 This is Dennis McMahon and welcome to Positivity Vermont. Today, the first day of October, we're very proud to have with us as our special guest, Anson Tevitz, the Secretary of Agriculture, Food and Markets for the State of Vermont. This being harvest time and this being the state coping with the pandemic and all those things going on. I thought it would be a great idea to have the Secretary brief our viewers and other people around the state as to what's going on in the world of agriculture and farming, and all those related topics. So welcome very much, Mr. Secretary. Welcome to Positivity. Well, thank you Dennis and it's great to be with you. Thank you for doing this. The course is a little bit different than the last time we were together. Last time I think we're in the studio together, but with COVID, we do what we can and we survive and we adapt. So it's nice to be with you over Zoom. Excellent. I just tell the viewers a little bit about your background. If people can look you up on Twitter and see your farm and all your very interesting aspects of being a farmer, but tell us a little bit about yourself and your background and how you became Secretary of Agriculture, Food and Markets for the State of Vermont. Sure Dennis. Well, I'm coming to you from the town of Cabot and that's where I live. And behind me is a pasture where I've got a couple of animals. And I grew up on a dairy farm. So this is a dairy farm. And right now we lease a great part of the land to an organic dairy farmer. He and his wife and family have a number of heifers here, but they also do the cropping. They've gotten about three cuttings off the fields this year. It's been extremely dry, so I think it's been a challenge. So I grew up on a traditional Vermont farm, dairy. We had a sugar bush, we did maple. We had sheep when I was little. We had about a couple hundred sheep that used to roam the pasture right behind me here. And so I'm just a regular old farmer up here on the hill in Cabot. That's great. Tell us a little bit more about your background Yeah, and as I grew older in the 80s, as I graduated from high school, I had an interested radio. I listened to the radio while I was milking cows and I was a big Red Sox fan. So I've always been a fan of radio and still am a fan of radio. And so I'd listened to Red Sox games. I'd listened to a talk radio out of Boston in New York at nighttime when you could get it. Now through the internet and through our phones, we can listen to radio all over the world now. That wasn't the case in the mid-80s. So I found a place called Emerson College, which was a communication school. I went to Emerson College and graduated there from Emerson in 1987, made my way back to the farm and WDEV radio in Waterbury. So I worked for WDEV radio for about seven years, transferred to television. I worked in Rutland for a year, working for WCAX for a year down there and then made my way back to Montpelier and Cabot and Central Vermont working for WCX TV for a number of years. Ending my television career as the news director at WCAX before I took this position as Secretary of Agriculture. That's great. Well, tell us about the state of Vermont in terms of the importance of agriculture, the role of agriculture in Vermont. And Vermont agriculture, these are the entire country and perhaps the world, the importance of agriculture to our economy and how many people employs and the nature and scope of that industry. Well, agriculture is very important to Vermont. It defines us, it's defined us in the past, it defines us now and into the future. We live in a state that produces a great deal of food for the world. We are a big dairy state. We produce a tremendous amount of dairy, about $2 billion a year in the dairy industry. Most of that is exported because of our small population with a population of 660,000 people. We can't drink all that milk or eat all that cheese although we'd like to. We have to export it. So we ship it to bigger markets in New England and New York. We also have a big maple industry in Vermont. We have an industry that grows fruits and vegetables. Farmers markets are important to what we do. Direct to consumer is a big part of what's been happening. We have farm stands, farmers markets. We have some folks that are growing hemp now. We have a meat industry where it's very important now where there's been a lot of interest, particularly in this pandemic, of local meats, particularly poultry and beef and pork and lamb. So it's a cross-section of agriculture and it's diversified and that's important. It's mainly defined because we have a great land base. Much of our land remains open and in production and it also helps our tourist industry as well. People come to Vermont because the land is open. It is productive. It's being worked. So it's very, very important that we have a vibrant agriculture industry to support other industries that are in Vermont. That's great. Well, we're about six months into the pandemic right now. Can you give us an idea of how the state has dealt with it and how in particular the agricultural community has fared during this crisis? Well, it's impacted agriculture in a big way. A