SmartTranscript of House Agriculture Committee's Zoom Meeting

[Chair ]: Savar, Chip tomorrow moved to Middlesex. We've asked Abby Willard from the, yeah, agency that I will come in and tell us a little bit about why we're throwing. [Abby Willard ]: Great. So for the record, Abby Willard, agency of agriculture, food, and markets. So, yeah, so Roots Market is a is a have a a grand opening tomorrow afternoon. I'm glad the committee's decided to make it a site visit. I think it'll be a really exciting close by kind of example of ag infrastructure development and growth. So Roots Market is also Bear Roots Farm, which has it's located in Barrie. And then Roots Market is in Middlesex, right on the intersection of one hundred B and Route two. So just a few little miles up the road. And the farm, Barrie Roots Farm, which is run by Karen and John Bellamaire. Don't actually I have not met them. So, we'll all have that opportunity to do that tomorrow. Applied for and received a working lands enterprise initiative grant in fiscal year twenty two. It was a seventy five thousand dollar grant, and it was one of the supply chain impact grants, which are those larger, supply chain benefiting awards that support multiple enterprises. We do those awards when we have a large enough working lands program allocation. So we haven't done one since fiscal year twenty two. We didn't do one, in twenty five, for example, because we had the million dollar allocation. But when we have the larger multimillion dollar award, allocations, we're able to make some of those bigger supply chain investments. So a supply chain impact grant is designed to make infrastructure improvements, do some sort of modernization or improvement along the supply chain, and then benefit multiple ag businesses. So the benefit to the roots market was that they applied for seventy five thousand dollars and received that as a grant. They also received a Sprout loan from Vermont Community Loan Fund, which is designed to help, like, new businesses sort of access and leverage capital to be able to do infrastructure improvement and this particular prod and then they put some of their own match in. And I think their match was, like, originally imagined to be seventy five thousand. And I think it's probably gonna be over eighty five thousand or more just because the cost of the project was more expensive in reality than they had originally budgeted. So the project was to expand the existing retail market space that they already had there at roots market on one hundred b. And it was to add more dry and cold storage capacity. They're gonna put in a a walk in cooler freezer combo and then create more loading dock space so that they can more accessibly bring product in. So what you'll see, I think, tomorrow when we all are there for the kind of grand opening is that they have a production kitchen space, and then they have a retail space. And then, obviously, there's the behind the scenes loading dock dry, cold storage, freezer capacity. And with this project, they're able to anticipate adding two new staff. I did actually just see on their website that they have a job opening right now for, like, a kitchen production staff position at a very competitive hourly wage. So that's exciting. I think that's part of their anticipated growth. They'll be able to increase the production and processing that happens out of that facility in their production kitchen. They do a lot of value added food preparation. They do prepared meals, they do soups, they have lunch and ready to go meals, as well as carry product from other ag businesses. They have, you know, fresh flowers. They have other kind of like ag gift type items that you might find at a farm stand retail environment. And they're anticipating revenue growth. So this is a designed, growth decision for this business so that they may not have to spend every weekend at a farmer's market. But instead have this more evolved, you know, diversified way for them to connect to their customers. So customers can stop there and grab food to go. They can stop and get lunch. They can buy other products from other farms. And they needed the extra support to be able to make that infrastructure growth decision as a farm business. [Chair ]: Bare roots farm is enabled. Bare roots. Yeah. And is that a diversified It's [Abby Willard ]: an organic, vegetable operation. [Chair ]: They sell to their own retail store then? And also [Abby Willard ]: And they also do a CSA. Yep. So they have, like, a free choice CSA model. They do, I think, what they call community harvest, which I actually am not that familiar. I don't know if others on the committee are about kind of what that program is, but I'm assuming it's a, like a subsidized kind of like community investment program, where they make food available to all members of the community that are interested in access to local organically raised food. It is in their CSA. They obviously I've seen them at the farmer's markets, like, kinda in central Vermont. So, I don't know if they're discontinuing their engagement in farmer's markets. That'd be something we can learn from them. My guess is they will still do markets, but maybe not have to do them as as many or as often because they have this new expanded retail space. So my understanding was that it was, like, quite packed in, previously, and this additional expansion just gives them, like, more floor space, more retail space, more storage spot, and then improvements to the production kitchen area. [Chair ]: Evie, I know you said you have an an another meeting at at eleven. Yeah. [Abby Willard ]: But I'm happy to take a question or two if you have them. Right. [Speaker 2 ]: I just wondered if the match is required for that working landscape. [Abby Willard ]: I think in twenty two, it was. We no longer are requiring match for working lands going forward. So we've been experimenting with, like, what makes the program more accessible. Most projects, what we're finding is that most projects necessitate a contribution by the farm anyway, because the grants that we're offering are not large enough to cover the full cost. And so rather than requiring match at a certain amount, instead saying that match isn't required and knowing that businesses are still gonna leverage dollars to make the project happen. But in twenty two, I believe that is still required. [Speaker 2 ]: Do they have to do a tutorial on sort of business too? I know that was part of sometimes. [Abby Willard ]: Oh, yeah. That was that's a great question. I can't remember if that was just a requirement of a certain round of the grantees. Yeah. That's it's funny. It's ringing a bell, but I'm not actually remembering exactly who all was required to take that kind of business one zero one. [Speaker 3 ]: I don't [Abby Willard ]: think it's every working land grantee. It's fine. I have to I'll have to get back to you because I I can't remember exactly. [Speaker 3 ]: Do you have a question? [Chair ]: I just