Farmland Access & Stewardship Working Group

Friday, December 9, 2016 9:30 am-12:00 pm

Notes

Attendance: Nancy Everhart (VHCB), Taylar Foster (Pete’s Greens), Lauren Masseria (Agency of Ag), Alissa White (UVM), Jake Claro (VSJF), Lydia Pitkin (VSJF), Mike Ghia (Land for Good), Katie Michaels (High Meadows Fund), Eric Becker (Clean Yield Asset Management), Kate McCarthy (VNRC), Stacy Burnstein (Intervale Center), Stephanie Smith (Agency of Ag)

Updates on Working Group Related Projects and Issues

  • Agency of Ag just hired someone to be the Section 248 Coordinator.
  • Last year Act 174 passed, which provided a framework for towns and regions that want to engage more actively in the civic board review process. Enhanced energy planning- towns get enhanced deference.
  • The Agency of Ag has mapped all of the on site mitigation since 2006, which is available on the agency atlas (link will be sent out). This has been sent to the VT League of Cities and Towns email list (about 600 emails). This is a planning resource, and this coming summer there will likely be an intern hired to continue this research.
  • Farmland Investment Model Report: Mike Ghia: There was a deep dive on this, and one of the panelists was the farmer involved in the first project that Iroquois Valley closed on in Vermont. Instead of buying the land, they are using a bridge loan from Iroquois Valley that is a three year, low interest loan. Iroquois and Dirt Partners have been purchasing on behalf of farmers that they've got a relationship with. They don't buy land without an intended farmer. They will purchase and lease, or allow purchase. Dirt Partners' model is strictly that they buy the land and lease it to the farmer for a minimum of 5 years, and there's an option to purchase with a fixed buyout price. The goal is to sell the farm to the farmer within 5-10 years. This whole process is very personal- the financers want to really get to know the farmers.
  • Farmland Succession/Joint project with P&P WG: Exploring the dairy grazing apprenticeship program- there's a call on Monday to drill down what it would be like to bring that to Vermont. They have lined up a few farmers who would be interested in being mentors. It might be good to also encompass livestock grazing in Vermont's project, as well. This is the only grazing program that fulfills federal standards for formal apprenticeship training. This would really help create standards for this kind of training, and helps it to be a strong project- because it screens/tracks mentors and mentees.
  • Food Cycle Coalition Update: Jake Claro: There will be a food scrap composting pilot at a community garden, they are working on developing a regional how-to guide to leverage universal recycling to increase food access. There's a lot of interest from organizations like Hunger Free VT to use universal recycling to instigate more food donation/food rescue.
  • There's a joint project with the food access cross cutting team to develop a food security planning resource.
  • Dairy summit this week- it was very clear that the feed and seed dealers gave the most dire projection of what's on the ground, and they are seeing a lot of farms who can't make their payments, and therefore will miss out on discounted prices, etc., and he wouldn't be surprised if the numbers really drop. The pressure to assist this industry is growing, and will continue to grow over the next few years.

Vermont Agricultural Resilience in a Changing Climate

○See attached presentation.

●Contact Information: Alissa White, , 603-568-0387

What are the next steps?

  • The group discussed ways of making the meetings more accessible for folks who can’t drive- possibly having the option to call in.
  • What topics do we want to focus on for content?
  • None of the issues we have been discussing are going away. . .there's definitely still work to be done, and conversations to be having on an ongoing basis
  • We haven't had much relating to goal 6 lately with environmental stewardship. Those who are most interested in that have not been able to attend much lately....soil and water hasn't met recently. . .is this the space to further those conversations?
  • Is there room to bring forestry into the conversation? Forestry issues are relevant to farmers. We have hired Christine McGowan at VSJF, and she is taking up those issues. She would likely be more than happy to join us in discussion. There is discussion of forest land succession, too.
  • Would definitely love to see more on the stewardship and soil end of things. Soil should really be incorporated into everything the group discusses. It feels like it's this group's job to go back to the goals and really see what what's missing in the discussion, and what's not being addressed.

Elections

Nancy Everhart has termed out as co-chair. Taylar Foster has been nominated to continue as co-chair.