he has to do to get enough land to grow like he's maxed out his home farm site You you probably have driven through the huntington river valley, right? There's like a little two acres here and a little five acres there And there's like tucked back behind some houses five acres there and he has methodically Gone after to get either leases or buy those parcels up because there's nobody, you know Otherwise they're going to be paid or or Or nothing or nothing And he's added I think he's now up to 25 acres But it has taken him a long time and it's not contiguous So he has to stage where his Where his tractors and and stuff and they're spending a lot of time on the road moving tractors and moving material and Moving bins when they've done harvesting because they can't get access to a large enough continuous piece on the flip side as you say A dairy farm, let's say that wants to sell To 200 acres or 100 acres like he's never going to be able to afford that he's and he doesn't need that many acres so how do you What's the legal structure that's needed to try to get multiple farmers on that property? Is that land like is it going to be conventional organic if it's going to be organic? Then you got three-year cycle before you can actually get certification If you buy a farm that was a dairy farm All of a sudden you've got all this infrastructure that you have to pay for But you may not need it And you need you need different types of infrastructure. So a lot of young farmers get on property They spend all of their money to get on the land. They get help, you know from lots of different sources But then you need working capital you need the money to be able to buy the hoop house and the The extra bigger tractor and the like there's all of those additional costs that come into it when you're gonna do that Kind of a of a transition and that's not to say that it doesn't happen because it does the challenges We don't have enough funding that's moving in that direction that enables it to be possible for that next generation They don't come from a farm family What they really want to get into farming the business of farming It's it can be really challenging unless you come from money Unless you come from unless it's absolutely right because they can't borrow it. Yeah, I just I have a piece of land and right behind it 35 acres in the flood plain It's number one flood plain the development rates were sold It just sold for $5,000 an acre $175,000 For land in the flood plain that the development rates are gone and no young person Can go any place you get the financing to get on to the property Then let alone buy your tractors buy your equipment to get organized You know Yeah, I said yesterday with A young farmer who's filling out a grant to buy And this is bigger than yeah, yes, this is A no-tilt cedar. Yeah, and can get a grant Between $5,000 and $40,000 But for the cedar and the cedar is going to cost a hundred thousand. Yeah Yeah So I think he ought to share with somebody But then you got to be able you got to be adjacent You got to you got to be able to transport it right and and those First five years of the of the business are probably the hardest to establish the the cash flow To be profitable as well. So now you're carrying Higher land costs higher equipment and infrastructure costs are trying to maybe get rid of infrastructure which requires capital So the the conditions facing new young farmers is much different now than it was In 1960 in Vermont, you know the just the capital crimes alone or are astronomically I don't see it as much different than the 1960s or 70s In for even with farm vehicles. They did no planning then They are they aren't doing planning now and then and the generation ending off Is looking for their retirement and the investment that they have in property and the land And the next generation has to pay to retire I watched that with my father And he we're talking he bought my grandfather out in 1971 But it's the same basic issue. Yeah, so So why don't we shift over to walking you through the plan and how to use it if that is That's good. All right Yeah, so hopefully by the end of this what seems like a very large document will actually be accessible to you all And and as I go through this you'll see that there there will be different ways that you can reference and use this You can go really deep or you can be very selective and in how you reference it So there's a lot of different ways to use it to what you're interested in um, and as ellen mentioned So in 2019 farm to play investment program was reauthorized So established the need to create another 10-year strategic plan, which this is and with that The three outcomes of that legislation really Flowed through the entirety of this and and that is uh, you know again on page 6 So increase sustainable economic development create jobs in vermont's food and farm sector That's the real economic development and and economic viability Then the second is improve soils water and resiliency of the working landscape in the face of climate change So we've got that you know sustainability environmental sustainability and resiliency component And then the last one improve access to healthy local foods for all vermont are so Really trying to have equity in the system. Everyone has access to it Um, and you will find those three outcomes really are reflected throughout this and And then also note that we added a commitment to racial equity because those three don't happen if we in fact Don't have a consider considerations for racial equity in in all of them And so, you know a food system that leaves people behind is not sustainable is not economically successful or You know or environmentally sustainable So that that is just uh, you know, keep that in mind as as you go through this that really that's the foundation um, and then If you turn to page Let's see. It's nine. Um, there's an understanding the plan. You might not be able to see the patent vendor So look for it page eight And so what we what we do is taking those three outcomes the commitment to