SmartTranscript of House Agriculture – 2025-01-24 – 1:00PM

[Emily Raymondberger ]: Now [David Jurphey ]: so I'll I will start with those introductions then we'll go around. We've got an hour or so, I think, to hear from from you all or as many of you as would like to say something. And we'll an hour will go by quickly. We'll have questions. We probably won't be able to get all of our questions in. Just that's what the three has demonstrated. You might not be able to tell us everything you wanted to tell us. So there'll be other opportunities, I'm sure, in the future. But in any case, I'm David Jurphey. I'm the chair of the committee. I live in Shaftesbury, Bennington County, and I represent Shaftesbury and Sunderland and Glastonbury. And I will ask, the vice chair to go next. [Michelle Boslin ]: Well, I'm just not the vice chair. I represent Windsor Ford, the town of [Emily Raymondberger ]: Barnard, Concord, Bridgewater, West Hartford. [Don O'Brien ]: Hi there. Don O'Brien. I represent Windsor Orange one. That's, Royalton in my hometown, Kentridge. [Michelle Boslin ]: My name is Michelle Boslin. I live in Northern Windham County. I represent Westminster, Rockingham, and Brooklyn. [David Jurphey ]: Richard Nelson, Orleans one, represent the town of Derby. [Jed Lipsky ]: Jed Lipsky, Lamoia one district south. [David Jurphey ]: I'm Leland Morgan. I represent, all of Grand Isle County and the western portion of Malcolm. We're missing this afternoon representative Burt, who's a new member of the committee. So we'll have to let him introduce himself another day. Sedonia, do you wanna introduce yourself? [Joanna Doran ]: Sedonia, I'm the committee's been present. [David Jurphey ]: Okay. Alright. We'll turn it over to you guys. [Grace O'Dell ]: Great. Thank you so much, sir Durfee. Maybe we can just go around, and you could say your names and where you're coming from just so folks get oriented. [Melissa Oliva ]: Hi, everyone. I'm Andy. [Joanna Doran ]: Joanna. [David Jurphey ]: My question. Thank you for your time. [Emily Raymondberger ]: Emily Raymondberger. I'm from White Ridge, Vermont, and I'm the marketing communications coordinator at. [David Jurphey ]: I'm Mark Killen Bolton, and I'm the office manager. [Emily Raymondberger ]: Yeah. I'm Zachary in Burlington and I live at Fort Benford. [Todd Hardy ]: Todd Hardy. I'm a grain farmer in Greensboro. [Emily Raymondberger ]: I'm Zachary Madden. I live in Orwell. I'm a farmer, and I also live with the extension on the peninsula board. [Melissa Oliva ]: My name is Jeff Hayes Lucas. I'm in South Burlington. I'm in Orange. [Todd Hardy ]: Good afternoon. Good month there. I'm working Warren. Note of the board and small business owner. [Melissa Oliva ]: I'm Melissa Oliva. I'm a farmer, lead in Milwaukee, Vermont, and also I'm part of the. [David Jurphey ]: Welcome to all of you. [Grace O'Dell ]: Thanks for letting us cram in. We were excited to have a board meeting this morning at the UU church and then come over here and get to connect with my legislators. [Emily Raymondberger ]: So thanks for the work you do. [Grace O'Dell ]: So I'm gonna provide a little bit of an introduction to our organization and share [Joanna Doran ]: a little bit about what we've been up to. [Grace O'Dell ]: And then we'll hear from a couple of staff members on the particular policy priorities we're advancing this this biennium. And then we'll hear from a few of our board members and farmers from the community who have some relevant experiences to share. So thank you, chair Durfee and the whole committee for having us here rolling with us. Again, I'm Grace O'Dell. I've been the executive director at NOFA Vermont, which is the Northeast Organic Farming Association of Vermont, for the last six years. And as you heard, we have many colleagues and members of our board and we are representative of much larger membership still. We have about thirteen hundred members statewide and we're growing. We're up eleven percent from last year and we've been on a steady trajectory of growth. And I'm excited to share a little bit of background about what we do as an organization and talk a little bit about our priorities. So for any of you who this is new for, and just to hear again, there are lots of different ways that our various Vermonters intersect with NOFA's work. Some aspects of our work you might be really familiar with. We do a lot of business planning services and work directly with farmers, and we remain led by a majority farmer and farmworker board. We also work with lots of folks who interact with the food system in different ways. So we in the folders in front of you, you can find handouts on the local food security work that we do along with our funding request about that, a handout on our farm security fund responding to extreme weather events and our most recent annual impact report. All of those give you a great sort of constellation of ways to learn about the organization. As I mentioned, we are statewide and member driven. We were founded over a half century ago in Putney, Vermont by a group of farmers who believed that they could farm in a way that really worked with people on the planet and organized together, and we really are proud to still be led by a majority farmer board. Our mission, you can see up right here on the screen. And what it comes down to is the understanding that when we get food and farming right, we get so much more right, and people and the planet can really thrive together. Food is that amazing tool right in the middle. So farmers, and I'll put this up and say you can just stay with this beautiful slide, been an artist in our community made for us. Farmers produce the food that feeds everybody. You all know this. That's our ag committee. We all know that thriving farms benefit our state in so many ways and each of our communities in in ways, economic ways, and all these ways enumerated. So we have more resiliency, we have stronger along focal economies, we have mutual aid, civic engagement. You know, we are food secure. So there's so many things that when we get the way that farms root our communities correctly, they're like a keystone indicator species. You've heard of, like, in the Pacific Northwest, they talk about the coho salmon swimming. Once the coho salmon swim, we know that the rivers are clean. I think about small farms in Vermont like that. When small farms are thriving, our communities are strong, our towns are strong, our food supply is resilient. We're ready for whatever's coming. So NOFA itself works in a lot of different ways to support farmers and to ensure that everyone has access to the food that they produce. We have a farmer services team that provides direct support to farmers in the form of one to one business planning and technical assistance. We have mentorship and cohorts for farmers to learn with and from each other where they we support them in doing visits around state. We have many funding opportunities like our resilience grants. We have climate resilience planning and organic transition supports to help farmers become certified. Our policy and organizing team, which includes a member led steering committee, works to listen to what our membership is talking about, and hold member meetings all around the state, and then bring those priorities forward here to work on both state and federal policy. At the federal level, we're members of a number of other coalitions like [Emily Raymondberger ]: the National Farm Coalition, National Organic Coalition, and many more where we work for change on the federal too. [Grace O'Dell ]: Joanna is going to talk more in a moment about our educational programming, where we work to build markets and direct and wholesale spaces and to increase food security by partnering with local school districts and our farm to school work at our partnership called Vermont Feed with Shelburne Farms has been a many year successful program building out the local food movement that we know and love here in our schools. And finally, Vermont Organic Farmers, which you might hear referred to as VOF, Is that you? USDA credit accredited organic certification program. So if you go to the store, you go to the club, and you see that organic seal, that would most likely be certified by BOF here in the state. Oh, thank you. These are this is a slide. We oh, I can also do this. [David Jurphey ]: I'll just [Emily Raymondberger ]: talk about that. [David Jurphey ]: Can you talk about that? [Joanna Doran ]: We also throw a big old here we go. We throw [Grace O'Dell ]: a big winner conference. We believe it to be the largest agricultural conference in the state, although I learned from I'm sure many of you know oh [David Jurphey ]: my god. [Grace O'Dell ]: Dave Marvin, butternut maple, wonderful human who I love. And Dave always says, like, oh, we're the second largest. And finally, my husband said, like, well, who's larger lady? And Dave's like, I'm just trying to be humble. I don't know. I don't know if there's another larger one. I'm just trying to not blame that. So I I think of Dave Almond. Yeah. Maybe maybe there's a couple more. So anyway, we we put on a big conference. It's a chance for folks to come together to to build community. We have singing, and we have that's the part that I really like. [David Jurphey ]: But we have [Grace O'Dell ]: lots of other things, like workshops for two days on farming. We have intensives. We have keynote speakers who come, a children's conference, and we've been doing this for a long time too. We used to have a barn dance that that followed that went all through the night and ended in the morning, but people seem to not have that in them. Although Joe and I do have a party in the summer called Butterfest where we do dance all night in the barn and churn cream. So you're all invited. July fifth. Okay. So moving on here back to our Vermont Organic Farmers, which is a USDA accredited certification program. So this was formed by farmers in eighty five, and it currently certified seven twenty five farms. Some of you are here in this room today. Thank you. And processors, that's to the to the National Organic Program. And over NOFA's lifetime, organic has really grown to be really significant movement nationally and way of life here in Vermont. At the end of twenty twenty four, to give you a sense of our scale, VOF certified a hundred and sixty two thousand acres of farmland, and VOF producers gross sales at three hundred and seventy seven million dollars of economic activity here for the state. We currently certify one hundred and seventeen dairies. Mike Resher is on our board and was a dairy farmer and is in grain, and we will surely be talking about the struggles that organic dairy in particular have been going through one hundred and sixty eight vegetables and fruit farms, two fifty maple operations. So there's still a lot of people. Each of these farms has a substantial positive impact on our communities, the landscape and rural economies. I do wanna point out that with that organic maple, that's eighty six thousand acres of forest land. And some people ask, you know, what what's what could be not organic about maple, right? Like what makes it organic? What makes it organic is the way that the farmers and the forest managers tend that land for biodiversity and for health of the whole forest. So it's a huge service that these land stewards are providing tending the sugar woods. They're also providing jobs, making a delicious product, and really nourishing biodiversity when they're certified with EOF. In order to continue supporting our farmers and all Vermonters having access to this nourishing local and organic food, we have just a couple of focuses this legislative session. First, we're asking you to consider an increase and base funding for our crop cash. Thank you. I'm terrible at slides. For our crop cash plus and farm share programs. And Joanna's gonna share more about those programs in just a moment. And the second to ask is to pass the Farm Security Fund, which is a new bill that we expect to come before your committee soon that Maddie's gonna talk more about and in detail. And I'm happy to answer any general overview questions, but I think before we open that up, maybe it makes sense to hear from Joanna and Maddie and the rest of [Emily Raymondberger ]: the board members who are gonna speak, and then we'll take questions. [Grace O'Dell ]: How do you prefer to Or or how do you prefer to [Emily Raymondberger ]: do it, Shader? [David Jurphey ]: Well, that's fine. Why don't we have Joanna and Maddie come up to you? Did you wanna have two chairs and come at the same time, or do you wanna [Joanna Doran ]: You're here. Joanna, do [Emily Raymondberger ]: you have two chairs? [Joanna Doran ]: Yeah. I'm also happy [Grace O'Dell ]: to answer questions if there's any about that face. What do you mean [Emily Raymondberger ]: to be like? No questions. Okay. Good. That's all. [Jed Lipsky ]: If someone could use Greg's care [Emily Raymondberger ]: of it. [Joanna Doran ]: Sit right there, Mike. That's all you. [Don O'Brien ]: You have some band up too. Is that right? Hey. [Emily Raymondberger ]: Hey. With us. [Joanna Doran ]: Hi, Joanna. [Michelle Boslin ]: Hi. Good to see you all. Thank you so much for having us. So as I said, I'm Joanna Doran. I live in Winooski, and I am the local food access director with NOFA Vermont. I'm going to talk about our first request this year, which some of you might remember a bit about from last. I'm going to go into a little bit more detail for the folks that are new and might not be familiar with our food security programs. So we're asking for five hundred thousand dollars in base funding for our food security programs. They strengthen Vermont farm viability and address food security. Our programs are Crop Cash Plus and Farm Share. So Crop Cash doubles Three Squares Vermont or SNAP benefits when used at farmers markets. So when somebody who receives SNAP benefits goes to a participating farmers market, which include most around the state, they can get extra coupons to spend on produce at the market. Those coupons are then, you know, used to pay for food at different vendors' booths at the market and translate to real income for farmers. The program has been in Vermont for over a decade and the demand has grown immensely since the start of the COVID nineteen pandemic. And it's been really important for Vermonters to keep local food affordable and to be able to purchase food with that aligns with their values. It's majority federally funded, though it does require NOFA to provide a local matching fund. So that's where the state funding comes in. It helps to draw down that federal funding, and it helps us meet the demand for the program. So essentially, every dollar that the state invests in crop cash brings down additional funding from the federal government and brings