Today on April 17th, we mark the International Day of Peasant Struggles, an annual action day that brings rural communities together to commemorate the Eldorado do Carajás massacre in 1996 and to honor the resistance of agrarian workers worldwide who persist in their struggle for social justice and dignity.

Central to this struggle is the right to food sovereignty, and the rights of people and communities as articulated in the 2018 United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Peasants and Other People Working in Rural Areas: “Peasants and other people living in rural areas have the right to land, individually and/or collectively (...), including the right to have access to, sustainably use and manage land and the water bodies, coastal seas, fisheries, pastures, and forests therein, to achieve an adequate standard of living, to have a place to live in security, peace and dignity and to develop their cultures.” 

Our work here in Vermont is part of and connected to an unwavering global fight for farmer and farmworker rights, and against genocides, wars, violations of people's sovereignty, and the corporate control and domination over our food system. 

Through our relationship with the National Family Farm Coalition, Rural Vermont is part of La Via Campesina, an international movement of peasants, youth, women, men, and diversities, migrants, rural and landless agrarian workers, fisherfolk, and indigenous peoples, who stand in unity with hope, connection, and unwavering determination to confront the multifaceted crises agrarian communities face here at home and around the world.

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2024 Rural Vermont Blog Posts on Solidarity and Food Sovereignty

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Resources to Learn More & Get Involved

4/18/24 Imagining a Palestine without Occupation

On Thursday, April 18th at 12pm EST, several organizations host a virtual conversation on Palestinian Resistance, Climate Justice, and Liberation featuring Moayyad Bsharat of Union of Agricultural Work Committees, Jimmy Dunson of Mutual Aid Disaster Relief, and Zayneb Al-Shalalfeh of Palestinian Women Water Practitioners Network and moderated by Yusra Bitar of Arab Reform Initiative. Speakers will share their vision of a Free Palestine beyond occupation and discuss how real solutions such as Palestinian resistance and liberation, decolonization, food sovereignty, abolition, and climate justice offer frameworks for envisioning a way forward beyond an immediate and lasting ceasefire. 

4/23/24 - 5/7/24 Who Decides on Food Policy?
Pushing Back on the US-Mexico Corn Dispute

The Mexican government has restricted the use of genetically modified (GM) white corn for human consumption and glyphosate as part of its broader program for food self-sufficiency and agroecology. Last August, the U.S. government launched a trade dispute, falsely asserting that these rules violate provisions in the U.S-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA). This case underscores how trade policy can be misused to undermine countries’ democratic efforts to reshape their domestic food systems. Tune into these 3-part webinar to learn more about this case, and its broader implications for the future of trade policy and food sovereignty. 

Disparity to Parity Webinar Recordings

The Disparity to Parity project was founded by farmers, activists, scholars, organizers, movement leaders, and policy analysts united by a commitment to farmer, worker, land, food and climate justice, racial equity and wellbeing for all; and a belief that social peace comes when we have economic, cultural, racial, and social parity across our food system and society. The project explores issues around agriculture and fairness in the United States, but views these issues in the broader international context of human rights, globalization and social movements that extend beyond national borders. The concept of parity is grounded in fair prices for farmers, but it extends beyond that to issues of environmental, cultural and social justice for producers and their communities. In this webinar: Disparity to Parity to Solidarity, we hear from partners around the world about what the concept of parity means in their context, as well as the international policies and agreements that need to be changed. 

The Palestinian Land Day Sapling Planting and Rally in Montpelier on Saturday, March 30th was one of several events hosted across Vermont to oppose Israel's genocidal war in Gaza, and to stand with Palestinians in their struggle for liberation. Graham Unangst-Rufenacht, Rural Vermont’s Policy Director, along with several others, was asked to speak to the connections between food sovereignty, human rights, and democracy.

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My name is Graham Unangst-Rufenacht, I am the Policy Director at Rural VT - a nearly 40 year old member based organization working for food justice and food sovereignty through organizing, education, and advocacy.  Through our membership in the National Family Farm Coalition, we are also a member organization of La Via Campesina - one of the largest social movement organizations in the world, and an organization which includes at least one Palestinian member organization: the Union of Agricultural Work Committees,  (UAWC), a grassroots organization working in Gaza and the West Bank to rehabilitate lands destroyed by the Israeli occupation, preserve native seeds and support farmers.

Inherent to food sovereignty is an explicit focus on environmental justice, human rights, democracy, the rights of food, peasants and indigenous peoples, territorial rights, internationalism and solidarity.

We are here today in honor and celebration of Palestinian Land Day.  We recognize the more than 100 year history of Palestinian land dispossession, food and crop destruction, prohibition and barriers to agricultural land and fisheries (prior to Oct. 7, the Israeli occupation had created a military exclusion zone on almost half of Gaza’s arable land, and a maritime buffer zone that allows access to barely 15% of the Mediterranean), theft and pollution of water and aquifers, ethnic cleansing, starvation, blockade and now seige, and systemic racism, violence, and genocide.  We are also here to recognize, honor, and stand in solidarity with the resilience of the Palestinian peoples, of their relationships with the land and waters; with their right to resist occupation, apartheid, forced displacement, systemic racism and genocide; with their right to return, to reparations, remunerations, and self determination.  

Food Sovereignty is the right of communities to choose where and how their food is produced, and what food they consume. It centers food, agriculture, and relationship to land and plants and animals and waters as not only essential aspects of our lives which keep us alive, but as fundamental aspects of our individual and cultural identities and legacies.  As a member organization of the National Family Farm Coalition and signatories of the Nyeleni Declaration in 2007, we affirm the Declaration’s position that,

“Food sovereignty is challenged by repression and state terrorism, particularly as conflicts affect communities' control over territories. This limits their access to land, water, food and excludes their participation in decision-making. For peoples living under occupation, self-determination and local autonomy become crucial in order to achieve food sovereignty”