couple of things. We discovered early on as America and Vermont and New England all shut down, food was pretty darn important. We found that people did rush to their supermarket and we saw the shelves as sometimes, the basics were being taken off the shelves like milk and flour and butter and cheese. So there was a big impact of that early on. Agriculture, although has remained open throughout this. We've been fortunate. We haven't had any real difficult situations with health on farms. They've kept going, but it has disrupted a lot of markets, particularly dairy. When restaurants, colleges, schools close, that market is lost to dairy. They're not drinking milk. They're not using butter and cooking, particularly our cheese makers with our restaurants being closed and some of those bigger markets and those restaurants that love Vermont's specialty cheeses. Those were closed. So those markets were disrupted. And through that, the governor, Governor Scott and the agency got together with the legislature and we put together a relief package for our farmers because a great deal of their markets were disrupted and a loss of income to them. So we've been spending the last few weeks taking applications from farmers, whether they are cheese makers, whether they are dairy farmers, whether they're sugar makers, whether they grow hemp, whether they're a slaughterhouse, whether a farmer's market. We have granting programs to try to make up for some of those losses because of COVID. The dollar figures, we have a $25 million granting program for dairy and about an $8.5 million granting program to working lands, which covers just about everything else that is not dairy. What percentage of farms are participating in this grant program right now? Well, we've had a robust response to this because of the disruption. We think we're gonna be okay in money. We won't know if it's all gonna be used, but it's sort of trending towards, we will use the $25 million that's needed for dairy. Right now the average farm is receiving about, in the dairy side, about $33,000, $34,000, but some of the losses that they're experiencing are much greater than that. Some of the large farms, which are dairy farms that have more than 700 cows, some of their losses were predicted early on in this, they were gonna lose an income of about a million dollars a year. So they're gonna be receiving, at most, from us as $100,000 grant. There is some federal aid that's also coming in to help our dairy farmers and others that work the land. So we hope some of those grant dollars will keep people on the land, on their farms with their families working, but it's certainly been a difficult struggle. I wanna go through some of the other projects or some of the other activities that the agency's involved with at this time. What about the Maple 100 project? Yeah, a Maple 100. We think of Maple, Vermonters know Maple pretty well. It's been around, it's part of our diet every day, but outside Vermont, we need to do a better job of letting the world know about this wonderful sweetener. It's a natural sweetener. So this is a marketing campaign that we've taken to, a lot of it on social media, whether it be Facebook or Instagram or Twitter and we're just highlighting all the special things about Maple. It's more than just pancakes now. Maple is being infused in barbecue sauces and salsa and spirits and beer, Maple creamies. So we're highlighting the special Maple tree and what Maple does for our state and how important it is for our sugar makers. So it's just highlighting that Maple should be talked about and used year round. So we're highlighting all the 100 best events. It could be going on a trail and seeing the wonderful sugar bushes that are out there. It could be visiting a trail that highlights the wonderful habitat that the sugar bush creates for our wildlife, whether it be birds or it could be some food. It could be a food trail. It could be a creamy trail. All those wonderful things over the next year are gonna be talked about with the Maple 100 campaign. And that campaign can be found detailed in the agriculture website. Absolutely in the website. And if you follow us on social media, we have channels on Twitter for the Agency of Agriculture. We have a Facebook page that we populate and show wonderful images and get information to our farmers and the public of what's happening in the world of agriculture on Facebook. Instagram is a wonderful platform for agriculture with all the wonderful images and information and sort of the real stories are told on Instagram about the wins and the losses in agriculture. So it's all there for folks to see what's happening every day with Maple 100 on some of our social media channels. Excellent. Tell us a little bit about the dairy industry. How specifically is the agency dealing with the dairy situation, particularly during this pandemic crisis? Yeah, it's been a rough time for many of our dairy farmers. We have lost some dairy farmers. We knew that was going to happen because of the dramatic price they were being paid when there was too much milk and cheese on the market. But other areas they've adapted. We're just trying to