that money into our local economy. Crop Cash Plus was a twenty twenty three pilot program that expanded the Crop Cash program to all SNAP eligible food. So Crop Cash is limited by the federal requirement that those coupons be spent on just produce. And this pilot, which was funded through a one time state appropriation, allowed us to provide an additional coupon that folks could use on things like bread and dairy, meat, you know, the things that make up a a full nutritional weed complete diet. This program was incredibly popular, so much so that we had to essentially stop it early because it was being used so much and we ran out of our funding for the program. It also brought more folks to farmers markets because it made it worth it for them to spend their SNAP dollars there even more so than with crop cash alone. It also doubled the number of farmers that we were able to support through these programs because cheese farmers, meat producers that weren't able to accept the produce only crop cash could also then receive the crop cash coupons. And it brought new customers to those farmers who weren't able to afford their their products before. So it was both incredibly important for food security and bringing more income to more local farmers. So state funding, will be necessary to bring back the Crop Cash Plus program. We are not able to use federal funding for that program. And so it relies on state funding. Finally yes? [David Jurphey ]: Can we pause there just before we go into the third program? [Don O'Brien ]: Okay. Representative O'Brien. So CroftPASH is a is a federal program for for All SNAP [David Jurphey ]: Correct. [Don O'Brien ]: In all states. [Michelle Boslin ]: PropCash is a version of a program that operates in other states. Some states might call it something else, and they might have some differences in their program, but it's essentially the same. Mhmm. [David Jurphey ]: Crop Cash Plus is just Vermont. That's [Michelle Boslin ]: That's correct. There are a few other states that have gotten state funding to support a similar program, but this Crop Cash Plus is particular to Vermont in the space. [David Jurphey ]: What what I was just wondering if you know the history of why why did the [Don O'Brien ]: federal government just limit it to fruits and vegetables? [Michelle Boslin ]: That's a great question. My understanding is the intent of the grant that funds it is to encourage folks to spend their SNAP dollars and use those benefits on produce because they have a lot of nutritional value. As we all know, so do other types of food. We, you know, we need protein and vegetables don't have a lot of protein. So that's why we we see this Crop Cash Plus expansion to be really important. Yeah. Thanks for the questions. Okay. So our final program is Farm Share, which subsidizes CSA or community supported agriculture shares for low income Vermonters. This through this program, NOFA provides a twenty five to seventy five percent discount on purchasing a CSA share, for folks that need financial assistance to to buy local food. And then we pay the farm for the discount amount. It's something it's a program that's been around for about thirty years, and we work with over sixty farms throughout the state, including Melissa at Inlandt Gardens, to provide fresh produce and other types of food to folks throughout the full season. We've seen a really large increase in demand over the years. Our numbers have skyrocketed, and our typical method of funding this program through philanthropy is it we've really outpaced what philanthropy can support. So in this past legislative session, we were really grateful to receive three hundred thousand dollars to support FarmShare and Crop Cash That is enabling us to serve more people in Vermont, pay farmers more money for their food, and ensure that so far this year, at least eight hundred households and two to three times that many individuals have been able to get a consistent supply of fresh local food. This year, we are asking for five hundred thousand dollars in base funding so that we can continue demand, and so that we can bring back the Crop Cash Plus program, which provides a really vital source of money for food for people and supports double the number of farmers than Crop Cash alone. We know that food security can be achieved for everybody that lives in Vermont. And at the same time, we can support our farmers and ensure that they can profit from growing the food that we all need. Crop Cash Plus and FarmShare are proven programs that meet both of these goals. And, we are really excited to to talk more about these programs with you and hope that we will have your support in them. So I will take any questions. [Emily Raymondberger ]: Thank you very much. Some [Michelle Boslin ]: testimonies from from folks if you have [Emily Raymondberger ]: a moment to to read through them. [David Jurphey ]: You may have you may have said it, but can you can you tell us again how many Vermonters are served by the three different programs? I think I heard eight hundred, but I'm not sure if that was collectively or just for part share. [Michelle Boslin ]: It's, so far this fiscal year, which is, you know, halfway over, it's been an estimate of eight hundred households. With CrabCash, we don't track the individual or the unique households that come and use SNAP benefits. It's an estimate based on if somebody were coming every week. So it's likely a lot more than eight hundred, but that that that's our estimate. [Don O'Brien ]: You break out of the three programs where you want that five hundred thousand to go? [Michelle Boslin ]: Yeah. So we we need at least sixty thousand to go to PropCash to meet our federal matching requirement. We see the need for FarmShare to be a hundred thousand. And the need for Crop Cash Plus is two hundred thousand based on our twenty twenty three pilots. The remainder of the funding would go towards some of the the back end costs of printing the Crop Cash Plus coupons and materials, doing outreach to make sure that we're, letting everybody that qualifies for these programs to know about them. And, you have administrative costs, which are also in part covered by the federal grant that funded PropCash. So it's both of those. Representative Lipsky? [Jed Lipsky ]: Yeah. Chairman, can you recall for us what we recommended or were able to provide last time? [David Jurphey ]: I would I would get it wrong if I tried to say a number. Somebody in this room knows that number. [Emily Raymondberger ]: Three hundred. Right? [Michelle Boslin ]: We received three hundred thousand dollars. I believe the House Agriculture Committee recommended somewhere around our request, which was four hundred and seventy eight thousand five hundred dollars. That's Gross. [David Jurphey ]: And was that something all provided in the budget that passed in June? Is it June, ultimately? There was I know there were some programs that were contingent on [Joanna Doran ]: Yes. [David Jurphey ]: Additional revenue. Was did any of that fall into the additional revenue category? Some of [Michelle Boslin ]: it was in the contingency. Yeah. Yeah. Two yes. Sixty thousand was in contingency funding. Two hundred and forty thousand was what we had initially, and then we received the additional sixty thousand. [David Jurphey ]: Did receive. Okay. Mhmm. It did. Alright. Thank you. Just to pull up [Don O'Brien ]: the and what was base of any of [Michelle