Vivien Sansour, of the Palestine Heirloom Seed Library, tells us that, “The soil has become so toxic because of the amount of bombs, from white phosphorus to all kinds of other ammunition…a lot of our trees, which, for us, our trees are part of our family, they are part of our kin, and they are being destroyed, too.”  Between the years 2000 and 2012 (according ot the Palestinian Ministry of Agriculture), the Israeli occupation destroyed more than 3,000,000 fruit and olive trees to displace Palestinian farmers.  Trees which span generations of Palestinians who have tended them, many of which were older than the state of Israel itself.  Some 100,000 Palestinian families that depend on olive production have been unable to access their lands for the harvest over the past 6 months, in Gaza and in the West Bank primarily, due to attacks by the Israeli military and settlers, who have had thousands of assault rifles distributed to them by the Israeli government since Oct. 7th.  These attacks by settlers and the Israeli military - using weapons often supplied by the US - have been ongoing for decades.  For the past 15 years the UAWC has been running an Olive Harvest Campaign to bring volunteers (often from Europe and Latin America) to assist farmers during the harvest, and to provide some means of witness and protection to Palestinians harvesting and their communities and farms.  But this year, much of this aid was not able to be provided given the level of violence in Occupied Palestine.  

As Leah Penniman has highlighted in her lectures and classes for years, it was Malcolm x who said: ““Revolution is based on land. Land is the basis of all independence. Land is the basis of freedom, justice, and equality.”  The other side of the coin is that Imperialism, colonialism, and the destruction of culture and subjugation of peoples is dependent upon separation from land, and the inhibition or prohibition of the ability to have independent connection and relationship to land and cultural traditions related to land as not only a source of sustenance and shelter, but also a fundamental source of identity and inspiration.  As people living at the center of a global empire which is a partner in this genocide - the United States - it is important to not only be reminded of the history of displacement and genocide of the indigenous populations of this geography where we live, the histories of racism and slavery, and the ongoing imperial policies and colonialism of this country in places like Cuba, Puerto Rico, Hawaii, Mexico and more; but also the impoverishment of our working class agricultural communities and our cultures of agriculture, the exploitation of farmers and farmworkers and the land, such that the average national income for farmers is typically less than -$1000, farmers are extremely vulnerable to mental health challenges and suicide, small farms and land are consolidated into larger farms and blocks of land ever more frequently owned by global capital, and many of our farmworkers face detention and forced deportation, affecting our community sovereignty over our human rights and the very resources we rely upon for our survival.  All of this as we send billions of dollars and weapons of war to an occupying, apartheid entity; and maintain imperial military bases around the planet.  

As we go out to prune our own fruit trees, to tend our sugarbushes, to put our hands in the soil as we do this time of year in VT - we will not do so under threat of attack and death by the military or armed settlers, we will not do so on roads that have been bombed and torn up to inhibit our access, we will not be faced with people chasing us and our flocks and herds away, we will not be coming from villages under constant threat of violence by occupying forces.  As farmers, farmworkers, eaters, seed keepers, and all of the roles we play here in VT - we stand in solidarity with the people of Palestine and recognize our own fates, the fates of our own trees, and land, and waters, and livelihoods as inextricably bound together.  We must end this horror - free Palestine!

Photo Credit: Grace Oedel

by Agroecology School Intern Lily LaFaye

For weeks now, farmers across European countries, including Belgium, France, Germany, and Italy, have been taking to the streets, using their tractors to create blockades to and from major cities, and demanding “a dignified income for all farmers” and a “Break with Free Trade.” 

As trade and conservation initiatives advance in the European Union, European agricultural workers and landowners are facing increased production costs and a rise in inflation in the midst of a government push towards more sustainable growing practices. A trade agreement between the EU and Mercosur countries currently pending ratification is an attempt to create positive foreign relations between the two regions, but the deal neglects farmers at home by prioritizing the production and importation of cheaper international goods. Many products that would be imported from Mercosur are not grown to the same standard that European farmers are required to practice, allowing for lower production costs, and eventual market price, for imported goods, which in turn threatens the viability of domestic community scale farms. 

Farmers say the cost of production under the proposed bill is more than what they receive for product sales, and would be detrimental to their livelihoods. Without also supporting local markets and food sovereignty, a legislative push for sustainability is not truly sustainable, and instead paves the way for additional consolidation as all small farms can no longer survive economically and are bought up by large corporations. 

As quoted in TIME magazine, “On the one hand, we are being asked to farm more sustainably, which is fair enough because we know that the climate crisis exists because it's affecting us,” she says. “But at the same time, we are asked to keep producing as cheap as possible, which puts us in an impossible situation., says Morgan Ody, a French farmer with European Coordination of La Via Campesina (ECVC).

Farmers across the US and in Vermont grapple with similar issues, with high production costs and a lack of parity for the goods they produce. Questions of land access and management, as well as consumer access, continue to be discussed at community levels and with policy makers as more and more farm land becomes at risk of development. As we look toward necessary environmental solutions for climate change, we must also consider a Just Transition, which supports farmers transitioning to more ecological land management practices and people everywhere in transitioning from an extractive economy to a regenerative economy.  Any law claiming to increase ‘sustainability’ in agriculture must also address the wellbeing of those who work the land, and the local markets that support them. Humans are not separate from nature, and any true sustainable solution will support the food sovereignty and food security of a region as well as the environment, not jeopardize the food system through extreme consolidation.

Through our membership with international agriculturist movement La Via Campesina, and our overarching vision of food sovereignty, Rural Vermont stands in solidarity with European farmers and farmworkers as they demand dignified livelihoods, as we continue to work side by side with farms engaged in interconnected struggles here in Vermont. 

Resources and further reading:

https://viacampesina.org/en/eu-mercosur-trade-deal-a-threat-to-peasant-rights-and-nature/

https://nefoodsystemplanners.org 

https://viacampesina.org/en/brussels-mobilization-ecvc-demands-an-immediate-end-to-free-trade-agreements-and-calls-for-fair-prices-for-peasant-farmers/

https://time.com/6632372/farmer-protests-europe-france-germany-brussels/ 

https://disparitytoparity.org/what-is-parity-when-and-why/

https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2024/2/25/farmers-protests-in-europe-and-the-deadend-of-neoliberalism 

At the Ceasefire Rally and press conference at the statehouse held on Tuesday, February 27th, Graham Unangst-Rufenacht, Rural Vermont’s Policy Director, along with several other organizations and individuals, was asked to speak about food sovereignty and its inherent connection to human rights and democracy. The ceasefire rally and press conference, organized by the Vermont Coalition for Palestinian Liberation, capped an effort urging the Vermont General Assembly to sign onto a ceasefire letter, pressuring the Biden administration to demand, and commit to, a ceasefire in Gaza. You can read Graham’s speech and see pictures from the day below.