racial equity Is then the plan has a vision right of what do we want the food system to look like in 2030? What does it feel like? And that that also is a way in which to just you know, always kind of guide us in what we're doing From the vision, there's then 15 strategic goals So those are the high level signposts of you know, the directions we want to go in Each each goal has measurable objectives and i'll talk more about each of these as we go through So so we have actually measurable Indicators for all of our goals to at least give us a signal of progress like how are we you know It helps us ask the question. How are we doing on these goals? And then we have the priority strategies Which are the actual what are the actual programs investments? policies that we need to do in order to get to our goals to fulfill this vision That we've created for our food system and those priority strategies. So there's 34 but They're a distillation of what are 276 recommendations from product market and issue briefs, which i'm going to go to next so So know that we have We have these briefs that are dedicated to a particular topic And from that there's recommendations in each of those and what we did was looking at all of the recommendations together tried to synthesize them into 34 Priority strategies so that that's a better way of kind of seeing that you know These recommendations relate in this way and that there's a priority strategy that we can look to That if we implement has a big impact on a lot of different recommendations um, so let me go to the The briefs because that'll be a good place You know topically to orient you to what is included in this plan. Um, so if you go to page 37 And that's also Why why the document is so large is There there are 54 of these briefs that are Most of them are two pages. There's a few that are four and the dairy brief is eight So they're meant to be short and accessible You know and cover cover issues in in a very standardized way so you can kind of start to synthesize Like this is the briefs and this is the plan Yeah So it's a lot of good material for people to Do back up exactly. Yeah, and so The way it's organized as you'll see and the the table of contents is We have a little description of the methodology, but then the product briefs There's a another table of contents on page 39 The market briefs are in page 99 and then the issue briefs on page 121 So let's go to the product briefs on 39, which is actually just turn the page So here are all the products that we've covered in more depth in detail Listed here and by page number So anything from agroforestry to goats grapes hops produce spirit swine If you have any questions about what's happening In any of those product categories or what the specific needs or market trends are You can reference these briefs to do that Page that Yeah, and so let's let's pick one. What do you want to know about? Um, I want to know how the bees are doing Yes, all right. Let's go bees and honey 47 So what you'll find Is that each of these briefs including bees and honey Opens with a what's at stake statement And that really gives you the most concise statement about Really like what's important what to be thinking about what to focus your attention on Sort of main issues and challenges in a very concise statement From that what's at stake then every brief has a current conditions section Which gives you some data the most you know the most recent data that we have on that Some summary of key trends or Just things that have happened over the years and then usually there's a featured You know infographic or data On the on the right hand side So in this case colony losses by county is is the featured data piece Then on the second page after you get a sense of the conditions Then we summarize bottlenecks and gaps And then opportunities And then from that we go to recommendations So in this way As you get a sense of the bottlenecks and gaps the opportunities they should flow into then the recommendations to either take advantage of the opportunities or address the bottlenecks and gaps Um And in that way again, you know a really quick way to to reference things to understand And differentiate between you know, what are the strengths we have here that could be opportunities? Or what are the gaps and things that need addressing or further investment or investigation? Um And so yeah those then each usually has around five recommendations. Some might have a little more some might have a little less Um, and so that's uh, that's and then yes, also note that These briefs are uh, you know, not just written by the vs jf staff or ellen and i these are all written by a content expert Which is listed the lead author and then they uh Worked with a team of contributing authors who are also other content experts So this you know is is coming from a community of experts who have spent their You know their life and experiences around this product area Uh what when we when we solicited lead authors and encourage, you know, help them to identify the contributors One of the things that we told them we wanted was this is not about creating recommendations that one organization thinks is the Is the idea of here, right this we wanted we wanted them to represent in this case Like the entire bee and honey community And we wanted any we wanted to get to a point where if some other beekeeper Who wasn't part of the process read this they would be like About summarizes it, you know, it's like about 80 80 to 90 percent like yeah I agree with what's in there because we wanted to create these product these briefs In a way that would give you guys guidance and to know and have confidence that if you read this The folks the business folks connected to this brief are going to be like yeah, that's a that's that's that's I can get behind that That's about right And I and I think um the other thing to note too about these recommendations is that some of them are very You might say prescriptive like they're they're very concise. They're directed a very specific thing Others