Boslin ]: that? None of it was base. It was all one time. [David Jurphey ]: It's all considered one time. Other questions from the committee. Does a does a farmer's market that wants to participate need to do anything other than accept SNAP benefits to have a have to weigh it all through that? Essentially, they have [Michelle Boslin ]: to fill out an agreement about understanding the rules of the program and go through some training with NOFA staff. But the requirement that they accept SNAP is the main requirement. [David Jurphey ]: Yeah. So [Michelle Boslin ]: Sorry. Are you still on [Emily Raymondberger ]: the brownie farmers market? So if this is one of four other programs that are managed through different different, for low income, households. So but, yeah, you have to apply for USDA to be able to run SNAP, and it depends on the size of the market. But the larger the markets, a lot of them do take SNAP. And so for a lot of us that who are who are managing us, we have to keep account of what how each of those different benefits are utilized and then in order to reimburse each of the farmers and the vendors. [David Jurphey ]: A bit of bookkeeping. A lot. Yeah. Great. Thank you very much. [Grace O'Dell ]: Thank you [Michelle Boslin ]: so much. I'll pass it over to Betty. Great. [Joanna Doran ]: Everybody, it's nice to see you all. Like I said, I'm Maddie Kempner, and I live in Cambridge, I forgot to mention, proudly. [David Jurphey ]: Formerly of West Milton. [Joanna Doran ]: Formerly of West Milton. Born and raised West Milton. Yes. I wanna share a little bit with you all about a bill that we're asking the legislature to pass this year called the Farm Security Fund. This is a new piece of legislation that would provide rapidly available, easily accessible funds for farmers that are impacted by climate disasters or other extreme weather. And I think it's helpful for me to speak about this from NOFA's perspective because we've had our farmer emergency fund in place since nineteen ninety seven. And having that fund has really allowed us to learn a lot about what farmers experience and what farmers need in the wake of the kinds of events like tropical storm Irene. That was essential for a lot of farmers back in twenty eleven, and also from the last couple of years. We've learned a lot, farmers have learned a lot, the state collectively has learned a lot from the flooding that happened, in twenty twenty three and twenty twenty four. And they we also know that federal programs are not well suited to our farmers here in Vermont generally. The agency of Ags task force survey report lets us know that seventy percent of respondents to that survey in twenty twenty three did not have any kind of proper livestock insurance. And I will say that I have learned that that's true of not not just our smaller scale diversified and organic producers, but even, producers of commodities. And, you know, corn growers are often also not well covered by crop insurance. We also know that this state has played a really meaningful role in supporting farmers through these kinds of events. So the BGAP program, the business emergency gap assistance program that the state stood up in twenty twenty three to support farms and all types of businesses and responding to the flooding really meaningfully supported our working lands businesses. And we have learned through the BGAP program, and in talking with the agency of agriculture that we can improve upon that process. So you all may know that some of some of the grants that went out or the relief funds that went to farmers through the BHAT program took months and months to actually reach them. And since the program was run through the agency of commerce, it didn't necessarily always meet the needs, nor was it designed in a way that really, squarely fit farmers particular circumstances. So the Farm Security Fund really is a reflection of what we have learned and how we think we can improve on that process to do better in the future. We also know that from our direct experience administering the emergency fund that rapid relief can really make a huge difference for folks, and responding to these kinds of disasters. So getting payments to folks quickly, like within a couple of weeks can allow them to make payroll, keep their employees on, to aid in their recovery from a crisis. For example, we had farms in twenty twenty three who had h two a workers, and because of the timing of that flooding event, they were in a position of potentially having to lay off a large portion of their crew, at the peak of the season. And then also have no help to, to recover and get things replanted to the extent they were able, on the farm. You throw us up to. Thank you. Like Amy thinks I need a coffee. Excuse me. We're supposed to. We know that farmers cannot pivot to making seeking disaster relief their full time job after a crisis, which is frankly the story that I've heard from dozens of farmers who really have to work hard to find what little relief is available to them after an event like the flooding. And so you all know too at the federal level, the feeling that we experienced from a lot of producers after the flooding in twenty twenty three was wait to clean up, wait to go out to your fields and do anything until someone from FSA can come out and assess the damage and see, you know, what happened and what you might qualify for. And wait until USDA maybe makes a disaster declaration because there was this sense that help was on the way. And when that disaster declaration happened, which we're glad it did, all that really created for farmers was an opportunity to apply for a low interest loan, which for a farmer facing a half million dollars in losses sometimes more, that's not the kind of help that they need. And the federal government really just hasn't been able to come through for farmers in the way that we know they need. So that's what this fund we hope will do. I also just want to say all of that hassle and the administrative burden of trying to seek assistance through many different administrative agencies, fill out complex paperwork, further taxes of farmers mental health in a time of crisis and trauma. Farms are the heart of our culture and community here in Vermont, and we know that we need to better support them when these future emergencies happen. So we really look forward to sharing more about this bill, with the committee in the weeks to come and hopefully having you hear from more farmers. And then lastly, I just wanna show you the note that staff you can expect to see in the statehouse. Most of us are here today. So myself and Grace and Joanna and Jess will be in the statehouse regularly, and then our farm to school program manager, Kayla Strom, you can also expect to see in the building. And that's all from from me. [David Jurphey ]: Wait. I was gonna say, before we take questions, we did hear from the Farm Bureau and the Dairy Producers Alliance, and I think they each alluded to the the trunk the security fund too as a Wonderful. Legislative priority. So [Joanna Doran ]: Excellent. Actually, I should point out in your folders there, there is a handout on both the crop cash and farm share request and the farm security fund. And on the bottom of the handout about the farm security fund, you'll see a pretty wide array of farmer organizations that have that are supporting the bill and that also have really worked closely together to develop