Large Farm / Medium Farm Campaign

Family Farms not Factory Farms. Globalization and corporate consolidation of the food supply—through vertical and horizontal integration—puts constant and severe pressure on family farmers throughout the United States and the world. Although there is much hope for family farmers—with opportunities for farmers to diversify, add value to products, or transition to organic for higher prices, as well as a growing consumer consciousness and desire for local food systems, state and federal pressure continues to discriminate against the small scale producer and to push for bigger, factory style farms. In Vermont particularly, the current administration, through its Secretary of Agriculture, is working to develop policy that would make it much easier for the largest dairy farms in the state to expand even further, and which would invite corporate farming operations to our state.

During the 2004 legislative session, Rural Vermont led a successful fight to strengthen Vermont’s Right to Farm law and stop the administration’s attempt to gut the Large Farm Law. We met with farmers around the state, discussing the issues and hearing their concerns, and we arranged for several farmers to testify on these issues to legislative committees. We also organized a major press conference with the president of the National Family Farm Coalition (himself a farmer) and Vermont family farmers to counter the Farm Bureau’s and administration’s insistence that the only way for farmers to survive is to expand. The Farm Bureau’s then-president was actively fighting for the policy to favor the very largest farmers, as he had a proposal to expand his dairy operation to 684 milkers first, and then eventually to 2300 milkers. 1100 of Vermont’s 1300 dairy farms milk less than 200 cows, yet the Farm Bureau and the dairy co-operatives insist on representing only the largest of the farms, by supporting the myth that small farms are “inefficient” and “unproductive.”

The administration has indicated that they will make a new proposal in 2005 to weaken the Large Farm Law and make it easier for the largest farms to expand, and indeed, for corporate farms to move into our state. We stand with Vermont’s family farmers on the front lines of this battle, ready to ensure that their rights are protected and that corporations and organizations representing them are not able to write the laws of our state. We hope to put a definition of “family farm” into Vermont statute this year, and we want that definition to be written by farmers. We also want to make sure that as the “medium farm” general permit rules are being written, Vermont’s small farms are not written off. The average size of a Vermont dairy farm is 92 milkers; the medium farm rules will be for farms with 200-699 milkers.