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My name is Graham Unangst-Rufenacht, I am the Policy Director at Rural VT - a nearly 40 year old member-based organization working for food justice and food sovereignty through education, organizing and advocacy.  Through our membership and work in the National Family Farm Coalition, we are also a member organization of La Via Campesina - one of the largest social movement organizations in the world.

Inherent to food sovereignty is an explicit focus on human rights for all people, democracy, the rights of peasants and indigenous peoples, the right to food, territorial rights, internationalism and solidarity.

We are here today in support of - and with gratitude for - this effort by these legislators and the organizations and individuals they have been working with, to author this letter; using their political power as representatives of their constituents, and this place we call home, to call for a ceasefire in Gaza, and for the end of military aid to Israel.  I want to read parts of a statement made by La Via Campesina on October 27th which contextualizes this moment in the realm of our work in food and agriculture:

For decades, small food producers, including fisher folk and farmers have been denied access to their waters, land and other crucial common goods. Many were killed by Israeli forces while seeking to secure their livelihoods. The Israeli occupation has created a military exclusion zone on almost half of Gaza’s arable land, and a maritime buffer zone that allows access to barely 15% of the Mediterranean, which makes it impossible for fishermen to catch an adequate amount of fish to sustain their communities. This, added to the blockade on exports and imports, access to food, agricultural inputs, and fuel, and the repetitive aggressions turned Gaza into a cramped open-air prison where Palestinians suffer collective punishment and are deprived of their rights, including the right to adequate food. The right to food is recognized in the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and is enshrined in the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights which Israel has signed and ratified 57 years ago.

More than 700 Israeli military checkpoints divide the West Bank, which completely separates the  Al-Aghwar area that produces 80% of the food of Palestinians. Some 100,000 Palestinian families that depend on olive production are unable to access their lands for the harvest, in Gaza and in the West Bank primarily, due to the thousands of assault rifles that have been distributed by the Israeli government to the settlers.  Since the year 2000, the Israeli occupation has destroyed 3,000,000 fruit and olive trees to displace Palestinian farmers.  Israel’s continuous 17-year blockade has also led to a severe water crisis in Gaza…  

I would add that we are now seeing the culmination of the denial of the right to food, with the excruciating onset of manufactured starvation in Gaza.   

Although we come here in support of this effort from our representatives - we must also admit deep disappointment that in this moment of this 100 years of war against the people of Palestine; that we have not done, and are not doing more as a State given the complicity of the United States in the Israeli apartheid, occupation, displacement and killing of the Palestinian people over many years - and now this escalation which the International Court of Justice has declared to “plausibly” be a genocide, ordering “immediate and effective measures” to protect Palestinians in the occupied Gaza Strip from the risk of genocide by ensuring sufficient humanitarian assistance and enabling basic services.  Israel - and the United States - have failed to comply, and we should not be surprised.  If those in power will not yield to the International Court of Justice, if they will not yield to serious threats to their own political power, if they will not yield to tens of thousands of murdered, maimed, and starving Palestinian children - what makes us think that our voices will be listened to? 

Nelson Mandela and Desmond Tutu - people who understood apartheid and oppression more than likely any of us standing here today - championed the Palestinian cause.  Tutu said that Israel's apartheid is even worse than South Africa’s.  And importantly for us here today, considering what effective action looks like, he said that “what ultimately forced these leaders together around the negotiating table was the cocktail of persuasive, nonviolent tools that had been developed to isolate South Africa, economically, academically, culturally and psychologically”.  Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions.

Our actions and tactics must escalate, because right now, the state of VT attributes greater societal cost to the “enteric emissions” of the cattle on my farm than it does the US-made and manufactured bombs dropping on Gaza from F-35s like those housed at the Burlington Air Base.  There cannot be a “politically impossible” in a moment like this; there can be no deference to “leadership” whether it be in the Executive or Legislative branches of federal or local government.  Our interest, and what we must work towards, is politically necessary.  Our political power is not in our individual positions in State government or organizations, it is in working together with and for the people of Vermont - in solidarity for human rights globally.  Representatives, members of the public, member-based organizations - the politically necessary will only become politically possible when we work to create change and policy together from the ground up, and make power cede to the demands and real needs of the people here in VT and around the world.  Rural VT is here with you in this work to end the occupation, apartheid and genocide - and to bring repair, return, and self-determination to the people of Palestine.

Free, Free Palestine!

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Mollie Wills and Jordan Treakle

In early December 2023, as part of the National Family Farm Coalition (NFFC), Mollie Wills of Rural Vermont took part in the 8th International Conference of La Via Campesina (LVC), in Bogota, Colombia, joining 185 member other organizations from 83 countries. La Via Campesina, often referred to as the world’s largest social movement representing over 200 million farmers, peasant, fisherfolk, pastoralists, and other food providers, celebrated its 30th anniversary in 2022, and continues to be the preeminent political organization for rural communities globally. Mollie joined Jordan Treakle of NFFC and other North American-based delegates from allied organizations Family Farm Defenders, Farmworker Association of Florida, Union Paysanne, and the National Farmers Union of Canada. The key message resonating throughout the conference from  the more than 400 delegates affirmed that:

“We, the peasants, rural workers, landless, indigenous peoples, pastoralists, artisanal fisherfolk, forest dwellers, rural women, youth and diversities and other peoples who work in the countryside around the world and united within La Via Campesina, declare that “Faced with global crises, we build food sovereignty to ensure a future for humanity!”

LVC’s International Conferences, wh ich typically take place every four years, are important organizing moments for a number of reasons - new leaders of the global Secretariat are affirmed - in this case the LVC Secretariat’s move from Zimbabwe to France was celebrated -, international policy and campaign strategy are charted, and perhaps most importantly a strong web of relationships and solidarity are formed across territorial, cultural, and linguistic boundaries. 