might be a little more general So there's more room to navigate what the policy solution is or the amount of money required Or there might be further testimony that could fulfill You know kind of fill this out and give more specifics to what's needed So so they're not meant to be interpreted as as like this is The by the word what needs to happen. There is room to interpret and Investigate further, but at least it gives you that you know a sense of direction And some specifics as to what what could impact the industry But if you were going to have somebody come in to talk to you about eggs or goats before they come in Read the two pager You know like Yeah, yeah We published it in february 21 And is there Going to be some periodic review in the future to say we should update this in progress reports based upon this You know, I went to the slaughterhouse piece and started reading that in um, and I know exactly who I'm going to take that to Yeah, I like it. I like the whole layout of this and I really like it but yeah, how often should we upgrade this and Will we by section get a progress report? Are we making any ground if you're lucky you might make it to the next rewrite Thank you to the next what Well with my color hero problem And if it is 20 years before it's done again No, I didn't name 10 now You know, they got seven So a a few ways in which we'll we'll track progress and in essence keep you know update this is You know, so that's our annual reports are meant to be a reflection of changes and and also Referencing what the baseline is from the plan And then also we do have so we have a master spreadsheet where we are tracking the recommendations individually And and accounting for major changes and then also We have you know, I mentioned there's measurable objectives tied to each goal So we have indicators of aggregate data that we can say is a reflection of you know The changes that have happened in this industry, you know, you can see some of that in the changes in these indicators Which those are updated On different schedules depending on when data becomes available Um, and I think you know probably will do a Mid-tent like a five-year process of reflecting on Where this stands and summarizing synthesizing the progress In the ag census for instance, which has so much of the data that helps especially on the product briefs Only comes out is collected every five years And then it takes another couple of years after they've collected it before we actually get the data There's always a lag so So for instance when we did the first plan in 2011 We published it in 20 in fiscal year 2015 We did do that sort of midpoint check-in And we were able to use the latest census data Which was already at that point three years old technically But that was the best we could do in terms of what's available data. So we'll do that same I just worry about it just because if I look at And you've got a section on very good If I look that Those businesses If and yeah, and we said here last week talking about cheese Those business areas are changing so fast that and and If this is I'm just right But yes, you can't wait 10 years. Totally. Yes. Yes. Totally get it And that's part of the reason why we developed to the farm to plate network of all the organizations that are part of the food system to actually be working on the implementation because That's going to give us the ability to make adjustments and to address problems as they are rising and and not in this sort of Static point where we take a snapshot of what's going on Yeah, so how does the policy Interact with the global warming solutions act because I know ag has a certain reduction that it has to meet We understand this was published before it was passed. Yeah, but there are a bunch of things that have to be done Yeah, and so how do you kind of Connect those two. Yeah to get so that ag meets its goals. Yeah so the the yeah, there's there's also a climate change brief but You know the yeah the mitigation requirements of the Of the climate plan and legislation You know have our mandates and essence of reduction Then there are also the the adaptation and resiliency components of the plan that don't have Measurable targets, which is where there are a lot of additional food system recommendations contained in the climate action plan So there's some question of you know, how how do we How do we put actual teeth are forced to that part of the plan? Recommendations. Yeah, or yeah. Yeah, and and those recommendations as ellen said before Are in many cases adapted or or straight adopted from this plan So you will see References recommendations that might look exactly the same in the climate action plan in certain sections as they do here But those are most likely going to be in the more related to adaptation resiliency aspects not the mandated mitigation reduction targets So that's I don't know if that that might not answer it directly, but Because yeah, we didn't know what those targets goals. So that that'll come out Right. How you might recommend if there's something a beekeeper does or a dairy or right or culture You know that kind of thing. Yeah, and I think the you know Because this came out before we um, we didn't know what the The regulatory targets were going to be. Yeah, and now, you know The agency of ag has has a mandate to regulate towards those those targets for agriculture as a sector. Thanks. Yeah When you were Putting all the products together and talking with people Was there ever any value associated with? Um, producing certain products that carry the Vermont name Uh to market And if that did that Make a difference to some people Yeah, so if you go in in the issue briefs which start on page 121 Then there is a consumer demand, uh issue brief on page 145 Uh And the mark yeah end marking 169, but the the consumer demand brief on 145 is a good job of Uh synthesizing Um, yeah consumer market trends and preferences And and also looking at past research on this issue and I think, um You know, there are cases where yes the Vermont name brand means something