Yeah. Yeah. Go ahead. [Carol ]: And this may not have require Abby to participate, but when is our departure and when is [Chair ]: Well, we we can let Abby go and talk about the details. Yeah. [Carol ]: But is this you refer to it on a hundred b. Is it at the hundred route two and a hundred b intersection? [Abby Willard ]: Yes. Yes. So you can just go right up here. [Carol ]: On route two. [Abby Willard ]: It does. Yep. Yes. Right. It's on route two's front edge. Excuse me. [Chair ]: Yeah. Yep. [Carol ]: It's front and to involve that. [Speaker 3 ]: I guess. But [Abby Willard ]: you're right. That's the main drag. [Carol ]: I'd clarify. [Chair ]: Okay. Representative Burke. Thank you, Carol. [Speaker 5 ]: Just quick question about [Speaker 3 ]: Yeah. [Speaker 5 ]: The names of different grants. This Yes. Working lands grant that was awarded to roots. [Abby Willard ]: Yes. [Speaker 5 ]: What is the name of the grants program that we were speaking to this last time we we we met with you where you said there was a showed a very large need among the funds. [Abby Willard ]: It's actually in all of our, I would say, economic development grants. So Working Lands Enterprise Initiative does also is one of those example programs that has an oversubscribed, demand versus so for fiscal year twenty four, for working lands, let me see if I can remember. I don't think I brought that piece of paper. We yeah. I don't know that I can answer that without looking [Speaker 5 ]: at Yeah. I know. It's a I I was just I had a question about the difference between them that doesn't pertain to this meeting, but I just just kinda do a little research on it. [Abby Willard ]: On the working lens program specifically? [Speaker 5 ]: Yeah. I can I can I can [Abby Willard ]: Well, I'm happy to give you any information about that program? I can email you back. Okay. Yeah. Let's do that. Yeah. So it each year, the Working Lands program has had a different kind of, like, fluctuating allocation of what dollars were available. In fiscal year 'twenty five, we had a one million dollars allocation. In fiscal year 'twenty four, it was a two million dollars allocation. And we had some carryover ARPA funds that were a special kind of, appropriation to the working lands program that we also had in fiscal year twenty three. So the la and then in fiscal year twenty two, we also had a large allocation. So there's been, again, a fluctuation of demand, but every year we've only been able to fund somewhere between fifteen and twenty percent of applications because of the oversubscription in each program. And fiscal year twenty four was no exception to that. The largest application, received in our economic development programs in fiscal year twenty four was for the ag development grants, which were targeted infrastructure towards meat, maple, and produce specifically. So that may be the one that you're thinking of, but again, so in that we're going to talk about that next week, but for the ag development grants, there was five sixty applications across the meat, maple, and produce sectors, requesting over forty three and a half million dollars. And we had two point one million dollars to grant in fiscal year twenty three excuse me, fiscal year twenty four. [Carol ]: Just a follow-up. I'm [Speaker 6 ]: I'm I'm very quiet. I I talked to Abby on the phone. I just realized that Yes. I had calculations last fall. [Evie Flory ]: So You did. [Speaker 2 ]: Alright. Let let's just remind me that on on the working lands [Abby Willard ]: Yeah. [Speaker 2 ]: That the budget for those grants doesn't pull also from is it BHCB or Vermont Sustainable Jobs Funds? It's not just made. [Chair ]: It just I [Abby Willard ]: mean, it's mostly just state appropriation. It has the potential, and the and working lands and, fund can receive other resources. So, like, ski Vermont has made donations in the past. We've had other private investments in in, like, in history, but not recently. So most of the funding for working lands has come from state appropriations and then sometimes these special appropriations like ARPA, etcetera. But no, it's a state funded program. Yeah. Since twenty twelve. [Chair ]: Representative Boston, saw you briefly there. Did you do you have a question? [Abby Willard ]: Okay. But we could plan to have a larger working lands program conversation and have Elizabeth Sippel come in and talk. Just did a similar conversation yesterday in house commerce, which I think it was really helpful to kind of give the whole history of the program and the various ways in which investments are made, if that's of interest to the committee. Yeah. We'll have an impact report to share with you about the working lens program by February first. So that might be a good time to come in and show what the fiscal year twenty four investments were in program overall. [Chair ]: Well, thank you for standing by your goal and see you tomorrow. [Abby Willard ]: See you tomorrow. Yeah. [Evie Flory ]: I thought [Abby Willard ]: you guys are getting out before it's negative, whatever. [Speaker 6 ]: It's just a breath. It's frustrating. [Abby Willard ]: Yes. I like being toasty, though. I've I've like, I am cold most days, but [Speaker 2 ]: it's alright. [Abby Willard ]: I just need to put more wood in the store. Okay. Thank you. Yes. Thanks. [Speaker 3 ]: You're welcome. [Evie Flory ]: Alright. [Chair ]: Well, you will remember that earlier in the week, we had a room full of of subs from the ag agency, and we weren't able to hear from all of them. So we asked Evie Florey if she would be willing to come back today instead. Here she is. [Evie Flory ]: Evie back. Thanks for having me. [Speaker 6 ]: Morning, [Chair ]: Amy. I I think that you are here to just tell us about your role and the division's work in the agency, but you also were on a call last week where we had, heard from you and others about the avian flu status. So if there are follow-up questions or thoughts on that, we could assume we have time, maybe talk about [Evie Flory ]: that as well. It would be we'd be happy to. [Chair ]: And and did you wanna pull up the slide, or is that [Evie Flory ]: Whatever works. I had emailed, Nonia the just the infographic, so I don't know if she wants to pull that up or if I should what's easiest? Well, [Chair ]: if you sit down here, we do does have the ability to share? Oh, I have your info here. But Yeah. I've got the info sheet here. [Evie Flory ]: Whichever is easiest for the committee. [Chair ]: Just one slide, I think. Yeah. Yeah. It's just [Evie Flory ]: a it's just a visual of our the makeup of of our division of the agencies. [Chair ]: Yep. Out of them. Great. [Evie Flory ]: Thank you so much. For the record, my name is EP Flory, and at the agency of agriculture, I'm the director of food safety and consumer protection. So this this infographic, for our division, we're the largest division in the agency of agriculture. We have forty four individuals that make up this division. And we we