Preceding the official start of the 8th Conference were meetings of the LVC Youth and Women’s Articulations, where hundreds of delegates gathered to celebrate historical moments, offer trainings, exchange, and craft strategic frameworks and plans of action for Food Sovereignty.  There was also the first convening of a new Anti-patriarchy and Gender Diversities organizing space to focus on gender equity and feminist work within our movement. These important gatherings not only set the tone for the Conference, but also marked important evolutions of the food sovereignty movement to be more inclusive and address systemic power asymmetries within our movement and organizations. 

The Conference commenced with the welcoming of new member organizations from Europe, Asia-Pacific, and North Africa, and celebration of the integration of the new Arab/North African region of La Via Campesina. As the global network grew with new organizations and regions, the orientation and culture of the event and space was embedded in the Colombian territory that was hosting us, with a welcoming event from the Colombian government, presentation of a historical political economy analysis of the region, and dance, music, and theatrical cultural events. Over the course of the 10 days. additional plenaries and presentations focused on building strategic alliances, the global Nyeleni process, and strengthening the principles and organizational structure of the food sovereignty movement. Numerous working groups were held to strategize and construct concrete action plans around agroecology and agrarian reform, the climate crisis, migration, public policies and trade, and the fight against all forms of violence, criminalization, and militarization in rural areas. 

Each day the conference opened and closed with a heartfelt mistica offered by different LVC regions that invited connection, growth, and inspiration in shared struggle. Cultural events dispersed throughout our time together allowed for delegates and supporters to share laughter, food, music and dance as we honored and celebrated the land and those who work it, and strengthened our commitment to food sovereignty and each other. 

The 8th Conference concluded with a number of field visits to nearby farms and food sovereignty projects, and  representatives from NFFC stayed for some days of solidarity farm work at the Maria Cando Agroecology School south of Bogota, hosted by local La Via Campesina member organization FENSUAGRO. Spending time at Maria Cando and learning about their history and work directly supports Rural Vermont’s involvement in starting an agroecology school here in Vermont. 

Connected through shared struggle and the fight for food sovereignty, agrarian people and their allies from across the globe used our time together at the 8th Conference to tend to and build relationships amongst each other, and affirm our united vision for a just and decent food system for all, recognizing peoples’ needs, respecting nature, putting people before profit, and resisting corporate capture. As Rural Vermont and the National Family Farm Coalition, we reaffirm our commitment to this work as members of La Via Campesina and the global community as together we tend to the seeds of tomorrow.

On Saturday, January 27th, hundreds of Vermonters gathered in Montpelier for the Vermonters Together - Building a Better Future March & Rally to call for Legislators and the Governor to create a more equitable, peaceful and healthy economy in balance with our planet. Business and politics as usual have left the state scrambling in the face of extreme weather and geopolitical events during 2023. The result? An affordable housing crisis, social unrest, overwhelmed food shelves, low-income families spending over 5 times more of their monthly income on energy bills than higher-income families, and one of the highest per capita carbon emissions of all the states in the Northeast US. 

The problems we are working to solve are interconnected and we need our Legislators to address the root-causes of injustice. We are bigger than what divides us. No more corporate schemes, forgotten people, prisons and wars. Vermont should be built on a strong democracy that prioritizes the needs of the people and our collective future. Together we can embrace new solutions that drive investments in our communities, farmers and our land, provide safe, warm and affordable housing, and give all Vermonters access to 100% low-emissions income-assessed energy. It takes courage to work for systemic change, but time is running out. Later is too late.

The 1/27/24 march and rally were organized by 350 VT and a number of supporting organizations, including Rural Vermont, calling for action and solidarity at the intersection of climate change, human rights, social justice, agriculture and more. We were invited to join the coalition and event and to speak to some of these intersections, in particular, food sovereignty, human rights, and internationalism.

Take a look at Graham’s speech as well as Earl Hatley, Rural Vermont board member, speaking as an Environmental Justice Organizer and member of the Missisquoi Abenaki and Shawnee Cherokee tribes, as well as a gallery of photos from the day below…

In the last week of October 2023, the National Association of Small Farmers of Cuba (ANAP) hosted their renowned Farmer-to-Farmer methodology workshop at the Niceto Pérez National Farmer Training School in the province of Artemisa, Cuba. There were 31 participants in the program from across Central America, the Netherlands, Puerto Rico, and the United States, including Rural Vermont Director of Grassroots Organizing Mollie Wills and three other Vermonters. 

In response to severe political and economic crises following the collapse of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s, Cuba has become a world leader in applying the principles of agroecology. Due in large part to the detrimental effects of the United States embargo on trade with Cuba, known widely as the blockade, Cuba has been and remains unable to access many of the necessary inputs for conventional farming. As a result of this, farmers have organized through the Campesino-a-Campesino (CAC) social process to transition away from systems of chemical intensive agriculture in favor of building a grassroots agroecology movement focused on low production costs and external inputs, and feeding their people. 

The five-day course offered a history of the Cuban context, including the first agricultural and land reform laws passed shortly after the Cuban Revolution in 1959. ANAP was formed shortly after, and has since provided training and other services to over 3000 base organizations and cooperatives currently representing ~180,000 members. 

The CAC methodology is based on a horizontal transmission of knowledge and relationship between equals while relying heavily on traditional methods of food production. Originating with the ATC in Nicaragua, the CAC model is used in parts of Central America and elsewhere, but the unique conditions in Cuba have allowed it to spread further and faster than many other parts of the world, and inspire countless farmers, organizers, and activists who have learned and implemented these tools. 

The methodology itself is simple by design. It calls for slow and small-scale implementation, regarding both land base and the number of new techniques, easy and recognizable successes, regular evaluation and reflection, and amplification of both positive and negative results within the farming community. Built into these processes are ample opportunities for farmer exchange, including workshops, encounters and mentorship through agroecological facilitators and promoters, many of which are also local farmers offering technical advice to their communities. 

We visited a neighboring conventional farm interested in transitioning to agroecology, and spoke with the farmer about their land and practices before offering diagnosis, one of CAC tools of assessing current farm conditions and practices, and potential ideas for how to begin the transition. Indicators of agroecology are determined through a wide range of factors, including diversification of farm components, dependence on external inputs, protection of natural resources and environment, and social indicators like the family’s participation in the farm, and the community services offered by local co-ops. 