But it's usually to people who have had an experience here in Vermont So they have here. Yeah And and for those that don't Uh, the notion of the Vermont brand doesn't necessarily carry as much value or weight in the marketplace They're looking more at than specific attributes around health. Um, or the you know, the taste the quality of of the product Um, and and that has gotten very, um competitive You know, we're seeing that happen for you know, no longer Can you say the product is organic and that just sways a consumer to buy it? It's got to be organic that's a grass-fed that's You know has has these health benefits and really a lot of You know value laden attributes to products now So it's it's much harder to gain the consumers Their their attention and their loyalty to your product and so yet the Vermont brand Has limitations in that in the marketplace right now But for those who have been to Vermont and have that experience Vermont then becomes a signifier for all the things that they you know, signal that they've experienced here Um, and that's a quick reference for them to say Oh, you know, I know I know what Vermont's about that has Vermont on it. It must be good. Um, And they they have a trust in it. Yeah yeah And on that 145 page Yeah farm raised Uh farm Seafood Yeah, what went on what went on with us to Is there something there that yes, I think that that speaks to um consumer preferences Where say for farms farm seafood not caring Significant the same the significance for consumer about the sustainability of the product If they if they see it as farm seafood, they think oh, there's maybe a lot of energy use going into that Why isn't it wild caught? You know, it might not be as good as something that's wild caught That kind of thing. Yeah So farm raised might be that they're raised on the farm and then they go to a finisher CAFO, right as opposed to grass fed has a higher Awareness around that maybe the animals are treated better like I mean and of course a lot of this stuff is perception Right because you don't actually have a label in this country with stringent rules around What does it mean to be grass fed which we call attention to as something we need Because you don't know if that means grass in the barn that you feed them or grass out in the field for a month or the whole life or and there's yeah, there's federal labeling issues with Product that gets is raised say in Argentina. It gets processed through a cargill facility in the midwest It then gets a sticker that says a us product or you know made And and and that grass fed product then is sold at a much lower price and takes premiums away from Producers in our region. So that's there's some federal issues here as well. Yeah So we've also got these market briefs So there's also market briefs on look at page 99 So it gets that some of your questions Around hospitals and colleges and that's yeah, you'll see distribution is in the market brief Section because seeing distribution as the means to reach all of those markets in different ways Yeah, so So obviously there's there's much more time that you can spend with all of these briefs and Then to know that we're going to shift over to talking about the priority strategies But before we do that, I want to reference also there's a table in the back Page 193 So on page 193 now you'll see Where I was talking about the priority strategies are in some cases in a lot of cases a synthesis of a lot of recommendations And this table shows you that connection So you can see for any priority strategy you can then see the the individual recommendations that make up that strategy So then you can if If you're really if you're seeing that a lot of things that you're interested in in a brief are tied to a priority strategy for Then you can draw your bring your attention to that priority strategy and think about you know, okay How does how do we implement policy? Around this to implement the strategy And it also gets to Jake's point that these if you can if you can solve for One of the priority strategies It has a ripple effects across a lot of different products markets and issues potentially depending on how many Bullets are in that right hand column, you know, you take a look at at number eight for instance on product specific value Channel for page 195 producers distributors and buyers together at matchmaking events that All those those that concept of matchmaking between producers and buyers Showed up in all of these different briefs that that are listed there, right? Which and we we wanted to create this table because it was a way to help us Understand like how like what's really the number of the problem? And if we solve that one problem it will have that ripple effect across multiple products and markets and and issues and So it's more strategic It's a scale How is this being distributed? Um, so yeah We designed our whole website around basically this new this new plan And so so on one on the website is you can access all of this content. There's a plan specific page You can look at actually the briefs online Individually and you don't need to download them Ad review actually has the agency because we did this in partnership with the agency all along the way They have every month chosen one of the briefs to highlight and it's almost published like exactly in in there We also have a an e-newsletter that has about 8 000 subscribers and many farmers Get that and we so we feature A different brief content from the the strategic plan and then every newsletter Trying to direct it towards a specific topic and then say like learn more You know go to the plan go the website our we have we have listservs of of our members that We distribute this content to Which you know that includes over 300 members and their organizations Yeah, I know there's ta providers who have You know are working with farms or might be working with us some slaughter facility that you know have have this on hand Or no to reference it So there's a lot of different ways that this information gets out actually into the world