the language and the concepts and to make sure it meets all farmers' needs. So that's really important and we're proud of that. Okay. I I'm happy to take questions. [David Jurphey ]: Yeah. So any questions for Maddie? [Don O'Brien ]: No? John? So you're asking for twenty million? [Joanna Doran ]: Yes. We are seeking a twenty million dollar a one time appropriation for FY twenty six. And there's a funding formula in the bill itself that you'll see, going forward that would put a base appropriation, in the special fund based on the average of the previous three years distributions or losses. And also just for context on that twenty million dollars number, the agency of AGS own survey found that the damage just to farm businesses alone in twenty twenty three was forty four point seven million. And the total impact on the food system itself, including restaurants and other food businesses, was about sixty nine million. And in twenty twenty four, the losses were fourteen million from farms alone. [Don O'Brien ]: You would stand it up based that based on your history now that you had a fund like this? [Joanna Doran ]: Oh, the agency of ag would administer it, but the the language in the bill also includes a review board. So it would be in partnership with organizations that have supported farmers and forestry businesses through these kinds of events and also that would have farmers and forestry operators on the board itself. [David Jurphey ]: One of the just thinking back to a year and a half ago in the flooding, one of the concerns might not be the right word was the time it took for farmers to get the relief. You mentioned just there was first the burden of having to apply when when everything else is happening. And then it took a while. And I know that a year later, unfortunately, when many farmers were going through the same thing, that cycle had been shorter quite a bit. If for no other reason that program was in place and it yeah. And and had been through us before. And then you had mentioned also that Novus had its own relief fund of of a short Yes. Which does not have to, I imagine, comply with quite as many regulations as any government program would. Can you just talk a little bit about how long it how long it takes for it might take with this new program to get somebody, that relief? [Joanna Doran ]: Yeah. That's a great question. So, Grayson, correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe with our emergency fund, our average turnaround time to get checks to farmers once we had received and processed the application was eight days. So as quickly as we could, shout out to Bill Cavanaugh, who's our farm business advisor received and, filtered through every single one of some two hundred plus applications. We also had a farm. We have a farmer review board in place for that fund as well. So there's four farmers who review every application that comes through. So it is a participatory process, which is really important to us. And I believe at the end of the day at, for twenty twenty three, we ended up putting out about two point one million. Is that right, Grace? And emergency fund grants or maybe it was one point [Emily Raymondberger ]: yeah. Okay. Through us. And what we've seen in five day is just year one, we had an incredible ground swell with philanthropic support, and we raised two point one million dollars. We held some, which turned out to [Joanna Doran ]: be good because we had [Emily Raymondberger ]: a flood the next year and we distributed it the [Grace O'Dell ]: following year. And then and then philanthropy was was not there the next year. [Emily Raymondberger ]: It was like this needs to be [Grace O'Dell ]: a governmental response. This is a repeated problem. We cannot raise this much money from our little, you know, donors here in Vermont was what we heard, which is a similar pattern in terms of relief after buyers out west. And so we just see like, okay, this has this has happened year over year. We've had the stand up b gap programs retroactively. [Emily Raymondberger ]: Wouldn't it be great to be planful about this and come together with the smart association to make a plan about [Grace O'Dell ]: how this should work in order that we can distribute [Joanna Doran ]: it more quickly in a [Emily Raymondberger ]: less arduous manner and it's been great to see so much consensus from all these ad groups together who have really worked hard to make a build that works for everyone. And we're gonna hear more a little bit of the faculty farmers from the member consumers in our board. [David Jurphey ]: Do we happen to know anybody whether the governor's budget is going to include funding for this program? [Joanna Doran ]: We don't know yet. But it would be wonderful for you all to hear from the agency, their perspective and their experience and their involvement with BCAP for sure. [David Jurphey ]: Right. [Todd Hardy ]: Any other [Joanna Doran ]: questions? To answer one other piece of your question, which I didn't answer, the bill right now would direct the agency to turn around payments that were approved by the review board within two weeks. So a little bit of a longer timeline than our emergency fund, but what we think is is really critical for farmers in these situations. James Lipsey. [Jed Lipsky ]: Yes. Thank you, Matt. With regard to the philanthropy that was quite prolific in twenty twenty three, was the Vermont community from the strong [Joanna Doran ]: Yeah. Yes. Yeah. Primary Very significant source of funds. [Jed Lipsky ]: And and I know this year, there was a lot of housing damage that maybe tilted their phones to other needs. Is that correct? [Joanna Doran ]: I don't know the detail about you know, but [Emily Raymondberger ]: the porch. It certainly still is. [Grace O'Dell ]: We saw a lot [Emily Raymondberger ]: of spontaneous, like, organic weatherization happening here one that didn't happen here too. But KZF is an incredibly important core partner that definitely supports the emergency fund and continues to do stuff. We've gotten, you know, we have steady donations coming from donors for both these. Yeah. Right. Yeah. [Don O'Brien ]: Just wondering if you had any creative suggestions on how to fund it. You know, whether seriously, let you know, like a a say a tax because I think there might be sympathy for, you know, helping out Vermont farmers all in [Joanna Doran ]: a different sense. We really need it. [David Jurphey ]: Yeah. We also need to pull [Don O'Brien ]: it out of the general fund, which has some of the pressures on it already. It's a tall [Joanna Doran ]: I mean, I would say that's that's really more of the role of the legislature. I will say there is some federal funding coming to Vermont as a small firm state. We are our region in New England and Alaska and Hawaii are part of a federal package of funding that was passed in December. And so the ag agency will be administering some relief grants through that funding. Right now that funding is my understanding is it's retroactive, so it would only cover twenty twenty three and twenty four impacts. So I'm not sure if there's any potential for any of that that funding to be used looking forward. Otherwise, yeah, we look to [David Jurphey ]: the legislature to answer that question. I think we heard that that number total was twenty. [Joanna Doran ]: It's two hundred and twenty million nationally for for all the states. [David Jurphey ]: For all the