6/3 Doug Flack: Winner of the 2026 Lifetime Achievement Award in the Vermont Agricultural Hall of Fame
Doug, photographed with his daughter, Sarah, at Rural Vermont’s 40th Anniversary celebration in Fairfield, June 2025.
The Lifetime Achievement Award in the Vermont Agricultural Hall of Fame recognizes those who have made a significant contribution to the advancement, improvement, or development of Vermont agriculture for at least 30 years. Humbly speaking, Doug Flack blows this requirement out of the water.
Doug has been a major farmer leader in Vermont's ecological agriculture movement for over 50 years, and Flack Family Farm has long been demonstrating biodynamic practices at scale. Doug's breeding of American Devons and A2A2 genetics has deeply impacted, as well as created access to, bovine genetics previously not available in Vermont, and whose popularity has exponentially grown. The apprenticeship program at Flack Family Farm has trained and launched countless farmers, including the current owners and operators of the farm (Zach Brandau & Julie Matranga, who purchased Flack Family Farm in 2023). Doug has been a resource and mentor for hundreds of farmers in Vermont, where he has left a deep impact on the agricultural community, especially small scale, diversified, and organic producers.
Doug, Bobbie, and Flack Family Farm created a long term and successful community supported business in such a way that has rarely been seen in Vermont. Decades of community sauerkraut production days brought neighbors and enthusiasts together for mornings of slicing cabbage, chopping peppers and garlic, and eventually filling barrels of kimchi and sauerkraut. This innovative and beautiful community business model has persisted for decades, leaving a unique and lasting impression on hundreds if not thousands of participants. Community work days not only weave deep community webs and an intimate connection between farmers and their food, but they are also educational experiences, where so much is shared and learned about farming, food, and how to take action to make things better.
Doug served 10+ years in a leadership role on the Rural Vermont board working for justice and equity for Vermont farmers. Over that time, Doug testified scores of times on at least a dozen issues, spoke at press conferences, marched at protests, organized many educational events, and recruited literally hundreds of Vermont activists and Rural Vermont members dedicated to scale appropriate regulations for the farm community. His leadership, along with others, eventually led to Vermont legalizing the sale and production of both on-farm slaughter and raw milk in statute, along with many other legislative improvements.
We are proud to have Doug as a Rural Vermont Emeritus Board member, and to see his many contributions to Vermont agriculture honored and remembered for generations to come. Thank you Doug for all the heart and wisdom you’ve passed along over the years, and for your many contributions to making Vermont a better place to eat and farm!
Doug, photographed with his daughter, Sarah, at Rural Vermont’s 40th Anniversary celebration in Fairfield, June 2025.