And that said we have we do have some companies they're they're as you can imagine being fully color They're not they're not inexpensive to produce But if somebody calls us up and they said I really I really want a hard copy We will are happy to send them Yeah, those out-of-staters they must like to have a hard copy somewhere is kicking around To promote to promote this kind of stuff when they go to meetings, I would think Yeah Yeah, it's it's a lot of people Reference it use it. So right you want to jump into some strategies. So just last just lastly Coming back to the priority strategies, which are on page 30 or the list starts on page 30 You'll see that And I'll just wait Get there Um So each priority strategy you'll see there's a colored icon That follows it. So that is reference to the specific goal number and and goal category That that priority strategy It is oriented to so it's Number one, we you know providing the at least one and a half million for annual funding to the working lands enterprise fund That touches upon the economic sort of development area, which is the purple color and specifically goals one and three And then also six and eight around environmental sustainability So you have that additional system of reference that you can you can see how these strategies relate to achieving our strategic goals um and just to Yeah, I won't go into depth on each of these priority strategies But just want to call out some themes here. So one obviously is we lab which We said we're we're strategic in saying at least a one and a half million for annual funding knowing that It'd be great if it was more than that and obviously there is a request to make it more this year But uh stabilizing that base Is is also really essential and is is a part of what this strategy is speaking to For business planning because that's been Usually yeah one time money right you're all in yeah, and Yeah, and having that predictability is is really important And the demand is certainly there as we've been talking about there's a lot of infrastructure needs and just You know transition funding and financing that's needed for farms at this point two and three speak to Developing funding mechanisms funding opportunities that meet very Specific food system investment gaps and also particularly for underserved populations You know bipoc women And and others So that's what two and three covers five is the is the dairy strategy priority strategy Six is meat Anything related to meat processing meat development Seven and eight are um as as alluded to earlier you know the the the need for Not only just processing or distribution Or storage infrastructure, but that Each of our industries has very specific needs around those things. So the processing needs of um of produce growers is different than the processing needs of Agroforestry or or or meat and livestock And and with that too Is is you know distribution infrastructure is a key for all of that storage is a key for all of that So just finding those interconnections of infrastructure, but also knowing that there are specific industry needs Uh depending on the product type Nine is talks about uh land access and and conservation programs Um, so there are some really, you know great established programs, but they could Absolutely, um, you know innovate and and develop additional programming with more resources So that's what nine is is talking about As we were referencing too earlier of there's a huge need for Looking at multi, you know multi owner land ownership Working out the the legal the financial aspects of that As we have, you know large tracts of land that may not fit the needs of one particular producer But could meet the needs of four And so that's an area of trying to find, you know, are there policy incentives for that? Are are there funding sources that could support pilot projects that kind of thing? 10 11 and 12 are about the business assistance and technical assistance needs that we were discussing um, so one one mechanism is is uh vhcb and their farm enforced viability program So making sure that they have their full allocation of of funding But then, you know, there are very specific needs. Um, whether it's the transition planning But then also, uh production technical assistance. So again, you know different industries have very different production Technical assistance needs and we don't have a lot of depth With that. So there's not, you know, a lot of capacity for livestock Tech production technical assistance, for example. So how can we find ways? To increase that capacity Then looking at 15 16 and 17 Those are oriented around marketing One the 15 talks about producer associations So they're real play a real vital role in promoting marketing their members And doing so on very limited dollars and then 16 talks about statewide marketing So whether we're talking about department of tourism marketing or the agency of ag Just vermont has historically under underfunded our marketing And you know that the agency of agriculture doesn't have any specific appropriations for marketing department of tourism marketing has In relation to how big of an industry tourism is has very limited Money for that and so that's one need and then 17 speaks more to the the specific business marketing needs of building business owners Capacity acumen to market their products for to find the services that can provide that for them And then turning the page Um So just I wanted to call out 20 That is a priority strategy around incentivizing the local purchasing reimbursement. So making that permanent would fulfill A priority strategy from from the strategic plan And then uh 22 Is oriented around increasing funding for proven ways to alleviate food security So that's where universal school meals would would fulfill the priority strategy. That's Where programs like, you know, maintaining funding for farm to school injecting Or putting money into crop cash farm share programs Those are all proven ways to get local food to more vermonters make it more accessible 24 And hopefully we'll