states. [Joanna Doran ]: And there's been an estimate that I think about six or sixty seven million might come to Vermont, but I don't know that we know it for sure yet. I mean, we're still waiting to see. But, again, we believe that to be retroactive. Alright. Thank you. If it works for you, I'd like to pass it to Joe. It's on our board. [David Jurphey ]: Thank you. [Emily Raymondberger ]: Made it. Take care. Thank you. It's a safe message. Yes. [Joanna Doran ]: That's up here. [David Jurphey ]: It is so it is so dry in [Joanna Doran ]: this building. It is. And I you know what? I should know better. I should have been prepared with [David Jurphey ]: my water bottle. Thank you. [Joanna Doran ]: Okay. Joe? [David Jurphey ]: Sorry. I say here. [Joanna Doran ]: You take it away. [Emily Raymondberger ]: Last week. [Joanna Doran ]: And we're gonna hold up, I think, on sharing slides until after it's done talking. [David Jurphey ]: Yeah. If we see that. [Todd Hardy ]: Oh, sure. Yeah. So if we have time for it, I've got a video a short video and some pictures that provide more context on what happened to our farm and Warren in the flooding, but we'll see if we have time. Alright. So as I said before, I'm Joe Boston. I'm basically here, as citizen, [David Jurphey ]: as [Todd Hardy ]: a small business owner, a farmer, NOFA board member, advocate for farmers in general, and the passage of the farm security fund in particular as a proactive rather than reactive disaster management strategy for our ag sector. So my my farm is down in Warren, and out of that farm, I run a fifteen year old food manufacturing business called Vermont Bean Crafters, and that business serves as a conduit between local organic farms and the broader markets of the northeast. We turn beans, grains, vegetables into value added products like bean burgers that get served in restaurants, universities, grocery stores, hospitals, k through twelve schools even around New England. So our farm also hosts a multi farm CSA connecting three other organic farms with over one hundred and fifty families in the Mad River Valley. We host willow weaving and plant propagation workshops and community events like butterfest that we're crazy. That's a celebration of the fab of the land, the richness of being together, and named the farm cloud water farm to reflect the hydrological cycles that defines the rich floodplain from time immemorial where this farm is. So standing in our field, you'll see the most gorgeous assortment of flowers arching over the green mountains. A sandy loam wicks up the not too distant water table into the burden plants underfoot, and the mountain fed Mad River channels Cooley Pass all along the two thousand plus feet of the western edge of the farm. Everything that defines this place and all the crops that leave this place are shaped by and contain cloud water. It's a beautiful and profound thing. And yet with both climate change and shifts in land use uphill and upstream of our farm, it also portends humbling risks. So the video we'll show shows the aftermath of a flash flood that happened in August ninth of twenty twenty three. So and that was after and before some other less intense but still consequential flood events and another bizarre season of surges of precipitation amidst fully saturated soils. So while the rains are increasing, we have uphill forest canopy diminishing as more private roads and residences chip away at the hillsides of our watershed. Soils get saturated and loosens more easily, and all those acres of sediment have nowhere to go but through this bottleneck of a culvert that serves to raise the height of the water and focus its force so that it enters our fields with an impressive velocity, carrying surprisingly large stones and logs much further into our fields than I would have ever thought possible. After the floodwaters raged over the bank of this stream that used to be a two by two rivulet and that I could easily stride across, it's now a meters wide field of gravel and tree limbs with only mature willow, pine, and alder holding in place. We lost several, plum trees, grapes, and spans of annual fields. And for the second time in three years, an important tractor bridge that allows us to more safely and efficiently move between fields. The high watermark flattened the grass on either side of a fresh planting of cherry trees or part of an agroforestry demonstration planting that had all been established with climate change in mind. So after that event, I knew I needed to re burn the stream bed as soon as possible or else every subsequent rain event was going to rage into our production fields. A spur of the stream was now running into one of the fields pooling and returning to the aquifer there. I knew I needed to move a lot of Earth fast, but I wasn't even clear what I was allowed to do. So was I allowed to touch a stream of this scale under any circumstances? Did I need a permit signed off on an engineer to make the town and state happy? Did I need to put things back the way they were? Could I improve the stream to make it better for our farm as well as for reducing sedimentation in the Mad River? How was I going to pay for this? What sort of documentation would I need to provide along the way, and what were my rights in the context of the land trust and NRCS contracts. So in the end, again, like, on top of running a business and having a toddler and doing all this stuff, I'm reaching out to the town of Warren, agency of transportation because it's their culvert. NRCS, FSA, UVM extension, Mad River water protectors, other farmers going through things for advice, construction and earthmoving professionals, and, interlace commons who has applied expertise in managing water through landscapes. And ultimately, all these people are pointing me to other people and no one could give me concrete answers. And I quickly realized how badly there needs to be a dedicated resource page, flowchart of questions and answers to help farmers in particular, landowners in general, navigate what to do in nature lands in our home place this way. So funding for sure roadmap as well, please. We ultimately were able to have an NRCS tell us that we wouldn't need permits. Like the watershed that drains into this stream was like fortunately under the size that it would need permanent pulp. So we were able to put it back. The funding for that came from the NOFA emergency fund. That money was enough to at least deal with this stream issue. It was not enough for us to also do the earth moving we need to do to help keep silt compounding into the bottom of our barn. That still is a open ended issue that we're waiting to resolve. So ultimately, we have lots of work to do individually and collectively. Our story is just ultimately a pretty minor one out of hundreds across the state. There's lots of farms from Foot Brook to Burnt Rock, Bone Mountain, all the farms at the Intervale. I encourage you to look into their stories and the rebuilding that they're needing to do. We need more information sharing, more in situ demonstration, more nimble funding mechanisms to keep this sector intact and hopefully thriving amidst all these uncertainties. And so the creation of the farm security fund won't solve our problems in one go, but hopefully it can help farmers buy some time, and help heal and adapt to this new normal. The return on investment for the people is clear and we not only need to eat, but we