get through these next few months so they can survive at the other end. It employs a great number of people. We have some major national brands in dairy that are very important. We have DFA of St. Albans in Franklin County and throughout Vermont. We have Vermont Creamery, which is a growing creamery. It has supplies, a product that includes butter and also a specialty cheese. They also take a great deal of our goat's milk and make it into a cheese world-class cheese maker. And of course, we have Ben & Jerry's ice cream and then we have Cabot. Cabot's 100 years old this year and a very important national brand where you can find your cheese in just about every state now throughout the United States. So all very, very important to us and just employ a lot of people, whether it be truckers whether people that are in the manufacturing plants or whether it be our farmers and their families and the farm workers. So it's very, very important to our economy in Vermont. That's great. I noticed the words, Jews, Vermont, dairy and some of the items that I've been reading. Do you wanna encourage Vermonters and other people to seek out our products? Yeah. Yeah, it's very important to look for the Vermont label, help your neighbors if you can. If we can keep that money in Vermont by spending your hard earned dollars in Vermont by choosing Vermont, if you're in the dairy case and you're looking to find out if it's Vermont milk you can look for the code number 50, code number 50 on the label will indicate that that milk is being bottled in Vermont and very important to us. So it's just, and we've seen a little bit of change. I think a mindset, a reset from our consumers they are really focused on local agriculture now and I think it's a real opportunity despite the hardships that have been happening out there. A number of folks have started to visit more farm stands more farmers markets, trying to get more their meat their produce and their milk from local farmers. So that I think that's the opportunity for us and we just need to keep capitalizing on this as we come out of this pandemic. That's great. And tell us about the farm stands that are active despite the COVID-19. Tell us about how the agency was working with those operations. Yeah, it was interesting. You know, Vermont has always had a good core of farm stands but when people got a little nervous about traveling out and maybe some did not want to go to a traditional supermarket they started visiting their local farm stand and those farm stands can have all the staples. They have fruits and vegetables. They may have a dairy case. They may have local meat. So we saw a number of those that had those do well and they were trying to keep up with the demand of the consumer but we also had some folks stand up new ones. We had some folks, particularly on the meat side we have a new one that popped up in Franklin County that he's a dairy farmer but he also had the opportunity to use some of his animals and process them and turn them into, you know, steaks and chops and so forth. And he stood that up. So you're seeing that as people adapt to this and anything that over the last six months has been directly to the consumer from the farmer or the producer is doing much better than they have traditionally before this. So it's all everyone just adapting to what's out there. That's great. Tell us about this problem of phosphorus and how the agencies come up with a grant to deal with that. Why is not it such a problem? Well, phosphorus is valuable because it's a nutrient and it helps, you know, grow crops. So it's needed, but too much phosphorus in one place and too much phosphorus that runs off into the water can create environmental problems. So this is a situation where all our farmers are heavily regulated now. They have nutrient management plans. So it tells them, you know, how much manure they can put on one particularly field or not another field and what the phosphorus levels should be on that field. You know, we have buffers that prevent phosphorus from having the chance to go into a waterway. So there's quite a bit of regulation around phosphorus for dairy farmers and vegetable producers as well. But what we've come up with is a lot of people are going above and beyond the regulations. So we've designed a system that we are going to reward or compensate farmers that reach a certain level that's above and beyond. And we're still working on all the math and so forth on that, but farmers essentially be paid for going above and beyond the normal regulations for improving the environment. The Agency of Agriculture in Vermont received a $7 million USDA NRCS grant and those dollars will be used to stand up this program and over time, it's a five year rollout, over time after some, you know, checking the fields, making sure farmers are going above and beyond, they'll be compensated for that. So it could be another stream of income and it also helps the environment because as more people adapt these practices, if they know they're going to be rewarded for them more, these conservation practices, they may be inclined more to do more than the minimum. So that will help the environment