we like to look at ourselves as a group that whether you live in Vermont or you're visiting this beautiful state, we impact you every single day. You know, whether you are consuming delicious dairy products or maple, whether you're a a vegan and a vegetarian or or fight the carnivore, or you're just stopping to charge your electric vehicle or getting gas at a gas pump, you're interacting with our division every single day. So within the food safety consumer protection division, we have our meat inspection program. We have animal health. We have our weights and measures section. We have ag products and maple, and then we have dairy. Our recent measure section is probably the one section that the public, the general public has the least amount of awareness about, but impacts the general public the most. Whether you're going to the gas pump or you're at a grocery store, if you ever see, like, a gold sticker that has different stars and years on it, that's them verifying either meters or scales are accurate. So when you are getting fuel for your house to heat it, propane, or you had gravel delivered for your driveway, asphalt for the roads, concrete, any of those things, our inspectors are making sure that scales, scanners at the grocery store, what says something on the shelf actually rings up to what you're buying at a store. They're making sure that there is integrity to that. When we've had flood events, people saying that, like, their car broke down on the road and there was gas in their gas tank. Like, we take those complaints and go to gas stations that were flooded and check to see if there's water in the underground storage tanks that got flooded or even if they're above ground tanks, did water get into the storage devices and things like that? So that's a fascinating section that a lot of people don't know about. We also, within that section, also inspect and certify hydrometers. So we actually have for our maple producers, we inspect hydrometers that are sold at stores, and we actually have companies from across the world that sell hydrometers. Even in Canada, they send them to our lab in Randolph that our weight to measure staff certified, making sure that whether it they're being sold in Vermont for our sugar makers or for others across the country and internationally that they're meeting standards. We have seen an increase, in our for our maple producers. We're seeing we're seeing more individuals even coming from out of state buying land and starting maple sugaring operations. And we're seeing a growth even within long held producers, getting bigger and adapting to new technologies. We're seeing greater efficiencies, with inputs and other things, within this industry. But we're also seeing within local communities more complaining with with greater production. There's also greater care we're seeing for the management of the trees and other things. But with all of those, management practices, we're also seeing communities and people upset with sap trucks on the road, transportation issues. People are saying you're tearing up your roads and our roads are messed up, things like that in the wintertime. Being quite the dairy fan, I'm like, thank goodness people aren't driving about milk trucks, and we're driving about sap trucks. Feed trucks. Or feed trucks. So, just I don't know if those things will come up this session, but we have, you know, had a few more constituents complaining about, sap trucks. I don't know if that will come up this session. But we are seeing some changes. It's been interesting seeing, our maple producers, like, positive changes environmentally. Like, I do think that there's excellent stewardship happening in our woods and other things with that. But with an increase in production, we are seeing infrastructure, complaints and other things on our road, and we will we'll see where that goes. So go ahead, representative Justin. [Speaker 3 ]: To [Speaker 6 ]: get you in there. Would ABLE be considered agriculture? [Evie Flory ]: We consider agriculture. [Speaker 6 ]: Okay. So wouldn't the sod trucks be afforded the same protection as milk trucks and grain trucks? You know, if if you can't get the product out of Sheffield down to the Sugar House where you can efficiently turn it into maple syrup. And a lot of these people are are rolling on-site, so they're not moving raw syrup than moved to a sap. They're moving condensed sap. I mean, should they be afforded the same protections? [Evie Flory ]: I'm not fully aware of the full issues with that and the permitting on the actual tags that have to be on the trucks. So I'd have to talk either with secretary Tevis or have a conversation on the permitting of those with AOT. [Speaker 6 ]: Because our trucks had either no plates because of agriculture or they say a g r on them. Whereas DFA's trucks [Evie Flory ]: Yeah. [Speaker 6 ]: Are trucks. Yep. They're not agriculture trucks, but they can roll up and down those dirt roads. [Evie Flory ]: Some of it gets into, like, who owns the vehicle and usage, and I'm not aware, like, fully what's required for the maple producers and who's running it. I think some of it may come down to who actually is owning the vehicle and other usage with it. So [Speaker 6 ]: Okay. [Speaker 2 ]: Well, representative Brian? Just in Tunbridge, being on the slight board, there's tension because SAC trucks are moving across covered bridges. Mhmm. And they have, you know, ag drivers on the list. That's different. Yeah. [Speaker 6 ]: I agree. [Chair ]: Okay. Let's see. [Carol ]: Yep. In most towns I've worked in or LinkedIn, if you have a a commodity that's not just essential, but, like, a milk, they've been able to operate when roads are posted. Mhmm. Both right. Either go to the select board and enforced by the, like, the superintendent. If you have forest products or not, they're essential, but they're not they can be wait you can wait to move pulled out by you when the road goes dry. I mean, the different that's a DMV. Yep. The sap where you have a capacity storage, it's very limited when you get those larger lakes that worry for [Speaker 3 ]: us to chill forth because it's less. [Evie Flory ]: And, again, who who owns the vehicle? It's just like with milk, unless it's different, and then you get into the weights and then safety things as well and what has to be on the vehicle. So [Chair ]: We can, yeah, we can dig into that a little bit. [Speaker 3 ]: Yep. Yeah. So, [Evie Flory ]: yeah, for this wise, we do oversee through the Food Safety Modernization Act, FSMA, produce safety rule, which we don't have a large amount of vegetable farms that actually fall under that. Vermont doesn't have as many produce farms that fall under that compared to the rest of New England. Some of it is just, either the commodities that are required that's a federal law or the production level in sales. We do have some farms that fall under it, and we have, basically one and a half staff members that oversee that program. And the