Course of Action
Legislative Session 2020-2021
Our 2021 priorities for organizing, education, advocacy and action are shaped at the intersection of many influences: Our relationships with our membership, our Board, our Staff, our allied organizations, coalitions, and movements locally and globally. Our core commitment is to follow the lead of those most impacted and to address root causes and systemic issues such as climate change and biodiversity loss, economic consolidation and concentration, racial justice, healthcare, childcare and the many other inequities and opportunities embedded in our food system and beyond. We have a shared vision for a community-scale, bio-regionally centered, democratically governed, agriCULTURE which is equitable and just, and which is based on the principles of food sovereignty and a solidarity and kinship with one another, the greater web of life, and the land with which we live.
We are currently prioritizing the following issues:
Reduction of the Use of, and Exposure to, Pesticides and other Toxics:
We continue to work with a diverse coalition of organizations and individuals seeking to reduce the use of and exposure to pesticides and other toxics through advocacy, organizing, and education.
Climate Change:
We’re engaged in ongoing education about, and advocacy for an equitable community scale regenerative agriculture to be a top strategy in climate change mitigation, adaptation, and transformation - and to have this reflected in climate change policy and legislation. We’re offering upcoming educational opportunities from global climate justice leadership!
Youth Leadership:
We are investing in and engaging with youth by being a community partner of Regeneration Corps - an initiative offering academic credit to high school students to get onto farms and learn about the intersections of regenerative agriculture, climate change, and racial justice.
Soil Health:
We’re working with local farmers and composters to advance the implementation of the Universal Recycling Law legislatively, by allowing farms to import food and food processing residuals as a poultry forage, compost component, and soil amendment without needing to obtain a solid waste permit.
We continue to monitor and influence the Payment for Ecosystem Services and Soil Health Working Group and have partnered with the White River Natural Resources Conservation District on research at the Center for Agriculture and Food Systems on this issue. Read the final report here.
In collaboration with the VT Releaf Collective, NOFA-VT, and the VT Healthy Soil Coalition, we’re working to amplify farmer and BIPOC voices by offering stipends to BIPOC engaged in soil health legislation.
We’re working with citizen activists and organizational partners on a newly emerging, farmer-led coalition on the development of soil health legislation; and continue work to influence current policy such as the Global Warming Solutions Act.
Rural Vermont was a contributing author in the Agroforestry Brief for the Vermont Agriculture and Food Systems Plan.
Just and Equitable Taxation and Regulation of Cannabis:
We continue working in coalition with NOFA-VT, the Vermont Growers’ Association, Justice For All, and Trace VT to advocate for amendments to Act 164, and to engage in the rulemaking process laid out in Act 164, in the service of ending the criminalization of cannabis and justly transitioning to a tax and regulate system which is agriculturally, economically, and racially equitable, accessible, and reparative.
Racial Equity:
We follow BIPOC leadership in pursuit of the equity and justice we need for our collective liberation and repair. We continually reassess how to effectively devote our resources to realize our commitment to being an anti-racist organization and to be part of this movement not as an ally but as an accomplice. We are actively working on embedding an Anti-Racism Policy into our bylaws, and prioritize racial equity within and outside of the organization.
Land Access, Affordability, Equity, Succession:
We will continue to monitor, participate in policy and community conversations related to significant amounts of farmland leaving production in VT and the need to address historical and current inequities related to land access and regulations affecting land use. We are in support of the Vermont BIPOC Land Access and Opportunity Act - legislation at the intersection of racial equity and land access led by local BIPOC organizations. We will continue to Chair the Farmland Access and Stewardship Working Group at Farm to Plate, and continue to participate in the Stop Corporate Land Grabs Working Group at the National Family Farm Coalition.
Rural Vermont was a contributing author in the Alternative Farmland Access and Ownership Brief for the Vermont Agriculture and Food Systems Plan.
Healthcare:
Rural Vermont supports H.430, the Doctor Dinosaur Expansion, which could expand coverage to income-eligible children and pregnant people regardless of immigration status. The bill recently passed the House and is on to the Senate. Read more about the bill and the coalition that supports it in this overview from Vermont Legal Aid.
We will continue working to bring agricultural voices and experiences into the VT healthcare regulatory process. We are building intersectional alliances with diverse groups seeking to increase the affordability of, and access to, healthcare for all, and working to highlight healthcare, childcare, and eldercare as significant and critical issues impacting our agricultural community.
Rural Vermont also lead authored the Healthcare Brief for the Vermont Agriculture and Food Systems Plan.
Raw Milk:
We provide ongoing support for the raw milk community and with leadership from our farmer stakeholder group, recently worked to get legislation relating to expanded sales of raw milk introduced in late January 2021. Stay tuned for bill language. We continue to work with this community to identify regulatory improvements and grassroots solutions to increase economic viability of and access to raw milk.
Hemp:
We continue to support the hemp community through the 2021 implementation of VT’s new rules on hemp, and to amplify voices of community farmers in hemp policy discussions.
Commodity Dairy:
We continue to engage in multiple dialogues and groups (locally & nationally) focused on immediate and long term support for commodity dairy farms, farmers, and farmworkers - and a just transition to an equitable and accessible grass-based dairy economy which provides just livelihoods for farmers and farmworkers while improving our soils and waterways. We will continue to support the migrant farmworker community and our friends and allies at Migrant Justice and work to expand their Milk with Dignity program.
Local / Regional / National / Global Coalition Work and Movement Building:
We continue our committed relationships with local, national, and international networks, coalitions, and movements: Farm to Plate, VT Young Farmers Coalition, La Via Campesina, National Family Farm Coalition, and US Food Sovereignty Alliance, and bring these perspectives to our local work.
Advocating for, educating about, and organizing around on-farm slaughter, scale appropriate regulation in livestock slaughter and processing:
Offering slaughter and processing workshops with itinerant slaughterers and local farmers and butchers, doing direct outreach to stakeholders in the on-farm slaughter community, and advocating for addressing the increased demand for local meat and the related capacity issues for meat processing.
Citizen Advocacy Trainings:
2021 series of “Small Farm Action Days” amplifying agricultural voices in the statehouse and sharing citizen advocacy strategies about engaging with a virtual legislature. Farmer stipends available.