Signs promoting CSAs at the Intervale in Burlington. File photo by Kate Kampner.
The advocacy group will zero in on PFAS, local regulations and more on behalf of local farmers
by Kate Kampner, Community News Service
A 10-minute walk from the State House, members of Rural Vermont are supporting legislation that keeps the working farmer in mind.
The farmer advocacy group has been lobbying for new bills — and reevaluating old bills — since the first week of the legislative session.
Founded in 1985, Rural Vermont has spent 40 years as an advocate and amplifier for farmer voices. The group has successfully pushed for legislation that legalized hemp and required labeling of GMO-enhanced foods, among others.
This session, however, the group is focused on bills related to climate change funding, pollutants and the control towns have over farm operations, to name a few.
A major priority is passing S.60, which would establish the Farm Security Fund, a grant program for farmers affected by extreme weather. The bill has been passed by both chambers and will be on Gov. Phil Scott’s desk this session.
“This is really a must-pass here in this biennium,” Caroline Sherman-Gordon, Rural Vermont’s legislative director, said in an interview before the bill passed in the House. She noted that recent floodings and droughts have left farmers vulnerable.
A coalition led by the Northeast Organic Farming Association of Vermont is lobbying lawmakers to add $15.6 million to the fund.
Sherman-Gorman said even if the bill is signed into law, a question remains for the group: Will Rural Vermont get what it asked for in terms of money, or is just policy going to be set in place?
Rural Vermont is also tracking legislation related to PFAS. Known as “forever chemicals,” PFAS are long-lasting components found in plastics that have made their way into public waterways and into biosolids such as fertilizer.
The organization is lobbying to ban the chemicals from land applications, reflected in H.303, a bill introduced last year that hasn’t moved out of committee.
“At the very least, we’re going to use this time to keep educating lawmakers about the issue,” Sherman-Gordon said. “This is an issue we’ll just not let go.”
Rep. David Durfee, D-Bennington-3, who chairs the House Committee on Agriculture, Food Resiliency and Forestry, said PFAS are still a concern for legislators, and lawmakers will continue thinking about the situation going forward.
Also this session, Rural Vermont will ask lawmakers to push back against a 2025 Vermont Supreme Court ruling that determined farms are not exempt from municipal regulations such as zoning bylaws. The organization worries that the ruling creates a patchwork of regulations.
The ruling is a “hot topic” for the group, Sherman-Gordon told the Community News Service.
“One farmer is not going to be treated like the other,” she said. “It really depends on where you’re located.”
In some instances, Sherman-Gordon said, farmers who are members of Rural Vermont found themselves educating municipalities on the existence and implications of the ruling. Prior to this past May, farmers had been left out of municipal regulation for decades, Sherman-Gordon testified to multiple committees.
“Many members have really good relationships with their towns,” she said. “Now they face disagreement with them over this act.”
Seren Dias, a farmer and member of Rural Vermont’s board of directors, called the May ruling “the antithesis of the Vermont brand.”
Dias, who co-owns a family farm in Newfane, said that Rural Vermont wants farmers to be exempt from municipal regulation again and for the same protections to be applied to anyone who grows food in their backyard.
“We are pushing for the right to grow food,” Dias said. “The fact that we are legislating, or we might allow towns to legislate, in a way that doesn’t follow the rhythm of the land … it literally makes no sense.”
“It starts as a farmer issue and ends as an everybody issue,” Dias added.
Back at the State House, Rep. Durfee said Rural Vermont’s testimonies have given lawmakers a starting point to reevaluate the court ruling.
Before chairing his committee, Durfee was the general manager of a farm co-op in Massachusetts where he kept close relationships with farmers.
“I would say that Vermonters in general are very supportive of farmers and the farms in their communities are important to them,” Durfee said. “The municipal rule does create a concern.”
Durfee recognized the many challenges farmers are facing — including mass rainfall, drought, agricultural competition and closures.
“Having another possible hurdle, or set of hurdles to deal with, could make it hard for some farmers to stay in business,” he said.
Via Community News Service, a University of Vermont journalism internship
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