Since Tropical Storm Irene devastated many central state farming operations, the Vermont-based fund has made over $2 million in loans to area farmers and food producers to help fortify the local agribusiness economy.
In a year when the Vermont Legislature is weighing slanderous legislation that alleges white Vermont farmers used Jim Crow and sharecropping laws to eject blacks from Vermont farmland, or that Vermonters committed genocide against native peoples, Xusana Davis has repeatedly sneered at Vermonters and Vermont dairy.
Vermont dairy farmers have been struggling economically for decades. Now comes a call by the Sierra Club, and its Vermont chapter, along with the organization’s other state chapters, to petition the White House to regulate emissions by dairy farms with 500 or more cows.
Talking about the economics of maple for small farmers, though, Krieg was less enthused. “It became really apparent to me that the small farmers are having a really tough time and are going to have an even tougher time surviving,” he said of his experience in the maple industry.
Over the years legislatures and governors have periodically commissioned reports to formulate plans to strengthen Vermont’s agriculture. The most recent of these appeared last month. It’s titled the “Vermont Agriculture and Food System Strategic Plan.”
Conservatives must lead Vermont in initiatives supporting regenerative agriculture and small, local farms. This is an imperative to benefit Vermont’s economy, craft a sensible environmental policy to present to voters, and expose the multiple problems with progressive “initiatives” in renewable energy.
Vermonters were better equipped than most to sustain themselves during the Great Depression, but the nearly 29,000 dairy farms in Vermont in 1929 have dwindled to about 600. Family Dollar will be empty of Chef Boyardee in about two days after an emergency event. Where is your food supply, Vermonters?
Gov. Phil Scott has issued an executive order creating the Governor’s Commission on the Future of Vermont Agriculture to study and strategize how best to grow agriculture in the Green Mountain State.
A new House bill would create a 21-member council that would make a plan for Vermont to grow the majority of its food within five years.
The carbon-crime charges leveled against our benevolent bovines are fatuous. But moreover, properly managed cows are a key contributor to soil health and nutrient management.
Helping our farmers and loggers will have a ripple effect throughout our rural communities. If farmers do well, that helps the veterinarians, the feed store, the equipment dealers and other small businesses. This is the key to reviving our rural economy.
The Green New Deal calls for shifting energy consumption entirely to electric current. Doing so would cause $200 million in losses to Wisconsin farmers, while clobbering the state’s iconic dairy industry with $2.5 billion in additional costs.