Throughout the week we worked in small groups to discuss, plan, and present how to implement the CAC techniques and processes using our own farms and work as examples. We worked with experienced Cuban farmers and agroecological promoters to hone these strategies and plans. ANAP curated trips to the Fidel Castro Center and the Cucan Peasant Museum, as well as cultural nights with music, dancing, and performance from the group. 

We grew relationships and cultivated exchange across language, political borders, and bioregions. As a group, we grappled with the very real impacts of neoliberalism and colonialism, and how systemic injustices and corporate consolidation directly impact access to land, resources, and political and food sovereignty, disproportionately, across the globe. Agroecology needs to be adapted to the land it is part of and by the people practicing it. Many political and technical skills were gained during the CAC training, but the most valuable was the deep relationships built between farmers, organizers, and activists who came together with the shared goal to take home what they learn, adapt it to their context, and be inspired to amplify the agroecology social movement through their farms, food, and communities. We’re excited to integrate some of these lessons in our Vermont-based organizing work, and continue to cultivate opportunities for farmer-to-farmer exchange locally, nationally, and internationally as we work together towards food sovereignty and an end to the neoliberal policies that seek to stifle it. 

We live, farm and work on the ancient, unceded land of the Abenaki Nation (N’dakinna). Today and every day we pay our humble respects as we honor the Abenaki peoples (Alnobak), their ancestors, current generations (elders, leaders, & families) and future generations. We pledge our hearts as co-stewards of this land with them to protect and nurture this land with our lives and future generations, together. Wliwni.

Local Indigenous-led Organizations and Initiatives

Abenaki Alliance

Abenaki Land Link Project

Atowi Project

Vermont Indigenous Heritage Center

Abenaki Arts and Education Center

Vermont Commission on Native American Affairs

Missisquoi Youth Program

Abenaki Nation of Missiquoi Food Pantry

Nulhegan Food Pantry

*This list is not comprehensive. Contact us to add an organization or project: info@ruralvermont.org

I met with Ecdysis’s 1000 Farms Initiative team during the final week of their 2023 tour–which they spent doing agroecological research at 20 farms in Vermont. The project monitors diversity of insects, birds, and plants, as well as soil health.  Award-winning scientist Jonathan Lundgren started Ecdysis Foundation as an independent research center in response to the USDA blocking his research on the effect of neonicotinoids on pollinators . Sign up your farm here to be part of the project in 2024.

I’ve also been representing Rural Vermont at meetings of the recently-formed Protect Our Pollinators VT caucus, making sure that the petition and logo reflect our view that farmers need support to transition off of insecticides, (and that the pressure should go on industry to offer untreated seeds, not on farmers who currently have very few options available) as we work on policies that would phase out the use of neonic treated seeds and other pesticides.   New York is in the process of passing legislation that could inform Vermont policy going forward. The kickoff event featured Charlie Nardozzi and Samantha Alger on August 31 in Burlington. August 31 was also Abe Collins’ and the Land Care Cooperative’s Vermont Ripsower event at a farm in Rochester which both Caroline Gordon and I attended. The Land Care Cooperative includes a project of planting enormous corridors of diverse pollinator friendly plants. 

Last but not least, I recommend this recent article by Rob Lewis on my favorite teaching topic: the Biotic Climate. Land and biosystems are not helpless victims of climate change, rather they are active participants in how temperature and weather are regulated on Earth.  Greenhouse gasses are only one leg of what’s causing climate change but it’s the only leg that still gets funding. This article is a fascinating history of how the land-use leg was amputated in policy and academia, and why we need to bring it front and center in our understanding and approach.  My upcoming course starts September 18th and will address this in detail.  

Written By: Didi Pershouse
Rural Vermont Policy Team
Summer 2023

Last month I had the privilege to represent Rural Vermont at the National Family Farms Coalition (NFFC) annual gathering in Des Moines, Iowa. To be honest, without knowing much about NFFC prior to a month ago, I was more excited about going on a trip to a new place than about what might be in store for me at the gathering. But that changed very quickly over the ensuing three days as I met with, and learned from, some of the most passionate and engaged agricultural activists from around the country. Being a part of the Rural Vermont family in some form for two and a half years has allowed me to fight for the change I want to see in our state’s agricultural sector. And while this local action is arguably the most necessary, it’s easy to forget about others fighting parallel battles across the region, country, and globe. In a few short days I learned about indigenous land back movements from the Great Plains Action Society in Iowa, the campaign to block corporate salmon farming by Salmonberry Tribal Association in Alaska, Black land ownership initiatives by the Federation of Southern Cooperatives in Mississippi, and so much more. I felt nervous yet honored to share the great work that our very own Rural Vermont is striving for in front of these amazing individuals. And the glue binding all of us together in those moments? NFFC and their amazing team of staff and elected board officials. Think of them as the Rural Vermont or other aforementioned local group but nationally. Through current initiatives such as the 2023 Farm Bill Platform, Farmland for Farmers Act, and Fair Credit for Farmers Act, NFFC is working at the national scale to address the US dairy crisis for family dairies, remove barriers to land access for family farmers, and improve access to credit for all farmers. Needless to say, at the gathering there was a ton of information, even more acronyms, and quite a lot of farmers antsy to be in the field instead of sitting with nametags on. However, my greatest takeaway was that agricultural folks are some of the most spectacular folks there are, and the resilience we display in the face of adversity is astounding. Despite facing corporate land grabs, structural and interpersonal racism, and environmental degradation, the people I met for those handful of hours in the Midwest were some of the funniest, kindest, and most joyful. I truly believe that while we are all strong and capable in our own right, we have nothing to lose by showing up for one another and establishing resilience through community.

Best, Nour

Nour El-Naboulsi is currently Vice-Chair of Rural Vermont’s Board of Directors.
He is also a part time vegetable farmer, part time rugby player, and co-manager of The People’s Farmstand, a weekly farmstand providing local veggies to all, regardless of ability to pay.