need stories and examples of how we can come together to solve these problems. And we need to acknowledge that the farsighted management of the one point two million acres of agricultural lands in Vermont is likely the best investment we can make for our collective future. [David Jurphey ]: Thank you. Questions? Any questions or thoughts? Oh, we look to the end. [Jed Lipsky ]: We see the video. [Joanna Doran ]: I can share right now. [David Jurphey ]: Yeah. Yes. Definitely. Like to share. Yeah. Oh, absolutely. No. It's a [Todd Hardy ]: if we wanted to get wonky, I gave Maddie also a bunch of Google layers of, like, we're all beautiful prime egg soils, and we're also floodplain, and we're also just the top of like, how the [David Jurphey ]: I feel in your brain. Got a similar situation with your Yeah. K. So so water, basically Water, basically. [Todd Hardy ]: Is above like that and just like a fire hose. [Emily Raymondberger ]: I don't know if we all share sounds. You know, pick that stuff. Turn the mic off. Let's see. [Todd Hardy ]: I do narrate it, but it's not [David Jurphey ]: so critical. [Todd Hardy ]: Okay. And, again, so this this stream used to be just, like, two feet wide. [Emily Raymondberger ]: Also in slot. I decided to email it to him tomorrow. [Michelle Boslin ]: Wait. Yeah. We can send it to [Emily Raymondberger ]: you for sure. [Jed Lipsky ]: Yeah. I don't wanna eat up the rest of your time. [Todd Hardy ]: Yeah. And, Adam, maybe we can send a link. [Michelle Boslin ]: Send a link. Yeah. [David Jurphey ]: Yeah. Jeremy. Jeremy. Thank you. How far is that from the Mad River? [Todd Hardy ]: So the Mad River defines the western border of our farm. So this is a this feeds into the Mad River. [Speaker 10 ]: Probably in the Mad River as a natural population of trout [Don O'Brien ]: or a dead. [Todd Hardy ]: Yeah. It does get seeded now. But yeah. [David Jurphey ]: Yes. Was that maybe a spawning little spawning tributary, or did do you think most of them stay right now? [Todd Hardy ]: That one, I don't think as much, just that that specific one. But, we did when we put it back together, made it a little bit more like a beaver would. So the madder river itself is gonna have different, better results for sedimentation and dissolved oxygen to benefit all the trout. Yeah. Sure. Right. Thank you. Yeah. [Emily Raymondberger ]: Yes. [Joanna Doran ]: It is definitely it's better quality. [Emily Raymondberger ]: I'll send it to you all. It's a follow-up. Okay. The field. [David Jurphey ]: Mhmm. Like, [Don O'Brien ]: I'm sorry. [Jed Lipsky ]: Those seats were all over. [Todd Hardy ]: Yeah. And then the we have a thirty eight hundred square foot barn from nineteen o six, the old what was the milking parlor? It's just like a slab on grade, and it has now, like, two inches of sticky silt on it. And so we've gotta do some berms and swells and terraforming to mitigate that, but it's basically you know, it's a mountain. It's bedrock right there. Roof one hundred. It's got nowhere to go. And so now every time it rains, it just comes in. So [Jed Lipsky ]: That Part of the little farm. Yeah. [Todd Hardy ]: We are just a couple miles south [David Jurphey ]: of Liberty. Over Kingsbury. That's the farm. Yep. [Todd Hardy ]: Yep. [Jed Lipsky ]: Mhmm. [Don O'Brien ]: So it's pretty valley. It's gorgeous. Great slopes. [David Jurphey ]: So any other questions for Joe? Alright. [Michelle Boslin ]: Chair Durfee, everybody. Thank you so much for having us today and for your kind attention. As I said earlier, my name is Becky Madden, and I serve on the NOFA board, and I'm I've also been a farmer in Vermont for twenty years. And for the past eight years of those, I've worked for the University of Vermont extension as a soil health specialist and a research assistant professor, specifically working with vegetable farmers. So I'm offering several different perspectives in my short time today. I don't need to describe to you the existential threat from climate change, but for the people who work the land, our farmers who grow food for our communities, the raging abnormality of these events are catastrophic and will only become worse. As lip reading the other day, a climate scientist named Peter Kalmus, I believe you say his name is, and he said it's not a new normal. A lot of climate messaging centers around this idea that's it. It's a new normal, but it's not. We've got a real crisis here, And that's what I'm contending with. Right? It's like this is these are not abnormalities. This is probably going to get worse. In Vermont and much of the northeast, we've heard the predicted climate impacts will have on agriculture, but we're also quickly learning that here, this is not a new normal, and it's not gonna fit into a neat scientific model. Instead, we're reacting to events as they happen, and we're never quite prepared enough to stop the damage, but we're also never quite surprised. The good news is that we're coherent together as communities, farm supporters, farmers, folks like you. It's been really incredible with the creativity, the agility, the fundraising, the support of many of many different people coming together. It's been truly beautiful to be part of this community during this time. I also think it's become quite apparent what our what our vulnerabilities are right now. And I think this proposed bill that Maddie and so many others have worked hard to come together to propose addresses one very significant vulnerability that we are able to address right now. As Maddie mentioned, based on the survey data the agency of ag collected, we're looking at forty four million dollars of losses just in twenty twenty three alone directly to farmers. The next year, fourteen or fourteen million dollars. My own farm in Orwell was no exception to these losses just from heavy rainfall in twenty twenty three. The average loss was twenty eight percent across all firms in that year who reported damage. With my work at UVM Extension, I work in soil health, and I'm funded eighty percent of my funding comes to the clean water improvement program. So my job is to help farmers improve soil health practices. But when I see extreme weather come, it washes away soil and nutrients, and it's really backtracking on this work. We are quite literally losing ground on the work the state is doing. And I think that's a really big contradiction happening right now where we're doing such great work, and we're also losing, losing so much of this. I also wanna note, that these financial losses mean that farmers don't have the capacity to make these improvements. I've done some research on this. Farmers, the number one thing that helps them implement soil health practices is money and comfort with finances. So it's a twofold problem from the climate impacts. We're creating while creating a farm security fund won't solve the climate crisis and it won't repair a broken farm economy, it can play a critical role in getting farmers through an urgent and very temporary loss. They are these are strong businesses, but it's a very acute moment in time. They need to make payroll, pay loans and mortgages, and these expenses don't stop when the crops are lost. And I I've seen this on my own farm and so many farms I work with. It's a very last year as the floodwaters were rising, you know, my job is to help people, and it's such a satisfying job. But as the floodwaters were rising, I was calling everybody I know who I thought