we'll hear we'll hear more about this in the annual report But maybe also in some dedicated time with the committee is is the food security plan which is in development My colleague becker warren is working on that and so by next end of end of this year And the start of next legislative session, we will have a food security roadmap that will have some more policy recommendations To address food security in times of not only in times of crisis, but how do we Build out our food security in times of relative normalcy so that we're ready for those crisis moments And whether that's pandemic or climate related So that's what that is looking at really making sure that you know food supply is is secure and stable in in all times And that people have the ability to access food Um in all times and there's you know a lot of complexity obviously involved with that 26 is about climate related climate adaptive funding So there's a number of of issues and and maybe policies actually this legislative session related to that And also the climate plan is how do we kind of type make the connections that you know agriculture needs more Support to adapt to climate change. Um, and that's what 26 is speaking to Is about the support for the payment for ecosystem services working group They have I know some recommendations coming forward about how to advance You know the the payment for ecosystem services Which is an important element of providing additional revenue to farms And acknowledging the public benefits that they're generating through their stewardship So really continuing to support that work and also Advancing the recommendations that come out of that group because they have spent three years of really dedicated time investigating the issue and trying to you know find ways to do that provide That support in a sustainable way And then lastly is that 33 and 34? Speak very directly to the issue of equity You know 33 about all of our Need to commit and prioritize actions that eradicate structural racism in the food system And that includes uplifting financially competency and leadership participation representation of BIPOC Um, I know the land access opportunity board Maybe it's out, but they are also releasing a report soon that will have hopefully some policy related recommendations Um, and that work is you know really critical to accomplishing not only You know equity related goals, but also a lot of these the other Aspects of the strategic plan and then 34 is is more specific to Just the need for some more research data collection investigation of racial equity In the food system. Um, so when our team of of authors was writing the racial equity brief There was just a notable lack of data On racial equity that you know makes it hard to speak to Speak to policymakers about the the issues and the potential interventions that could happen to address those issues So those are the priority strategies and I will stop there Yeah Well that 30 through 34 Yeah through 33, I guess it is. Yep Um, those are pages that we want to pay attention to yeah and While Richie's our man on appropriations So if you Get shorted, I think you're sitting at that table If we you'll get shorted blame him If you get an increase or you can call me But I think you know, I think you folks have done a great job presenting This and and what it represents is important for us to use for backup to issues where You know, if we run in there don't usually run into many problems I'm trying It means probably well, and you know the for linda To given that you're always having to try to find people to testify on different things You know the the lead authors and the contributing authors that are on these briefs are all right there, right? And if you need you know email addresses or whatever We're always happy to help identify people and stuff like that. So um, you know, we tried to put together pack in a lot of Important useful information in the concise as we could To give you all a good a good reference document to work from no, there's a lot of Good reference material here. It's a document that Somebody wanting to get into a certain line of ag You know, they should be able to find some help here Yeah and the names of who to call even and we we had a A younger person come to the office for some I can't remember what but they mentioned that As part of class they like built a business plan Utilizing the plan And that it was you know a great resource for that work and really gave them clarity And we certainly heard stories about that with the first plan Of helping people identify what their niche really should be Versus what they thought it should be And you know creating successful businesses around that I mean the all the food system majors at uvm And that the in the different food system programs. They're all using this in the classroom Oh, yeah So it's informing the next generation in terms of how to think about being entrepreneurial and all that And I will say also on page 55 the the dairy brief Was put together. It's the large the longest one as is Appropriate, but the lead author was laura ginsburg at the agency of ag and there was a number of contributing authors And we wanted to make sure we got a real mixture of different types of dairy farms that that were part of The contribution of this but I think what's important to know senators is that This is in essence the roadmap for a lot of what is being distributed through the Vermont dairy business innovation center The strategies for how to deploy those federal funds Not only from up, but also the region because it's a regional effort, you know The roadmap is in here because laura wrote it So you read this Have laura and give you a presentation on the dairy business innovation center and you will see How it is actually being those funds are being deployed to in service to this building out of A transform dairy industry that is conventional. It is organic. It is sustainable It is viable. It's value-added. It's Come on to the it's the whole the whole the whole way in which that Program is being rolled