2023 NFFC Annual Gathering in Des Moines, Iowa.
Nour is pictured 5th from left.

We celebrate youth climate activists who succeeded with their claims for a Right to a Healthy Environment last week at a District Court in Montana. The court decided that their rights are impaired by the state government's continuous promotion of fossil fuel industries. The ruling is now more forcefully demanding policy makers action on climate change.  At least twenty-two states have some kind of environmental protection clause in their constitution, that’s Alabama, California, Colorado, Florida, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Michigan,  Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania,  Rhode Island, Utah, and Virginia. It’s shocking that Vermont is not one of them. 

Indigenous leader, farmer and renowned activist Winona LaDuke closed her keynote speech at the NOFA-VT Winter Conference earlier this year with an appeal towards constitutional amendments that grant rights to nature. One of the first examples of a constitutional shift to grant rights to nature happened in Ecuador in 2008 when it became the first country worldwide to embed Rights to Nature in their constitution under then President Rafael Correa. In an unprecedented case, Ecuador’s highest court ruled in 2021 that mining activities that threaten the rights of nature should not be carried out within the protected area. What happened was that economic privileges were superseded by Rights to Nature. This real life example shows what Winona pointed out: that corporations are considered “persons” under the law, even though they don’t have souls, and that rights to nature is about giving rights back to nature (especially given how much has been depleted or destroyed). 

The unique ruling in Montana last week is setting an unseen precedent in the United States for bringing environmental protection clauses to effect. In contrast to Rights to Nature, the constitution of Montana includes an anthropocentric version of an environmental protection by centering the protection around a human’s right to a healthy environment. This results in more traditionally defined plaintiffs that have to be affected at the courts. 

In Vermont, we do have the Global Warming Solutions Act (GWSA) of 2020 that includes timelines and deliverables towards climate goals as well as the ability of any person to place a lawsuit based upon the failure to adopt or update rules pursuant to the deadlines in the Act. Insofar, the GWSA has been the most recent attempt in Vermont to pursue enforceable climate actions and goals. 

Be in touch with Rural Vermont and let us know what you think about including environmental protection clauses in the Vermont state constitution and share what you think about the Global Warming Solutions Act and its implementation. Contact caroline@ruralvermont.org via email or join our next quarterly member forum on Wednesday, September 27th at 7:00pm where you can simply listen in to the policy discussions or speak up yourself as well. 

Learn more about the Montana Youth Case on their Right to a Healthy Environment here

Watch Winona's 2023 Keynote Speech here

Read Vermont’s Global Warming Solutions Act here

More about Rights of Nature and Ecuador’s constitution here

In response to the devastating impacts of THE July 10th flooding, we are compiling a list of CURRENT farm and rural resources. We will keep this list updated as more resources become available and known.

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FARM RESOURCES

• Farm Service Agency: If you have crop insurance contact your local office to report losses.

• Factsheet: Managing Flood Damage in Pasture, Crops, Livestock

• NOFA is collecting info on farm impacts

• Agency of Ag is collecting information on farm damage incurred between July 7 - July 18 (until August 28, 2023). This purpose of the survey is to capture the type and scale of the damage suffered by agricultural producers in the state.

• CCB is collecting info on impacts to licensed cannabis growers

• Agency of Ag: Flood Resources

• Northeast Center for the Advancement for Food Safety (NECAFS): Resources for Flooding

• Distribution Matchmaking Tool - NOFA : connect with other farmers to navigate market disruptions due to the flood

FUNDING & FINANCIAL ASSISTANCE

• Vermont Farm Fund Emergency Loans

• Farmer Emergency Fund

• USDA Disaster Assistance

• Business Emergency Gap Assistance Program (BEGAP): Awards help applicants recoup a portion of their total net uncovered damages.

FARM-SPECIFIC MENTAL HEALTH RESOURCES

Farm First

• Free access to a Farmer Peer. Peers are trained in active listening, troubleshooting, and accessing resources. You can find one by location or discipline at: https://farmfirst.org/peer-support-network

• Free access to a counselor.  While your immediate needs are in the fields, if you need support processing your response you can access a counselor by reaching out to Eva Griffin, the Farm First Resource Coordinator.

• During daytime working hours (8am-4:30pm M-F) call: 802-318-5538

• Outside of daytime work hours call: 877-493-6216

• Email Eva at evag@farmfirst.org

• Free access to resources. On the FarmFirst website, there is a searchable database of resources that can assist you with a variety of services or accessing resources.

• Don't forget to breathe. You can reduce the fight-or-flight response in the body by taking big inhales and longer exhales. Calming down the nervous system will enable you to make better decisions.

COMMUNITY RESOURCES

• Vermont Emergency Management Website 

• New England 511 Road Closures

• Vermont River Levels & Forecast 

• Vermont Alert Emergency Notification System 

• vermont211.org

  REPORT FLOOD DAMAGE TO 211: Residents in Caledonia, Chittenden, Lamoille, Orange, Orleans, Rutland, Washington, Windham and Windsor counties are currently eligible for flood damage assistance through FEMA. State officials urge residents to report any flood-related damage to 211 (https://vermont211.org/ ) in hopes that additional communities, particularly Addison County, will be added to the declaration.

Blue Cross Blue Shield VT and MVP have requested double digit premium rate increases for 2024. Vermonters can submit a public comment to the Green Mountain Care Board until July 24th. Thank you to allies at Vermont Legal Aid for the following information:

Proposed Rate Increase: 

The cost of health insurance is likely to go up in January for roughly 68,324 Vermonters who buy their insurance through Blue Cross Blue Shield of Vermont and MVP Health Care. How much the price goes up will be decided by the Green Mountain Care Board after the rate review hearings in July. BCBSVT asks to raise their premium prices an average of 15.5% for individuals and 14.5% for small businesses. MVP asks to raise their premium prices an average of 12.8% for individuals and 12.5% for small businesses. 

Public Comment:  

Before the hearings in July, the Green Mountain Care Board needs to hear from Vermonters about how premium increases will affect their ability to access affordable health care for themselves and their families. Help encourage those in your network that would be impacted by this change to submit a public comment so that their voices can be heard in this process!  