might flood. What can I do? And they almost laughed. They were like, do you do you have half a million dollars? Like, I can't help right now. I can't help them through this. And, you know, in the first year of the in twenty twenty three, a lot of, you know, one farmer posted on their blog. They were able to rally and clean up that year, but the second year, it was and this is a quote from them. It it had a down a different effect. It was downright depressing. GoFundMe's are such a beautiful testament to Vermont's ability to rally around community, but they are not the mechanism for keeping our agriculture going. We also know that it's hard to plan for the unknown, and I wanna know that this is not just about flooding. We, climate models predict also it's gonna be hotter, windier, and drier. So we are looking at so many different things happening, people having losses in extreme wind events, fire, drought, heat stress. We've got it all as a potential, and farmers are doing so much work to prepare for this. They're so ahead of us in this. They're doing all this work on the ground. They are you know, Joe, they're planting for agroforestry. They're diversifying. They're putting up windbreaks. They're on this game, but they can't you know, the the odds are stacked against them. And I think this proposed legislation is a really critical step in helping them get through this. So thank you for your time and all you do for farmers. [David Jurphey ]: Thank you. Yes. Good. Any questions? Thank you. [Melissa Oliva ]: Oh, thank you for your time. My name is Melissa Oliva. I am the co owner of Ananda Gardens, thermal wellness Farm. We're across the street in Horn of the Moon. We're the closest farm to you guys, actually. And, we started a farm ten years ago. We are a proud member of the Vermont, organic, farm community, and we've been working closely with NOFA since we started. Today, I'm here to inspire you, to vote for both of these proposals that we have today. And I wanna clarify both or or the three. It sounds like three, but, actually, it's like the Crop Plus and the Mhmm. Farm shared program, and they found in case of to be prepared for extreme weather. Why both? Because as farmers, we are not be gonna be able to produce the food that is required for low income communities if we don't if we don't if we don't have the support of the of our community. And and when I talk about support, it is the specific money piece of it, but also to show up when we need it. Because what happened to us in July seven of twenty twenty three could have ended up our business just like that. I saw my husband for the first time crying, not knowing what was gonna happen to him and all the work that we have put into the land because of water. Water that we need to to feed the soil, but but it was also destroyed in minutes, all our hard work. We lost a full greenhouse of tomatoes, like, seventy foot by forty, a big greenhouse of tomato crops that would have represent around thirty thousand dollars for us, which actually we've we we we already owe to the Vermont community, loan farm who also support us and partner with us in farming. And in the moment with all, you know, like, Joe described of, like, going through all these rattle of, like, how are you going to and payroll and the emotional task of what it's taking, knowing that your community is also drowning in front of you without not being able to do anything because our road got eroded and we got completely isolated. It took a couple of months to repair one of the roads and a couple of days to rep to to recover our access to the farm. So we have payroll in front of us. We have all of responsibilities, and no one to really support us but NOFA. NOFA help us. NOFA took eight days to provide the support so we can pay well, and we can be on top on on top of our economic or financial responsibilities. So that in that way, we could continue support. We've been partnering with NOFA for four years on the farm share program, providing, farm shares to low income, families in their community. Twenty percent of our whole revenue, comes from that program. So it's it's it's important to us. And, like, I can imagine it's, like, around the same number for other farms that also participate in these shares. From that twenty percent, half of those people who register for this program are single moms. This is who are we benefiting. And I wanna tell you the story of Anna. Anna is a single mom who has become a new American a year ago, and she's been benefiting from this program. And before coming here, I was like, what can I tell them? So we have your voice there. And what Anna told me is that there wouldn't be a way in this world that she will be able to provide this food to her daughter if it wasn't for an OFA program. That is so critical. And I've been in this room for almost an hour, and I've been seeing how caring you are and how you show up, the care for people in your interactions. And I I I'm I'm gonna leave today, trusting that you're caring for people in our community, trusting that you are here because you you believe in providing to our families and managing our tax, pounds, in ways that are efficient. You know? It's not about just, like, saying yes to everything, but this this is important to us. So I'm I'm I'm I'm really positive and hope that you guys are going to support our our propositions today. Thank you so much. [Don O'Brien ]: Thank you, Melissa. [David Jurphey ]: I wonder [Melissa Oliva ]: if you have questions. [David Jurphey ]: Are are there any questions? Thank you for thank you for sharing your testimony and Anna's as well. Representative Nelson. I just how [Jed Lipsky ]: big is your farm here? [Melissa Oliva ]: It's it's twenty acres. [Jed Lipsky ]: And it's [David Jurphey ]: where is it located? I'd like to come visit. [Melissa Oliva ]: Sure. Sure. It's on the it's on the banks of the Great Seal Reservoir. [David Jurphey ]: I'm not [Melissa Oliva ]: it's Horn of the Moon Road. And if you're on route twelve [Jed Lipsky ]: That's it. [Melissa Oliva ]: You'll see a sign on the road that says Ananda Gardens and River and Wind Farm five miles on the on the right. [David Jurphey ]: Go buy it. Come in here and go on home. [Melissa Oliva ]: Oh, please come and visit us. We we just opened a farm a farm stand building, which we fed our funds actually from the from the Fed, and that was also life changing because now we're going to go four seasons. That's exciting. Yeah. [David Jurphey ]: Wonderful. Great. Thank you. [Melissa Oliva ]: K. Thank you, Leslie. [David Jurphey ]: Thanks for having us. Is there anyone else who was hoping to say anything, Adam? [Emily Raymondberger ]: Well, not that we [Joanna Doran ]: had planned. I don't know if we have time for any last minute folks to jump in. Welcome. [Jed Lipsky ]: Not today. [Joanna Doran ]: Yeah. I I know you have folks coming in after us. So [David Jurphey ]: Yeah. But why don't why don't we I'll just say again that there's, you know, other opportunities to always to hear from from you, from you all. So thank you for joining us. [Joanna Doran ]: Thank you. Thank you [David Jurphey ]: for your time. Appreciate it. Thank you, sir. [Emily Raymondberger ]: Thanks for your work. Thank you. [David Jurphey ]: Have a good afternoon. Have a good afternoon. Have a good afternoon. [Joanna Doran ]: Have a good afternoon. Thank you. Thank you.

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