other part of time spent, within that because it's seasonal work, They handle both produce, and then they also handle our maple and other ag products like eggs and other commodities like that. Beyond the food safety audits and things on produce farms, big challenges that we've seen the past few years is flood response. The the produce farms have definitely been disproportionately impacted because a lot of them are located in flood plains, flatlands, and things like that. And we've been working internally in that section of trying to have greater efficiencies, to be able to respond and assist those businesses. One thing that we've been working on this past year, a newer rule newer rule that's been rolling out from the Food and Drug Administration, FDA that oversees this federal rule for for produce and is having to have mandated water tests for irrigation water. And our VAIL lab in Randolph is able to do those tests. And we are working between the dairy section that I specialize and oversee in working with dairy inspectors have to collect monthly samples for our regulatory program. And so we are working with our produce program because we already have inspectors going around the state once a month collecting samples, to see if any of the produce farms, if they want to opt in, that we could also or we're already making loops, collect their samples for waters as well if they want. So we're, providing that option to those that want to opt in for that, and it would just be for specifically irrigation water. So, that's been a concern for some of the farms that have to meet that requirement. And we're trying to do that as a way to help businesses. And it's been for some, it's a new regulation and it's something that they've not had to necessarily do in the past. So it's our way of of trying to, help industry and also do it in a manner that is efficient from a taxpayer standpoint. So we thought this was the way we're already taxpayer wise having to do this with the dairy, section. And so we thought this was a way that it would be efficient to be able route wise to pick these up if if farmers want that. So, within our our dairy section, we've had an interesting year outside of what's been going on with HPAI. We continue to still see growth in the processing industry. Our existing processors continue to expand, which is encouraging, as we see, still continued consolidation on the farm side. We continue to have a balance even with some some farms going out of business with milk production, and that is following, some national trends. We saw some increased, processors having new processors come on. Some of them were farmstead operations. Some of them, were just individual processors wanting to buy milk and make their own products. But we saw this year some encouraging trends with, dairy farmers transitioning their farms to the next generation. And also some of those dairies putting in significant investments into their milking parlors, investments for the next generation in, expansions. And we also saw some farmers, buying neighboring farms that were going out of business, retiring, things like that. And some farmers wanting to buy farms that were shipping to different milk cooperatives for basically, like, a form in their mind as diversification. So they're having two different farms now shipping to two different milk cooperatives. So it looks like in our records that a farm went out, but our farm numbers didn't change because an individual retired and a farm bought another, and so entities still remained. We have seen some operations that consolidated for efficiency. So they installed, and expanded on a home farm, a greater, in a larger milking parlor. They gained greater efficiencies with water usage, recycling, installed more efficient waste management systems, and consolidated from two farms to one. So we've actually seen some encouraging things on the farm side with farms investing for the future. And we actually had people moving to Vermont, some in the Amish community to Vermont this past year, and a lot of them actually buying, organic farms and moving their herds in. And we expect, we had about eight farms move this past year. Not all of them are shipping milk currently. And we are expecting potentially another half a dozen or more to move in before possibly June of this year. So we have seen farmland and farmers that retired this past year or the year before, especially during in twenty twenty two, and organic farmers are really struggling with inflation and fertilizer costs going up and foreign prices and other commodities and soybeans being high. Some of those farmers going out, those farms that were vacant, they are being purchased and having other organic farms come in. So those have been encouraging signs. We have had some struggles with milk pickups on those farms because they're not using the electricity that we're used to. And we're working with those milk hauling companies to try to figure out how to make these systems work with what we're used to electrical system wise and other things so that we're not burning out eight hundred to twelve hundred dollar pumps on milk trucks every other day for milk pickup. So sometimes technology can be a little frustrating at times and trying to make things work. [Speaker 3 ]: So Yes, sir? [Speaker 6 ]: They haven't figured out how to get that horse to pull the pulley fast enough to load the truck. [Evie Flory ]: Oh. A lot [Speaker 6 ]: of those trucks are next to my commute. [Evie Flory ]: Yes. [Speaker 6 ]: I used to center them, you know, by [Evie Flory ]: Yeah. [Speaker 6 ]: You know, my area, the work center, and whatnot. It was a quite a section of them in Brownington. And if if you wanna k. And it it isn't Lancaster County, Pennsylvania yet, but the the trade the trades that they have brought has been phenomenal. Mhmm. It it really has. It's been phenomenal. They're they're great people. On dairy, are we still shipping roughly the same number of pounds? [Evie Flory ]: It's, it's very similar to the past two years. We don't have final numbers for the year yet, but we've not seen a significant drop. So we'll see what the final numbers are in probably another month, month and a half, but it's not, it's not as significant as a drop as we saw, like, in twenty twenty and twenty twenty one. I'm not expecting, but we'll see what the final numbers are. [Speaker 6 ]: K. And and my last question is and it's a hot one, and I've been called on it. January twenty first, Tom Holman. The employee issue. [Speaker 3 ]: Mhmm. [Speaker 6 ]: Any views from across the road in the crystal ball on on on that? Or is it [Evie Flory ]: Nervous. Yeah. Waiting and see. [Speaker 6 ]: Yeah. Same. Same. Same. [Evie Flory ]: Not happy about it for me personally. So we will [Speaker 6 ]: see. It's it needs to be corrected in Washington. I think we could all sit down in this room and correct it today if they'd let us. [Speaker 3 ]: K? Representative O'Brien. Can you remind me [Speaker 2 ]: what was that was it there was money available. I can't remember if it was grants or or loans for, you know, upgrading fuel tanks and things. [Chair ]: Could you talk about that further? Yeah. [Evie Flory ]: So that the original money that the legislature approved a few years ago, that was linked to when Verizon Organic just up and said we're leaving the state. And I will just remind on the record that they said they were leaving Vermont to take our milk, but they weren't leaving and that they were gonna still ship milk here to sell. So that I still haven't gotten over that. So they didn't wanna ship our milk to process it, but they're more than happy to send it here to sell it. So and that was for another organic cooperative. They had requirements for the milk truck to come and get it. And it was mainly in that they couldn't handle picking up the milk as often, so there needed to be either larger bulk tanks or some of the driveways weren't quite big enough in width for a truck to turn around. And so the legislature offered some emergency money for those farms to be able to do those improvements. And with that money, those improvements were made, and those farms are still shipping to that cooperative. So, much appreciation to that, and that was a big victory for those farms. So, thank you all for that, that were involved with that. It made a difference. And, some other things with the the newer farms that have come, you were mentioning, they are using generators, and that's what some of them have used. We've been speaking with colleagues in in Pennsylvania and in New York state with some of the technologies they've used. And we're trying to get it figured out what we need. It's it's the issue with the pump is basically when there's a little bit of a lull and then a power surge. And so we're we're trying to get it where basically there's not a surge, and that's that's kind of the electrical issue, which I am not an electrician. And I might not be explaining as well, but, the agency is working with the milk cooperative and others to get fixed on certain trucks where this will work correctly. So [Speaker 6 ]: Not that it would be handy. Could there be pumps? Maybe not of of the same capacity of those those pumps on those belt trucks. They move belt. [Evie Flory ]: They do baths. [Speaker 6 ]: But could the firms have a smaller pump that did create the draw that, you know, in each frame so that milk band doesn't have to lug it, slip and fall tomorrow morning. And on the, like, he steps four steps up, crack his head. But could they have that pump on the frame that they hooked up and then [Evie Flory ]: We're we're working on some, some options and also with the bishop in the community, and secretary Tebbetts has been working, with them as well to make sure that, the solutions that we're trying to work with also fit with their religious beliefs. [Abby Willard ]: Yeah. [Evie Flory ]: So, so we've been working with them and and others, in established, communities to make sure it's a solution that will work for them. [Speaker 6 ]: Yeah. We don't need to reinvent the wheel or even that's something down here. [Evie Flory ]: And it's we've had, some really nice, groups and others that have more experience than we do as a state helping us. And our federal colleagues, at FDA and others, have been helping us and done a few trainings on technologies that we're not used to from at least a dairy, like, sanitation standpoint. They use, like, air driven wells to actually, like, pump their water into the milk houses, which is really neat. So there's things that we're learning for the first time, and working with these groups to make sure they're meeting sanitary standards, that also fulfill what they need to with their religious beliefs. So, it's it's been, I don't know. I wake up every day believing that you can learn something new, and we're definitely learning new things with this. And they're a welcome group coming into our community. [Speaker 6 ]: So It it could create some fantastic tourism options, people coming up. You know, they come up to JP to go skiing and whatnot. Return in the summertime to watch Yamash harvesting the hay or I if I see someone out there with a six or an eight mill hitch Mhmm. Pulling equipment, I am gonna be social media is gonna blow up that day. I just I know. Because I've seen it in Lancaster County, and I'm hoping. [Evie Flory ]: So and secretary Tembets has been working with AOT and others. There was an auto accident in that area with one of the the horse and buggy. So he has been working with other agencies and trying to make sure, like, we're doing what we can to get people to slow down because this is new and, like, needing it's a dangerous road anyways in that area, but trying to make sure as we have this new culture in our community, that they're welcomed and that they're safe and trying to make sure that people aren't gonna be be hurt. [Speaker 6 ]: Yeah. Center state. Yeah. In Brownington, it it of course, Route one hundred being a state road. The local roads up to Brownington people are used to it now, and and for the most part, very well received and not so much of an issue as it, you know, five percent of people out there grumble, but other than that, it's been great. [Speaker 2 ]: Yeah. [Evie Flory ]: So our army and poultry inspection section, we can sit continue to see an increase in not only production and people wanting resources and and places for that, but also, individuals looking whether it's ready to eat, businesses wanting to do more with that, or, individuals looking to whether it's working with our our CIS program, which is where, instead of having to have a, USDA federally inspected facility, they can work with the state where they can meet the federal standards and sell out of state, and they work with us instead. We've had great success for those businesses and others, but we continue to have a steady stream of of interest. We've continued to work with one business that is very close to being up and running that is Halal's certify, which we think will really help with there's there's definitely, an increased demographic that is looking for those meats, and we're really, really excited, within our division of of having that. And there are a lot of farmers that are looking to be able to sell and market, those products as well. So, we have quite a an excellent team that is very, very busy within that section, and doing a lot of work. And we have right now as many as potentially seven to twelve facilities that might come online in twenty twenty five. Yeah. It it always you know, it's always we don't know how long some of these will take. And so it's it's always, an interesting process, but it's always exciting because it always sounds like from our farmers. And some of that is is planning, but it's always like, I can't get this done soon enough. Like, I you know, I've got it. Like, there's a list. You know, I can't get my cows in soon enough or my goats or other