out and and the the areas of focus for grant making The seeds of it are all in here Did you run into Any discussions about having more Processing of dairy products or different kinds of processing of dairy product like we process cheese and All kinds of cheeses yogurts ice cream I don't know Yeah, if we still ship, you know 30 odd percent of our milk out in you know value added stuff is supposedly where the money is Even though it has problems trickling down Yeah, if you look actually on page 60 It's in the dairy brief the zoographic That shows that you know where on farm and off farm processing of dairy Has has gone over a 10-year period and it's it's quite remarkable, you know, it went from 50 something to 151 Of going to process it 10 years to do this That's true But the the point is is that you know, we flag the tension in the first plan to the need for more on farm and and In-state processing infrastructure and it's value added processing happening and it actually happened Oh, yeah, it really it really did. Um, and so I think there is more opportunity there for sure where I mean We're doing really good for I mean we were advised to what to do and we actually did And yeah, we're still like you're trapped here on the left Well, that's a processing but you you know, our farm numbers are way down You know in the last from 10 20 it really made it quite a dive and and that we we built the Processing to keep the value added here But yet it never trickled down to the farmer it got lost between the wholesalers and the retailers and and the I somewhat agree with you, but We've got nearly the same Number of cows Yeah, it's what it's dropped off a little but not it's really the small firms that use Well, they're getting bled out. Yeah, yeah, they're getting bled out and the big firms are Are bigger bigger solid and in If if you're a small farmer In your cows are worth. They were worth of 800 to a thousand dollars six months ago there were 17 1800 dollars today and So your neighbor who's the big farmer Comes along says are you interested in selling your farm? Well, why would the big farmer be interested in buying a little going? Well, because he can take the production from those little cows From that little farm and move it to the big farm To boost his production or build it up So, you know a small farmer Yeah, I'll sell well for that kind of money else. So well particularly when you're Like you talked about earlier older Yeah, approaching retirement. Yeah, you know, when do I jump off? Yeah You know the thing I didn't see in here is like a focus of How do I transfer this firm to somebody else and where where does that new person get If you're young and you're looking a lot of people look at these and go say I can never afford the capital to buy three tractors So that's where that selling the development rights and things like that. Yeah kicking Well, that's for the owner. It's the older But if you were younger and you don't own it, you know, how do you how do they know where to go to get I don't A section in here that says call this person to train to help you. Yeah, well and and so we do have we do have a succession Brief in here Yeah, and and so like we point at those things as being the issues and we did and there's a farmland access Is also part of that and we have a capital access to capital brief in here All of those things point at that, but you're you're you're absolutely touching on a really important thing How do we knit all of those things the pieces and the parts together to support that young person that wants to get on Uh, get a new farm going right and as we mentioned before there's not enough Um business advisors technical providers on the ground with the knowledge of how to actually help a farm family walk Through the process of doing that transfer because there's lots of different ways and so and you know It's it's it's still really challenging as all farm family dynamics are really challenging, right? so thinking about Trans transferring within an existing family situation from the fourth generation to the the fifth generation for instance Is one whole set of Things and then if you don't have the next generation in your family and you're wanting to pass it on to somebody that's not You know biologically related to you That's another whole set of things That has to get worked through right that is Potentially more money needed up front because you don't have the potential of you know Mom and dad are staying in the farmhouse for as long as they're going to live kind of thing 25 I want a Grace bench holes and I want to buy 10 or 15 acres and I got no credit. Correct. Correct. And you got a lot of student debt Yep But there are a way past that But you know, we didn't want to like in the workforce omnibus bill that happened last year for instance I can't remember if this stuck but at one point we were talking about Could there be some kind of School loan Waving of some portion of school loans for far for for young people that wanted to get into the business of farming That we could as a state say, okay, we're going to make this invest We're going to make it easier for you to actually have some free cash Because we're going to take care of your school debt up to some dumb dollar amount The two bus two program, you know, they have free ride VTC right, but that's Right, that's five a year. Wow. We need to get we always bump that up And we always figured that was to be 15 to 20 right here, but yeah, the numbers haven't Really, you know, we got a high grade average The numbers haven't been there and it hasn't been I don't think that's been strongly promoted No, there's definitely some work that needs to be done there and one of the one of the recommendations that came out of that Vermont Tech Ag transformation process was to signal, you know, maybe given the changes going on in the types of agriculture That it needs to not just be for dairy, but for diversified or livestock producers or whatever So beefing it up to 15 to 20 a year with having some dedicated number for specifically to dairy