Current News

Vermont Business Magazine While Vermonters support banning food waste from landfills – and a whopping 72 percent already compost or feed food scraps to their pets or livestock – few say they are willing to pay for curbside composting pick-up, new University of Vermont research shows. The study, published today in Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems, comes as Vermont prepares to implement a mandatory law that makes it illegal to throw food items in the trash beginning July 1, 2020. Several large cities including San Francisco and Seattle have implemented similar policies, but Vermont is the first state to ban household food waste from landfills. The policy is the last phase of a universal state recycling law passed in 2012 that bans all food waste, “blue bin” recyclables and yard debris from landfills statewide by 2020.

Vermont Business Magazine The Isham name is synonymous with the working land in Williston, and fifth generation farmer Mike Isham is making plans to add a weekly farmers market to the family’s Oak Hill Road activities. Isham, with his name recognition and leadership in Vermont agricultural circles and the family’s success selling products like maple syrup, berries, pumpkins and Christmas trees at the farm, Mike believes he has the foundation for a successful farmers market.

Mike Isham and his wife, Helen Weston have a combined 19 generations of Vermont heritage between them.

In May 2019, the Legislature and Governor Scott established Act 83 to encourage a new wave of agricultural development. The new law calls for the Agency and its partners to research and develop recommendations to stabilize and revitalize Vermont’s agricultural industry.

What Would You Like to See on Our Plate?

by Agriculture Secretary Anson Tebbetts Vermont’s rural communities are intricately tied to our economy, identity and way of life. At the same time, all of Vermont suffers when our farm and forestry sectors falter.

The Vermont Agency of Agriculture, Food and Markets, and Vermont Farm to Plate, are taking steps to build on our strengths and innovate for the future. This session the Legislature will hear a preview of the Vermont Agriculture and Food System Plan to stimulate rural economic development and bring Vermont products to people throughout the Green Mountains and beyond.

In collaboration with a wide variety of farmers, producers and business development experts, the plan asks the Agency of Agriculture to set the table for the future of rural Vermont.

Burlington, VT – January 22, 2020 – SeaComm Federal Credit Union presented a check for $50,000 to support the American Cancer Society Hope Lodge program in Burlington. The credit union will open its seventh branch location in South Burlington, in January 2020.

Sometimes, the best treatment is far from home. For some cancer patients living in the North Country, that treatment is in Burlington. The American Cancer Society’s Hope Lodge program makes it an affordable option by providing a free place for cancer patients and their caregiver to stay, in a supportive environment.

Vermont Business Magazine The Center on Rural Innovation (CORI), based in Hartland, has announced that it has been selected to join the portfolio of the Draper Richards Kaplan Foundation. CORI’s selection comes as part of DRK’s mission to support the next generation of world-changing social entrepreneurs.

Vermont Business Magazine The owner of Killington and Pico ski resorts, POWDR, announced today a new long-term partnership with Mammut, the leading Swiss-born premium outdoors brand, with more than a century of experience in producing mountain safety equipment, technical apparel, and accessories for outdoor activities. The partnership makes Mammut the official uniform and apparel provider for more than 8,000 mountain professionals working at ten of POWDR’s mountain resort locations: Boreal Mountain Resort, CA; Copper Mountain, CO; Eldora, CO; Killington, VT; Lee Canyon, NV; Mt. Bachelor, OR; Pico Mountain, VT; SilverStar, BC; Snowbird, UT; and Soda Springs, CA. The partnership begins with the 2020-2021 season, continues through 2026, and also includes POWDR’s heli-skiing operation, Powderbird, located at Snowbird, UT.

Vermont Business Magazine Bennington College has received accreditation from the New England Commissions of Higher Education (NECHE) to award a Bennington College Associate of Art degree to incarcerated students through its Prison Education Initiative (PEI). Now in its fifth year, PEI brings Bennington College faculty to Great Meadow Correctional Facility, a maximum-security men’s prison in Comstock, NY, to provide a quality liberal arts education to incarcerated students. PEI will graduate its first class of Associate of Arts candidates in a Commencement ceremony that will take place at Great Meadow on June 13, 2020.

Vermont Business Magazine Harbour Industries LLC, a Marmon|Berkshire Hathaway company based in Shelburne, announced Tuesday it is now an approved manufacturer for a number of low-loss coax and high-speed data cables used on Lockheed Martin’s F-35 Lighting II 5th generation fighter aircraft. Harbour's data and coaxial cables were chosen based on the use of a composite fluoropolymer insulation ensuring light-weight and high-speed transmission. Harbour is known as a supplier that has product and process engineering expertise that ensures the highest quality cables will be manufactured in exact accordance with Lockheed's demanding physical and electrical requirements.

Vermont Business Magazine America’s leading companies and law firms, including Vermont company Ben & Jerry's Homemade Inc., are stepping up in record numbers to adopt increasingly forward-looking policies and practices to meet the needs of their lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) workers in the U.S. and abroad, according to the 2020 Corporate Equality Index (CEI) released today by the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) Foundation, the educational arm of the nation’s largest LGBTQ civil rights organization.

by C.B. Hall, Vermont Business Magazine Established in 1991, Bellows Falls-based Chroma Technology Corp is an employee-owned C-corporation that designs and manufactures precision optical filters, optical coatings, light sources, and imaging systems. With its 126 employees, the Bellows Falls plant serves as the hub for a business with global reach. Chroma employs three representatives elsewhere in the country and maintains sales offices with a total of ten employees in China, Japan and Germany.