things. And so, like, we're hopeful that these continue, to go through and that there's plenty of slaughter options for our our farmers to get, their meat to consumers as as they want to through different avenues. [Chair ]: So You've mentioned possibly how how many in the next year? [Evie Flory ]: Potentially, we've had as many as twelve, like, generally, having legitimate, like, plans and other things. That would be truly, like, amazing if that happened. But we have, right now, three to five that are in a very serious bracket, and three of them that we do think, like, legitimately in the next six months could genuinely be on board. [Chair ]: So I I'm wondering if you know how many we currently got because that sounds like pretty it would be a huge jump in [Evie Flory ]: Yeah. I I can look that up for you in just a few minutes. I have, like, my notes on my laptop, so I can look that up while we're talking if you would like. And then we have our our animal health section, which they are handling for our division, animal movements, making sure, like, the RFID tags, that law finally came into place, which has been talked about for close to twenty years, for animals that are are moving out of the state having proper identification. This is for for cattle. A lot of what they do is is animal traceability, in working with with our veterinarians and others across the country with, being able to respond to potentially if there are sick animals or other things in trying to prevent disease outbreak. They do respond to things like HPAI. And so they've been involved in the past when we've had, like, migratory birds and having, like, a backyard poultry flock get HPAI and having to deal with that. And so they do many, many things across the state. They do work with captive deer and other cervid farms and things that we have in our state. And they do licensed pet shops and other things that we have throughout our state, like a wide gamut of different things. And they've been very active, through the HPAI saga that is going on right now, both in dairy cattle and also as we're monitoring the current, migratory pattern right now in the new strain of HPAI that is, moving across the country impacting domesticated birds with the the wildlife birds moving through. [Speaker 3 ]: Dean Nelson. Alright. Thank you, Chairman Burpke. [Speaker 6 ]: On the animal health on the RFID tags Mhmm. So are we required now? Our our call cabs or bob cabs that we sell, are they required to carry RFID tags? Leave the farm? [Evie Flory ]: I I think they are, but I will check with that shop to make sure Okay. On the bobcats. [Speaker 6 ]: Are they tested slaughter cows at the slaughter plant? You know, you you spoke to us last week, how they test the milk or [Evie Flory ]: they Mm-mm. They're not No. Direct to slaughter? No. And as if they're not they're not testing animals going direct to slaughter, especially and if they're not lactating, there is no testing. If they if they're lactating and they're not going to an open market before they go to slaughter, there is no required test. K. [Speaker 6 ]: So yeah. So when they get on the trailer in Morrisville and for while losing [Evie Flory ]: There's no testing requirement. [Speaker 6 ]: Okay. And our backyard do we have any idea how many backyard chicken flocks we have? We know how many dairy farms we have. We're all licensed. [Evie Flory ]: They're not required to register the backyard poultry flocks. So that's one of the, like, scary things for our animal health section because, like, it gets into the fun topic of, like, what is a farm? And for lots of people, like, they, you know, have chickens in their backyard. Like, they want their fresh eggs. And, like, they're not registered and they're not required to register with our agency. Our animal health folks, like, they do almost a weekly, if not by like, they'll do at least every two weeks, like, a newsletter to veterinarians. They do a lot of communication and, like, updates to all of our veterinarians in the state trying to keep up to date info. And they do a lot of public outreach and other things. But, no. Like, we can't tell you, like, where every backyard poultry flock is in the state. They're not required to be inspected. We do go to bird swaps, and that's, like, a requirement in statute to do testing and other things there. But, unfortunately, like, we can't tell you where every, like, poultry flock is in the state, and that that's a vulnerability, but that's not a mandate in statute. [Speaker 3 ]: K. So no. Thank you. [Evie Flory ]: Okay. What were your your meat plant statistics questions? [Carol ]: I don't know. [Evie Flory ]: I'm ready. I'm ready. [Carol ]: I don't [Chair ]: know if you share whatever you've got. I I I was just, again, just curious to know how many how many plans you currently have with it. Having a dozen come online sounded like that could, you know, to be a fifty percent increase. I I don't remember hearing exact numbers, but it seems like we didn't have very many. But maybe I'm lost. [Speaker 2 ]: These be places where you can actually bring livestock or places that would just cut up? [Speaker 3 ]: Good question. Yeah. Big one in Ferrisburg. [Carol ]: Perry. I saw [Evie Flory ]: We we added two this past year, and they and then we had three existing already that we were inspecting state only that transitioned to the cooperative interstate shipment program, the CIS program. So that allows them to sell out of state products. [Chair ]: Without being a federal [Carol ]: Probably brought. Where were the two known? [Evie Flory ]: I don't have that, but I can get that information from Julie to you all. [Carol ]: But he was the inspector before the plan inspector. [Chair ]: Let's see. Yeah. [Evie Flory ]: In my notes from Julie Boyver, she's the section chief for for inspection. She her realistic expectation is seven businesses in twenty twenty five with interest in the in the state program. [Carol ]: New business. Mhmm. [Speaker 5 ]: Yeah. I mean, I've seen SDA. Spect is a big one for retail. That's for sure. [Chair ]: Then [Evie Flory ]: Then right now, the USDA numbers for plants, there's there's four livestock USDA slaughter and processing establishments, and then there's four USDA poultry slaughter and processing establishments, and then there's nine USDA meat and poultry processing establishments. [Chair ]: I did not mean to put you on the spot at all, So we can that's that's, yeah, helpful in the And you're the way that's Yeah. [Evie Flory ]: And you're welcome to have any of the section chiefs from our division come and speak to you all for any specific questions for them. Like, they're happy to to come over and get any nitty gritty questions you have for each. And, yeah, I didn't know if there was any other questions you had about the divisions or if there was any other HPAI dairy questions you you all may have. [Speaker 6 ]: I had a constituent, Bob. [Speaker 3 ]: Yeah. [Speaker 6 ]: Did your dairy farmer reach out