The HCA’s Role:     

The Office of the Health Care Advocate acts as the consumer voice in the rate review process. We represent the public in rate review hearings and advocate for affordability in our health care system. It’s our responsibility to tell the Green Mountain Care Board how these proposed rate increases impact Vermonters and their families. To bring attention to these proposed rate increases, we are spreading the word about the public comment process. The Green Mountain Care Board is obligated by law to take public comments on proposed rate filings and take this testimony into consideration during the rate review hearings.  

How You Can Help: 

Please share information about the rate review public comment process over social media or any other way you communicate with your network. We have attached a flyer and newsletter that can aid in this effort.  

If anyone you know needs assistance submitting a public comment, or wants individual advice related to health insurance or access to care issues, contact the Office of the Health Care Advocate’s HelpLine at 1-800-917-7787 or visit www.vtlawhelp.org/health.  

It’s Compost Awareness Week! Sign up before the end-of the week to a free online compost training w. certification provided by the Institute for Local Self Reliance!

Up in the Air! The Agency of Ag passed the January deadline to file a final proposal of rules with requirements for the management of imported food residuals and food processing residuals on a farm (Act 41, 2021). VAAFM staff ensured Rural Vermont that Guidance would be presented at the Vermont Organics Recycling Summit earlier this month. The recording of the May 2nd presentation will be available online here and showcases that rulemaking through amending the Required Agricultural Practices Rule will come, someday. Written guidance that would provide some clarity and accountability of rule and law to those who aim to invest and diversify into this innovative agricultural practice is currently not planned. ANR rules continue to apply until farm specific rules, equal to or better than the ANR ones, have been adopted. VAAFM staff emphasize at VORS to contact them directly if there’s any interest or or need to clarify uncertainties. 

• Stephanie Smith, Deputy Director of Public Health and Agricultural Resource Management Division, VAAFM (stephanie.smith@vermont.gov) 

• Zach Szusukowski, Agricultural Resource Management Specialist, VAAFM (zach.szczukowski@vermont.gov) 

• Steve Cash, Agricultural Water Quality Specialist, VAAFM (steven.cash@vermont.gov) 

Many resources all around compost online here!

Read Now! The Executive Summary of the PES & Soil Health Working Group's final report outlines their consensus against creating a new program to measure or model units of ecosystem services that would be traded on a market to offset and carry on with pollution across the globe. Instead, the group noticed that there already is a federal Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) program, the Conservation Stewardship Program (CSP), that is rewarding regenerative agricultural practices but has very few Vermont farms enrolled - so far. The working group will soon launch a pilot Vermont Farmer Ecosystem Stewardship Program to enhance CSP with additional payments after completion of application and planning phase so that farms feel the benefits right away and not years into the implementation phase.

Read the Executive Summary Here

Thanks to NOFA-NH and Seacoast Permaculture for hosting the recent Food and Climate Panel including many Rural Vermont Board members and our Legislative Director Caroline Gordon!  As we see the encroachment of investor backed, market based efforts which sell themselves as addressing climate change and contributing to the economic viability of farms and rural communities - we must recognize and confront these efforts as false solutions, and push for solutions which are driven by communities themselves and which directly affect the reduction of fossil fuel emissions and other environmental pollutants from the principle polluters, and which affect the broader structural changes related to economic, social, and political equity we need for our communities and farms to be healthy and just. 

Phrases, concepts, and programs such as “off-sets”, “net zero”, “natural asset companies” (NACs) or “natural asset trusts”, corporate farmland acquisition subsidiaries marketed as “socially responsible investments” (such as TIAA’s subsidiary Nuveen which the State of VT invested $100 million of VT pensioners’ money into) do not require the reduction of emissions or pollutants, do not require the equitable participation or treatment of local communities in relationship to their lands / waters / natural resources and human rights, and rather than bring accountability to the primary creators and perpetrators of global climate change and inequity, they create further opportunities for them to create new asset classes, further profit economically, and extend further disproportionate influence and control over the lives and resources of communities around the world. This slide presented by the Regenerative Food Network at the 2022 Farm to Plate Gathering explicitly belies the primary motivations and intentions of investors to assign monetary values to “nature’s economy” - an investment opportunity many times the size of the existing economy: 

These are concepts and programs with frightening real world consequences for communities locally and globally.  Equitable tax policies, anti-trust enforcement, essential social welfare policies (healthcare, childcare, eldercare, housing, etc.), improved and cooperative programs for farmers, repairative policies for communities who have been disproportionately and historically harmed and discriminated against, price parity reforms, land reforms and many other efforts which are directed by and center the needs of people and the environment and which reclaim the agency and wealth of the public sector and the local and global commons are what Rural Vermont, our national allies at the National Family Farm Coalition, and our international allies at La Via Campesina understand to be meaningful and appropriate approaches to addressing climate change and a just transition.  

Rural Vermont’s mission makes clear that our work is grounded in assuring the essential needs and health of our communities locally - and human and non-human communities around the world.  Connecting the people we work with, and the issues they face, with global communities and allied organizations and the issues they face is essential to realizing food sovereignty, and is a growing part of our work at Rural Vermont.  Producers and communities all over the world are affected by many of the same global policies and dynamics which marginalize and disempower producers in Vermont.  Two of the primary organizations who work globally which we are members of are the National Family Farm Coalition (NFFC) and La Via Campesina (we are members through NFFC, and pursuing individual membership).  

In November, Rural Vermont staffers Mollie and Graham and board member Nour traveled to Cuba along with a number of Rural VT members as delegates to the 8th annual International Agroecology Encounter, hosted by the National Small Farmers' Association of Cuba (ANAP), and co-coordinated by La Via Campesina North America, the Caribbean Agroecology Institute, and the Cuba / US Agroecology Network.  We traveled to many farms and farming cooperatives, saw presentations from many farmers and researchers, and grew relationships with small farmers, agroecological organizations, and other delegates from all over the world.  

Cuba is a global beacon for cooperativism and agroecology and its many decades of social, economic, and land reforms are also important and unique aspects of Cuba to understand.  Agricultural producers are centered in the Cuban economy and politics - it is a constant refrain that “we want farmers to be able to farm”, meaning that cooperatives and the state substantially support distribution, processing, markets, and other needs connecting food production to its consumption.