But then having other funds available for other types of farms could be a way to go forward Well, I mean, we I'm having The state of Vermont and its educational facilities doesn't have a milking herd to teach Dairy, I mean pretty bad I mean New Hampshire has when they got a couple of hundred farms and You know, you could the kids want to go down there to school all the time and New York's got them over there and they want to go over there I mean You mean that the high schools don't have it. Yeah, we don't have any real Our colleges, our colleges don't VTC's solve the cows your VM's got a few cows, but it's for the little Pre-back people. Yeah I mean Program that our technical school is gone. They do have me All right, but they don't, you know And you know, one of the things we talked about early right here is the slaughterhouse stuff Unless you start catching some kids early early. Yeah. Yeah You're not gonna they're not gonna go into the slaughterhouse when they're 30 years old You've got to get them when you're 16 17 get them interested and then Well, I would really encourage you to have Pat moulton and molly willard in from Vermont technical college Pat moulton now is of course the workforce director for the Vermont state colleges To talk about the ag transformation process. There's a new advisory board That's been established really great group of people. You could have a couple of those folks in And and to learn about the the plan changes To create the center for agriculture and food entrepreneurship at vermont tech There's been a lot of funding that's been then been raised They're just about ready to go out to hiring or to looking for a director for the center to really rebuild that program And to have a lot of different types of of Hands-on learning for young people to go through that into a robust internship program And which means that they the kids can get out onto other people's farms to learn a lot of what's needed You know, so that would be a good update. They're they're putting together Almost have all the money together to create a meat processing lab to actually or you know, on site Silly to teach me cutting and meat processing To service the job openings that exist in so many of those slaughter meat processing plants that need workers So lots to dive into to learn more about that for sure When you have a chance well, thank you so much next week. Um, we're going to do that joint. Uh, yeah Thank you. Um, we'll have a couple of beef farmers joining us, right? Uh, well, yeah, dairy farmers that are um Starting to get more involved with beef. I guess you can think of that Yep, they are Yep, yep So much pastureland not being used You know, you know, it's not the meadowland. It doesn't get used It's the pasture because is there dairy firms get larger All the cows stay in the barn. It's the small farm. It's 50 cows that put the cows out to pasture and then pasturelings just sitting here on use Yeah At the what we'll talk about next week is a good actually a good example of how we're trying to address this issue of you know, large dairies that may be Selling their herds, but maintaining their land looking for other options to how to utilize that um, and and creating an actual business model In the beef industry that can utilize that land um at that scale because that's you know, one One way to to address this is to utilize livestock in another industry That can utilize land, um, you know at the 400 acre level Any other questions iran Over the weekend asked me about innovative farming and I don't know if you have any briefs that speak to that But you know, uvm's got to be doing some really innovative research about what farming looks like in 10 or 20 years What's what's a good way for our committee to find out more about the future farming so that we direct our attention Not just as things are working today, but as the bees disappear or the avian food takes over What should we be looking at, you know, is it the trellis like that's even like it, but For down the road. Do we usually have uvm come in some folks story? The research department or the where the extension come in and talk. I don't know We have uh, well, we've had the president and no for I'm sorry, uh, but the extension people are we usually have them in Okay, because I want to make sure that I can answer this constituent next time we see them and say yes Yeah, uh, thank you. Yeah, I think I think uh, there's different ways that that Could look within a product area and there are certain product areas like agroforestry is an area of a lot of innovation and thinking But yeah, you could look at like there's a lot of innovation happening within apples. That's the way growers are growing But it's a good question too about we don't have a brief say on like technology in the food system or how that's being Implemented in in vermont at this stage and there's probably there is a lot of I think cool things happening around Tech and agriculture even at a small scale Heather Darby and Chris Callahan from uvm extension are probably the two that would know it the most Yeah, Chris Callahan would be good because he's a he's an engineer by training and so I think he's probably in In touch with a lot of development Heather. Uh, she's on top. Yeah, Heather on the research side. Um, yeah Yeah, I have the uvm extension director What uh, like we're in uh as along with chris and we have him in Well, he hadn't been hired too long the last time Lots lots lots happening there. So he's got he's got a year or so under his belt. I think now Yeah coming up on two in may Chris Callahan Heather Darby and then uh the new extension director Roy Right Well, thank you very much. Yeah, thank you so much really for giving us this amount of time really great You'll get your bill Apparently we're gonna get the call though either If you do if it does happen if the evacuation happens between now and your afternoon committee consider yourself part of this committee Okay And go to the pink And don't worry about lunch Thank you so much. Yeah, thanks We'll see you next week