too. So we're pretty excited about it. It just was announced this fall, we'll begin the process this winter and hopefully over time, farmers will be rewarded above and beyond the normal regulations about how to maintain and control the phosphorus and running into waterways. That's great. Well, tell us a little bit about another one of the enumerated projects that are going on and that's the Agricultural Assistance Program going on right now. Yeah, those are programs that are related to helping people get their business righted. Even if the pandemic has hurt them, we have some programs that may be able to fill in some of the gaps or those. So for example, if they've sustained losses, so maybe they were a cheese maker and they lost a tremendous amount of their income because restaurants shut down. They could document those losses with us, send in an application and we can try to make up for some of those losses using these federal dollars that have come from Washington. That's all based on losses or maybe it's something that you've had to add expenses. Keeping workers safe, maybe working overtime to get the meat cut and processed at a slaughterhouse is an extra expense and that is because of COVID because of the need of food and the operations that they need to do. That is an added expense and maybe through these federal CARES dollars that we're managing, those slaughterhouses could get some relief in a grant from us. So that's what that program is about. Excellent. And finally, tell us about this big E, this exhibit going on. Yeah, the big E. The big E is in West Springfield, Massachusetts. It's New England's largest fair and it's one of the biggest fairs in the United States. And of course, large gatherings didn't happen this fall and summer. All our fairs and field days had to cancel and so did the big E. Now Vermont has a significant event down there because we own a building. Vermont owns a building at the big E. It's on the Avenue of States. Every New England state has a building there and what we do is we sell Vermont down in that building whether it be cider donuts, whether it be cheese, whether it be pizza, whether it be beer, whether it be art or artists go in there. We have chocolate people from Vermont are there. We sell a tremendous amount of maple that goes through there. Well, that didn't happen this year. So what we did was we stood up something virtually. The agency put up with the help of the Vermont Tourism Department so people could remember the 30 plus vendors that normally are there for 17 days. So it was a reminder to them they can still have a little bit of Vermont even though they couldn't go to the fair, they could go to this virtual big E fair that we stood up and they could order Vermont products from them and support those vendors and those companies that they have for a number of years at the big E. So it was a way to give back a little bit to those wonderful companies whether it be Vermont Flannel or Cabbage Cheese or Cold Hollow Cider with a donut. They could go on that website, order something and help that company try to get through these difficult times because of COVID. Great. Of course, we remember the Vermont Strong campaign and the ability of Vermonters to pull together and work with each other and help each other and help other people. I'd just like to give you this opportunity to talk to our audience directly as to how they can assist your agency and how your agency can assist you as we come to the end of 2020. Well, it's not complicated. It's just if they can support their local farmer you know where they are, visit a farm stand visit a farmer's market. When you're shopping in the supermarket if you can do it, reach down into your pocket and say, look, I want to support a Vermont company because they are your neighbors. And all through this pandemic, Vermonters have really rallied whether they sacrificed not going to that event or staying home when they had to when they were sick, wearing that mask, not getting too close to one another, taking care of their health. That has been part of what's made Vermont successful through this. And I think one thing that's gonna make a successful going forward is if we all sort of focus on our neighbors, try to help them by buying Vermont agriculture products, it will help them, it will help our local economy and it will help our state in the long run. So that's sort of, it's not complicated. It's just a simple message of buy local if you can. That's great. I wanna thank you for giving us all this harvest report and hopefully we'll be able to speak with you again when maybe things we've got through the winter and or even any other time you wanna address our viewers. And thank you, Mr. Secretary. And for appearing here on Positively Vermont. Well, thanks for keeping it positive. And we always are delighted to talk with you Dennis. And thanks for sharing all this information with your viewers and listeners. We really appreciate it. So thank you very much. Thank you. This has been Dennis McMahon for Positively Vermont. Our guest has been Anson Tevitz, the Secretary of the Agency of Agriculture, Food and Markets. Thank you for watching.