However, Cuba is sadly in an economic crisis - largely due to the United States’ reimposed and strengthened sanctions (often referred to in Cuba as the “blockade”), sanctions which have been condemned yearly by a nearly universal vote at the United Nations (aside from the US and Israel) for 30 years.  This blockade - like others like it around the world - intimately and pervasively affects the abilities of everyday people to live sovereign, healthy lives.

In the coming months, look for more community outreach from Rural Vermont around our time in Cuba and getting involved in exchange and solidarity with Cuban farmers.  And look for more information on the formation of a VT Agroecology School - which will continue this thread of internationalism, farmer to farmer based education, and cooperativism.

For some quick introductions to Cuba and Cuban agroecology - see this short film from Belly of the Beast (which includes Rural VT member farmer Tom Gilbert).

Members Critique Power Push to Use Ecosystem Services as a Market Solution for Pre-existing Shortfalls

The last PES (Payment for Ecosystem Services) and Soil Health Working Group meeting finally addressed what had been unspoken - the increasingly clear power dynamic tailoring the development of new programmatic solutions in agriculture addressing climate challenges to the interests of Big $$. Despite the final decision away from outcome-based solutions, the final report seemingly read to satisfy the interests of private investors. These private investors may still glean lessons from the process and continue to push for market-based solutions that are sound, viable, and regenerative while also addressing the complex issues within the agricultural sector. Didi Pershouse, a VT Healthy Soils Coalition member, offered an initial critique that eventually led to several working group members expressing similar concerns.

Public Comment to the PES WG

Caroline Gordon for Rural Vermont 1/10/23

After 3 years of PES and Soil Health Working Group process a question arose for Rural Vermont. In how far was the PES WG process aware of/ and influenced by Wall Street interests around developing new market assets through monetizing ecosystem services? Throughout the process, the Small Farmer stakeholder group, that Rural Vermont is part of, was advocating for the PES WG process to be a democratic one that is farmer-led. We celebrate that advocacy effort in the unison approach towards improving the Conservation Stewardship Program, an idea that emerged from our group. Before the PES WG closes today, I want to flag that there was a strong continuous push towards establishing a new outcome based solution and that it’s questionable, while not explicit, in how far that push has been informed by private investor networks with access to large capital from international markets like RAIS, the Regenerative Food Network and others. Another indicator for the predominant macroeconomic framework projected often by the PES WG was demonstrated in the way farmer participation was facilitated. Rural Vermont recommended to “Facilitate a Participatory Decision-Making Process with Farmers” in May 2021, submitted with support form Cat Buxton, the White River NRCD, CLF, CAFS and Cedar Mountain Farm. That initiative was not discussed by the PES WG but reduced to a survey that measured the farmers’ “willingness to accept” - a terminology used in the capitalizing nature context. Following the farmers survey around WTA, program development options did not aim to meet that minimum bar of what farmers seek to gain from a PES program.  When the PES WG decided against the approach to develop a new outcome based program the farmer input was not helpful anymore. I echo Didi Pershouse who flagged earlier today eloquently how that power dynamic towards market solutions is now being reflected in this critical draft final report and it is a huge relief that the group has been able to address that so constructively today.
While the PES WG will be more or less resolved now, I want to encourage all of us to be more aware about the context of private investors seeking to develop trillions of dollars in assets by capitalizing on nature and how that affects Vermont, our public interests, and those on the ground. Moving forward please join Rural Vermont in dialogue with lawmakers to share what you learned about the complexities and difficulties surrounding agricultural programming, for example surrounding cost share agreements (and so much more), and seek to keep this discourse a public one so that any policy decisions can be farmer-led. I know that most of the working group members entered this process with an open mind, like Didi, Jill, Maddie and Scott shared, they didn’t see a pre-set understanding of what PES means. Along those lines, research like the report from NEED (Coleman, A.F., Machado, M.R. (2022). Ecosystem Services in Working Lands Practice and Policy in the U.S. Northeast: Successes, Challenges, and

Opportunities for Producers and Extension (1st ed). Kansas City: Extension Foundation. ISBN: 978-1 955687-11-9.), about Ecosystem Services in the working lands across the northeast has identified over 1,300 existing programs that benefit ecosystem services that are outside of the commodifying nature context that could be understood as PES programs for that reason - even though they are practice based. 

Before I close, I’m excited to share that:

1. Very  soon the qualitative analysis of farmer participation that the Conservation Districts organized with support from UVM and others will be released. Retrospect that documentation will support to advance CSP and the broader effort to take farmers' expertise seriously in addressing other pre-existing shortfalls of existing programs at the root moving forward. 

2. Join Rural Vermont during a NOFA-NH panel discussion on January 18th at around the concerns raised today: Food and Climate Panel: Carbon Market Pitfalls & Better Strategies for Regenerative Organic Farming Practices — Rural Vermont

The PES and Soil Health Working Group reached a consensus at their thirty-first meeting on November 1, 2022, at the VAAFM Williston office to enhance the federal Conservation Stewardship Program with a Vermont enhancement (see photo). This milestone decision now leads the way to finalize the pilot approach recommendation from the Working Group. This approach was chosen after the group expressed a preference for enhancing existing programs. Goals include to enhance payments and enrollment and thereby increase the ability to access more federal funds in the future that could be used to develop a Vermont specific enhancement program. 

“This approach would support farms to enroll their whole farm into the CSP program and have their cropland, pastureland, production area, and associated agricultural land be assessed against performance-based stewardship thresholds. State supplemental payments under this approach would initially support farms in their first year of engagement with the CSP program through the ‘resource assessment’ phase, which is a valuable exercise for farms and promotes comprehensive stewardship planning on the farm. Additional state supplemental funds would then compensate farmers for committing to increased stewardship upon execution of the CSP agreement. Finally, additional supplemental payments will be released by the state annually for successful implementation of the CSP plan, which will support engagement in the program over the five years of the agreement.”

Draft Approach 6: USDA-NRCS Conservation Stewardship Program (CSP) With a Vermont State Enhancement (VSE)

For more information please visit the DRAFT pilot approach here and the meeting summary or recording.