to me after our discussion last week? I'll probably stop in and see her at her facility tonight. I'm a way concerned about the bulk date testing and whatnot. Who can I have her if she has more questions than I can handle? Mhmm. Which would be amazing if she does, but it could happen. Sure. Who do I have her reach out to to get information? [Evie Flory ]: You can if it's it's about the specific, like, testing and other things, you can have her call me. If it's getting into more of, like, veterinary questions and other things, like, she can call the animal health line. [Speaker 6 ]: Okay. [Evie Flory ]: So she can call eight zero two eight two four we'll give her the Dairy Line, two four two three. [Speaker 6 ]: Okay. Yeah. She she has pretty valuable Yeah. Purebred stock as well as those raw milk and Yeah. Sells to the cheese maker, Sharon. Love her. [Speaker 3 ]: So Yeah. [Evie Flory ]: We've we've this week, we've gotten a lot of questions, on farmers worried about, like, if birds are near their feed and and other things. And the USDA has reiterated and, like, through their through their study, like, epidemiology wise, like, across the countries that this is not being spread, the cow version of HPAI, from birds to cows. Like, that was, like, a one time thing that happened in Texas. And so, like, we're we're hearing that, like, our farmers are worried to, like, feed to feed to their cattle after birds have been around it. It's not spreading from birds to cows. It's spreading from cows to cows that have it or people that were around cows that had it, and they didn't clean their clothes or clean their boots, and then they transferred it. It can spread if, like, a cow had it and you're around that cow and you went to a a chicken farm. Like, you can spread it from a cow back to a chicken or a turkey. Like, you can spread it that way. But, like, migratory birds or turkeys or other things, like, they are not spreading it to cows. That strain, like, are migratory birds? Like, yes, they can make chickens sick with that strain. But if if the birds are pecking around at food, like, they are not making cows sick with the strain that cows are getting. And I understand why that's confusing. The farmers and I I spoke with my my dairy team today. Like, our inspectors have been talking to farmers and our samplers, and and we've been trying to get that message out. And, like, as an agency, like, we're gonna work on some more communication and, like, trying to get that out to farmers. And we understand, like, this is overwhelming, and it's this is something that has never happened before, and it's also really confusing. Like, in the news, you read about, like, someone is hospitalized over HPAI, but they're not saying, like, what strain is it? And, like, so far, the people that have been hospitalized, it's not the cow strain. It's the it's the avian strain. And so, like, when I read that, I'm like, and then it's, like, reading or, like, reaching out to, like, high level federal officials, and they're like, no. This is avian strain. It's not the dairy one. And it's like and so it's it's overwhelming, and we understand that. We're trying to help inform producers, and so we're happy to speak with them, and understand why it's stressful to them. [Chair ]: Have any of our of our poultry farmers impacted in this a different way? [Evie Flory ]: No. But they've, they've been reaching out to the agency. There have been some that, were upset at the dairy industry. Like, they felt and, like, upset with our agency that we hadn't been doing anything. The data that, you know, we had seen for some time is that we did not believe it was here. And so far, like, the test results, we've gotten right around right now fifty samples back from fifty different dairy farms, and they're all negative. So but let's keep that trend going. But some of the our our poultry farms, you know, have wanted this testing before. We didn't have the resources to be able to do this. And so as soon as USDA said, like, we will fund the states to do this, we were first in line and got approved before a bunch of the other states. And, like, we will do this testing. Dairy. And we are for dairy. And so there are some poultry farms that they wanted more done, and we are doing that as soon as the funding became available. But even doing this testing on the dairy side, it's still our messaging hasn't changed with the migratory birds. Poultry producers do need to be vigilant about, you know, everybody biosecurity, like, everyone wants the idyllic, you know, free range chickens, but that's really difficult with migratory birds. Having your chickens outside, when birds are migrating, like, you really do not want them to come in contact or be around where migratory birds have been, because that's a really great way for them to interact or drink water from where migratory birds were, and that's how they get it. So it's a it's a juggling act. [Chair ]: You mentioned a moment or two ago, I think, that you're monitoring or or aware of new strains developing, maybe showing up in Vermont. Are do are are we able to to to sort of see in other parts of the country or neighboring states where there are outbreaks in the wildlife population? Is that? [Evie Flory ]: So anytime there's a positive sample, federal government does whole genome sequencing basically to see, like, how the strains are evolving. And so the the dairy strain, I mean, it is evolving, but it's I'm not a virologist, but it's it's the same. It's basically what they have said, but they can trace it and see, you know, there may be some different strains and so they know which ones are in certain states, but it's not changing in, I guess, which is a good thing from a contagious standpoint, like, not changing in a manner where it would be easier for humans to contract it. The newer what I'll say the newer strain from the migratory birds is what the migratory birds from Europe have brought over, which is a little bit different than what was in the migratory birds from last year. So it it is still HPAI. It just has a different, like, sequencing a little bit virology, like, number. And that's the birds that, our animal health group had to respond to a few weeks ago in late December. That matched virology wise what we have seen in other parts of the country with my like, with the migratory birds, what they brought over that Europe has been dealing with. So it's the I don't remember what the the numbers are, but it's it's what I'm just gonna call is this year's HPAI strain in birds that are impacting [Speaker 3 ]: poultry. Okay. And that's [Speaker 6 ]: couple of things. You just saved the life of seventy turkeys and meat ducks. [Evie Flory ]: We're getting a lot of phone calls from farmers that wanna shoot all their birds and [Speaker 6 ]: And coming into the bunker silo. We spoke last week, and I asked you about people being, you know, you know, able to sample. Ball tanks, to me, are fairly simple to sample. [Evie Flory ]: Yeah. [Speaker 6 ]: But the paper system [Evie Flory ]: Mhmm. [Speaker 6 ]: It is very much different now. I was there, and we had a full bag, which has theoretically a sip of every cow's milk in it. I could help your person, you know, shake the bag. Clip we leave a long tail, clip it, draw a sample, redye it, restore it. So Is that how they're doing it? Or [Evie Flory ]: So we consulted on on those in what representative Nelson is talking about is what I would just say is a really cool and high-tech milk sampling system to get a representative sample for a direct load farm. And we we have basically, like, fifteen farms in the state that have a similar technology. And for dairy, it's like it's basically the holy grail of the official sample to do the antibiotic test on. And we consulted with USDA on not wanting to interfere with that sample because that's what allows the milk to be tested at a plant to be accepted, to be processed. And we made the decision as a state that we didn't wanna interfere with potentially contaminating that sample and risk an entire truckload of milk not being allowed to be sampled and being accepted at a plant. So we are going to take it in in line in the milk house from a sampling port. [Carol ]: Okay. [Evie Flory ]: And USDA is allowing that because of our sampling frequency. Mhmm. It's very different than how we would normally want a sample representation wise in the dairy sanitation world. Because of our frequency, USDA isn't necessarily concerned about how much it's representing as long as we are taking it at the frequency of once a month. [Speaker 6 ]: K. And the other I I find it incredulous that the mill haulers wouldn't work with you. [Evie Flory ]: It wasn't the haulers. It was the cooperative. [Speaker 6 ]: It was the co ops. [Evie Flory ]: It was not the haulers. [Speaker 6 ]: So I I will bend their ear or grab their ear and ask them what was wrong with them. Why they couldn't grab one sample? They're already on the fire. They they how many how many they their trucks all go back and congregate before they head down the interstate. It whether it's in Cabot or they could left them in Cabot or left them in Coventry or St. Olaf, but you you know. [Evie Flory ]: I know. [Speaker 2 ]: It it it is incredulous to me that Dave wouldn't step up. And I will if you don't mind, I will chastise them. [Evie Flory ]: I I don't I don't think you need to chastise them. I I will just say that we we met with them, and continue to meet with them in a in a positive manner once a week. When we first knew that this was coming down the pipe, our agency met with them individually, and we have continued to meet with industry as a group, which we've never done before. And, like, I appreciate from a time management standpoint that competitors are willing to meet with us as a group so that we can update them efficiently in one thirty minute meeting and so that we can get other work done. Their concerns was that they were worried about time and that they didn't feel like they had the ability, and they didn't wanna stress out their drivers. They said they didn't have the resources, and they were worried about them confusing the samples for antibiotics and that. There have been other states that they ran the same issues and the and the co ops wouldn't take the samples. And so we said, okay. Then we're gonna we'll do it ourselves. And so we sought out funding, and we're doing it ourselves. So I recognize that this isn't the most efficient way to do it. But there's also we also know because the integrity of it, we know who sampled it, and we have traceability. And so we know the integrity of the sample, and we have we know exactly who took the sample and when and exactly how it was handled and where it went to. And so if we ever do have a positive, we do know the trace back of it, and we know that it is exactly that form. And there is some peace of mind if we ever did have a positive in knowing there wasn't a mess up. Not saying that our haulers would mess anything up because we have exceptional haulers. So it's been a good experience in working with our cooperatives. So I don't think you need to chastise them. Good. I'm not gonna tell you what to do, but I do recognize that this isn't the most efficient thing. Our haulers have complained. They're like, why aren't we doing it? And and we have expressed, like, our appreciation that they in on an individual level have been like, we could have done this, and we've just explained, how things transpired. So I I appreciate your feedback. You know? [Speaker 6 ]: So we we paid them. [Evie Flory ]: I know you do. I know I know you do. I know you do. [Speaker 6 ]: And it didn't need to come from taxpayers. We paid them enough to do this. [Evie Flory ]: I know you do. [Speaker 2 ]: Thank thank you. [Speaker 6 ]: If you ever need someone to chastise on your man. [Evie Flory ]: I appreciate that representative Nelson. [Speaker 2 ]: Even if the committee whip. [Chair ]: Alright. Just quickly, where is [Speaker 2 ]: the Dairy Business Innovation Center? Is it in your division or is it sort of [Evie Flory ]: a standalone? It's in the ag dev division k. On in Abby Willard's division in, lower against that. So, Laura and I, we're kind of the point people for dairy in the agency, and I just always joke that Laura is the fun one because she has money. I'm not the fun one. I just have rules. So That's it. [Chair ]: So I think we we we were gonna have Laura come in and give us a presentation again this year on that. [Evie Flory ]: And she's she's been up to some really awesome stuff that she'll have to present to you all that are some really, really positive things going on. So yeah. [Chair ]: Excellent. Alright. Well, thank you for coming Absolutely. Back and, for the update on that and and just for the information on your work information. So so [Evie Flory ]: And, yep, tell your your farmer colleagues, please don't shoot the birds. We're going to be working on communications because they're migratory birds are federally protected, so there could be bad penalties if they did that from the [Speaker 3 ]: federal government. Owner in [Speaker 6 ]: the bumper side of OEV? [Evie Flory ]: So, we're gonna work on some communication of options, and there are permits if they really do wanna shoot the birds, that they could get. But, we understand the confusion, and we are gonna work on some communication with farmers. [Speaker 6 ]: That would be most felt helpful. So [Chair ]: That would [Speaker 6 ]: be most helpful. [Evie Flory ]: And I understand why they're stressed out. [Speaker 6 ]: Yeah. [Evie Flory ]: So we're working on that day to try to get something out tomorrow to the farmers to help their stress level, and I understand why they're stressed out. So this is worrisome. [Chair ]: Great. Thank you. [Evie Flory ]: Thank you all for your time, and, I hope this is a good session for you all. [Chair ]: Thank you. Respond.

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