8/6 Reflections from Marya

Dear friends, 

Whenever I talk to fellow farmers this summer, we struggle with the dichotomy of this season. It’s been a bumper year so far, with fewer natural disasters and floods than the past few seasons, but at the same time we’re watching as authoritarian horrors unfold mostly unchecked. I’ve been harvesting a phenomenal crop of new potatoes this week, celebrating abundance even as we witness an appalling escalation in Israel’s use of hunger as a weapon of war. My winter squash are thriving, weed free and too big for the cucumber beetles to bother, at the same time researchers and organizations have to cut words like “inequity” and “climate change” from their proposals, or risk losing funding. I work part time on a dairy farm, and we’re in the middle of a beautiful hay window, but most of my fellow dairy farmworkers are living under increased threats of deportation. They’re forced to fear leaving the farm to get groceries, even though migrant farmworkers are the only reason Vermont still has a dairy industry. 

The worst dichotomy of the present moment is how dangerous it is to speak out against it, even as both the moment and people demand it more. I attended the National Family Farm Coalition (NFFC) Annual Gathering last week in Billings, MT to represent Rural Vermont. NFFC has worked with Rural Vermont on issues like the LOCAL Foods Act and fair milk pricing, and are an ally in bringing our state work to the national level. This was a gathering of other member organizations of NFFC, who are doing work to combat land loss, corporate consolidation in fisheries, mining and tech development on agricultural lands, and other injustices in the food system. Something I kept hearing behind the scenes was that folks and organizations appreciated Rural Vermont’s strong stance against authoritarianism, but they didn’t feel safe taking the same one. So many groups are vulnerable to funding cuts, deportation threats against their staff, or antidemocratic threats. It’s challenging to watch so many groups feel they can't safely speak out, because at the same time there’s such a clamor from members to emphasize that our present moment isn’t okay, and that deportations, genocide, and mass starvation shouldn’t be done with our tax dollars. 

Silence isn’t neutrality at this moment. It’s estimated that the average American taxpayer spent at least $112.12 on weapons for Israel last year. The “Big Beautiful Bill” just recently passed will increase ICE’s budget to 50% more than the entire Federal Bureau of Prisons, even as migrants in detention are regularly living in inhumane conditions, and occasionally dying. The reality is that a bumper crop of potatoes means more of my tax dollars will go to these atrocities. At the same time that I’m feeding my local community, my profits will go to starve and detain others. I’m glad that Rural Vermont is choosing, in the face of authoritarian pressure, to organize against this. One last dichotomy: thank you for your support in these terrible times, and I hope you get to enjoy some tender boiled new potatoes with herb butter before the short season is over. 

In solidarity,
Marya Merriam, Vice Chair, Rural Vermont Board

Marya at the Annual NFFC Gathering in Billings, Montana (July 2025)