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Farm to Plate annual network gathering November 18 & 19

Submitted by tim on

Farm to Plate is Vermont’s food system plan being implemented statewide to increase economic development and jobs in the farm and food sector and improve access to healthy local food for all Vermonters. The Farm to Plate annual network gathering is November 18 & 19.
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PLEASE REGISTER TODAY!
November 18 & 19, 2021 | Virtual
When:
Thursday, November 18, 9:30 am-5:00 pm
Friday, November 19, 9:00 am-2:00 pm
The full agenda with session descriptions now available. Links to sessions will be sent to you prior to the Gathering via email. There is a flat fee of $45 to register for the Gathering regardless of the number of sessions/days attended.
We’re offering to cover the registration fee for farmers and farmworkers, small food business owners and employees, BIPOC, and students who need assistance with registration costs. Please click here to apply for a scholarship to cover the registration fee, and encourage those in your own networks to apply as well! If you are applying for a scholarship, please do not register until you hear from our Farm to Plate Staff.
Vermont Food System Plan Brief Highlight
Food Security Brief
The Vermont Food System Plan Issue Brief on Food Security defines food security as existing when all people, at all times have access to sufficient, safe, and nutritious food that meets their dietary needs and preferences. Household food insecurity is the result of socioeconomic factors and encompasses the lack of food, the lack of nutritionally adequate food, and factors that impact the accessibility of available food (e.g., transportation). The public food assistance system (i.e., the Charitable Food System) is effective but not adequate to eliminate food insecurity. Tools do exist to help planners and towns with food supply and access planning, but these are newly available, and more training, dissemination, and promotion of food security planning tools are needed.
Going forward Vermont needs to create municipal, state, and regional plans to both address food security more comprehensively in times of normalcy, and to better prepare for emergency food supply chain disruptions, such as those that occurred during the COVID-19 pandemic and will increasingly occur through climate change.
Key Points:
  • Socioeconomic factors limit food security in Vermont, (wages, cost of living, skill and time for preparing foods, ethnic and gender inequalities).
  • Federal agricultural policies and subsidies, have made low-cost, processed food more available while healthy food is harder to access.
  • There is currently no coordinated effort to plan for the effect emergencies have on the local food supply and food security.
  • Farm viability efforts are not able to ensure a diversity of food production for Vermonters’ dietary needs.
  • Planning efforts for emergencies have the potential to ensure food access and security.
  • Utilization of charitable and federal nutrition programs can be increased through outreach and funding increases.
  • Food assistance models in other states have housed programs under a single agency which could provide more efficiency in administration and in linking food access to local food production.
  • New England-wide efforts are underway to increase regional agricultural self-reliance and disaster preparedness. Increased funding would help these efforts succeed.
Recommendations include funding a research project to better understand food insecurity in Vermont by engaging academics, advocacy groups, and impacted individuals, and that would include research on the geographic spread, root causes, and the costs to health care, education, and energy response systems; creating a food security plan for Vermont that would coordinate investment and implementation across sectors; creating state-level food security policies, procedures, and plans so that the Vermont food supply is able to withstand global or national food chain disruptions caused by climate change and disasters. Additionally, Vermont needs continued investment in existing proven solutions, such as universal breakfast and lunch programs for every Vermont student, establishing local food-supply chain relationships with each school cafeteria, and increased investment in public food assistance programs to connect them to local farms for direct purchasing.
Farm to Plate Sponsor Yankee Farm Credit Makes Additional Donation
Thanks to an employee nomination from Ben LeDuc at Yankee Farm Credit, Farm to Plate Apple Level Sponsor Yankee Farm Credit recently made a $5,000 donation (which included a $2,500 match from Cobank) to the Farm to Plate team at the Vermont Sustainable Jobs Fund. LeDuc said he used the first Farm to Plate Strategic Plan to help him make farming decisions and create a business plan.
We are so very thankful to our Farm to Plate sponsors. Interested in supporting Vermont Farm to Plate? Click here to learn more.
Agricultural Literacy Week
Land Connections
Agriculture literacy week, hosted by NOFA-VT and the Vermont Department of Libraries, offers programming to highlight and celebrate local farms & the food system. This year’s theme is Land Connections. All events are free and open to the public; pre-registration is required.
● We are the Land - Storytelling with Joseph & Jesse Bruchac, Wednesday, Nov 17th;
6:30-8:00pm
● Abenaki Land Link Project - Learn with Chief Don Stevens and guests, Thursday, Nov 18th;
6:30-8:00pm
Recommended Abenaki Resources for Native American Heritage Month
November is Native American History Month. This important resource was created by the Abenaki Trials Project team in collaboration with the Abenaki Arts and Education Center. The resource contains tribal websites, literature recommendations, language resources, videos, maps and even classroom lesson plans.
PODCAST ALERT
Indigenous Food Sovereignty in Vermont
Vermont officially recognizes 4 Abenaki tribes today. The Nulhegan Band of the Coosuk-Abenaki, the Elnu Abenaki Tribe, the Abenaki Nation at Missisquoi, and the Koasek Traditional Band of the Koas Abenaki Nation. Up until industrialization, and throughout much of the world today, a community’s access to food is tightly woven in with that community’s access to land. In this episode of Root Words, they talk with Chef Jessee Lawyer, Professor Fred Wiseman, and Chief Don Stevens.
FREE COVID Support VT Wellness Workshops
COVID Support VT offers wellness workshops and workshops available upon request with a variety of topics, times and days offered.
Call for Presentations Now Open
Are you a farmer, rancher, researcher, or tourism industry professional who is involved with agritourism? Please share your research or experiences with other agritourism practitioners and professionals!
The 2022 International Workshop on Agritourism is holding a conference from August 30 to September 1 in Burlington, Vermont, USA. It will be a hybrid conference, so you can also participate online from anywhere in the world with Internet access.
Not sure if you can attend? You can choose your presentation method when you submit your proposal:
  • In person in Burlington, Vermont
  • Virtually
  • Unsure at this time
The deadline is Tuesday, November 30, 2021.
USDA Farm to School Grant Now Open
Are you a farmer, rancher, researcher, or tourism industry professional who is involved with agritourism? Please share your research or experiences with other agritourism practitioners and professionals!
The 2022 International Workshop on Agritourism is holding a conference from August 30 to September 1 in Burlington, Vermont, USA. It will be a hybrid conference, so you can also participate online from anywhere in the world with Internet access.
Not sure if you can attend? You can choose your presentation method when you submit your proposal:
  • In person in Burlington, Vermont
  • Virtually
  • Unsure at this time
Deadline to Apply is January 10, 2022