This summer marked the third anniversary of the People’s Agroecology School of Vermont. The school is rooted in Rural Vermont’s 40-year legacy of radical farmer organizing. It follows in the lineage of the agroecological and political education developed by rural peoples’ movements across Latin America. This includes the Latin American Institutes of Agroecology (IALAs) that are spread throughout Central and South America.
Read More Here…
For four decades, Rural Vermont has been proudly amplifying farmer voices, fighting for a farm and food system that cares for farmers, the people they feed, the ecosystems they nurture, and the communities they support. We’re ending this milestone year with an epic 40th celebration on Sunday, October 19th from 4-7pm at the Old Labor Hall in Barre, and you’re invited! There will be a potluck, live band, cash bar, art-making, stories, and lots more. Join us for an evening of joy, reflection, and community — let’s make it the celebration of the year! Help us plan with your RSVP by 10/14.
The Vermont Supreme Court ruled on May 30, 2025, that farming is not exempt from all municipal regulation. Instead, the court interpreted the “ag exemption” in 24 V.S.A. § 4413(d)(1)(A) [the Municipal Zoning Statute] as a reference only to the policies and standards intended to reduce agricultural water pollution. The court concluded that municipalities may regulate all aspects of farming that do not relate to water quality, thereby setting a new precedent in stark contrast to the previous, statewide understanding that farming is exempt from municipal zoning regulations. Rural Vermont, NOFA-VT, the Vermont Farm Bureau, the Vermont Association of Conservation Districts, and the Vermont Agency of Agriculture, Food, and Markets are collaborating to protect the agricultural exemptions. We are collecting signatures in support of changing the law to assert that food producers that the VT Agency of Agriculture, Food, and Markets determines to be farms and farming are exempt from municipal zoning and the Act 250 permit requirement. We are also gathering stories to demonstrate the importance of the farming exemptions from Municipal Zoning and Act 250 for the working lands community - please share any examples you have.
Read the Letter and Sign On Here…
Read our Blog on this Ruling Here…
Rural Vermont remains a force because of our Community’s support!
Forty years ago, Rural Vermont was born out of a need to respond locally to the national farm crisis. Vermont farmers found it necessary to organize, educate, and advocate on behalf of their own and their communities’ interests. No one else was doing it, no one else was going to do it, and no one else really could. This was the beginning of what we now know organizationally as Rural Vermont.
As we continue to amplify the most pressing needs of the agricultural community and contribute to the broader movement to preserve our human rights and dignity, we know it is equally important to cultivate joy and connection at every opportunity! Let’s Keep Building Farmer Power with $40+ in honor of 40 years!
Donate here, see our Mid-Year Progress Report here, and read our full appeal for your support here!
The legislative session is slowly wrapping up for 2025 with June 16 being the target date for adjournment at the moment. At the beginning of June, we learned about a recent appeals decision from the Vermont Supreme Court which will have an enormous effect on farms, the agricultural community, food security and food sovereignty in Vermont. This critical decision overturns long standing precedent by reversing how many, if not all, municipalities had understood these statutes to date - that farms are exempt from municipal zoning as they are exempt from Act 250. This ruling deeply concerns us, and we are organizing and acting to the best of our ability to affect it now- please be in touch if you want to engage. Specifically, the VT Supreme court ruled that neither 24 V.S.A. § 4413 (d)(1)(A) which references farms that need to comply with the RAP’s, nor 7 V.S.A. § 869 (f)(2) related to outdoor licensed cannabis cultivators, prevents municipalities from regulating farms. Instead, the court interpreted the law as only precluding municipal regulation of agricultural water quality.
The Vermont Supreme Court issued a ruling on May 30, 2025, determining that farming and outdoor cannabis cultivation are not exempt from all municipal regulation, but that the reference to the Required Agricultural Practices in 24 V.S.A. § 4413(d)(1)(A) [the Municipal Zoning Statute] refers to the policies and standards intended to reduce agricultural water pollution only. The court concluded that municipalities may regulate all other aspects of farming and cannabis cultivation, thereby setting a new precedent in stark contrast to the general statewide belief that farming is exempt from municipal zoning regulations.
As we reflect on 2024, we are proud to share the progress and impact made possible through our partners, members, and supporters. Our 2024 Impact Report highlights Rural Vermont’s achievements, challenges, and milestones that continue to define our work. We invite you to explore the stories, successes, and data that illustrate how, along with you, we are making a lasting difference in our rural agrarian communities.
The 2025 Legislative Session is currently scheduled to wrap up on May 23rd with little to no committee activity projected for the last week of the session. This update is focused on priority issues and action items - your support matters! Read the 5/8 Legislative Update to see where things stand with Cottage Foods, Right to Farm, Cannabis, and much, much more.
H.321, the miscellaneous cannabis bill, is currently in the Senate Committee on Economic Development. Rural VT and the VT Cannabis Equity Coalition, the Land Access and Opportunity Board, VT NORML, and the Lt. Governor John Rogers have all come to common ground on a list of priorities and suggested statutory language as an amendment to the bill.
Our proposals have the support of membership based organizations collectively representing thousands of VT residents, we have more direct stakeholders of every license type supporting all of our priorities and language than any other proposal, we have more organizations and businesses behind us than any other proposal (more than 70 based on the sign-on to our original proposals), and we have the CCB’s very own surveying of Tier 1 producers and its mandated reports attesting to many of the priorities we have. We understand our priorities and recommended statutory language to objectively have more support and more hands in crafting them than any other proposals that have been put forward.
On April 17, we mark the International Day of Peasant Struggles, an annual action day that brings rural communities together around the world to honor the ongoing struggle and resistance of agrarian workers everywhere in their pursuit of justice, dignity, and food sovereignty.
In Vermont, we commemorate this day during a week where we have witnessed Palestinian man Mohsen Mahdawi detained in Colchester during a scheduled citizenship interview, despite his decade long status as a lawful U.S. permanent resident, an arrest that Vermont federal delegation Sanders, Welch, and Balint have called “immoral, inhumane, and illegal.” This detention occurred as protesters gathered to condemn the arrest and detention of Tufts doctoral student Rümeysa Öztürk from Turkey, who was taken into custody by US Homeland Security agents in plain clothes and brought to Vermont before landing in an ICE detention center in Louisiana.
Also this week, agrarians gathered for a Farmer Day of Action outside of USDA offices in Middlebury to speak about the impact of USDA program cuts, tariffs, and the immigration stresses on themselves as farmers and farmworkers.
There is a continued need to stand up for ourselves, our friends, neighbors, and demand justice, dignity, and safety for our communities during a dangerous time where our constitutional rights are at stake. We encourage our network to show solidarity and for each individual to take mindful steps within your reach. 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, constitutional rights, and the corporate control and domination over our food system.
Rural Vermont stands with Vermont farmers and farmworkers, alongside La Via Campesina, the international movement of peasants, youth, women, men, and diversities, migrants, rural and landless agrarian workers, fisherfolk, and indigenous peoples, who come together in unity with hope, connection, and unwavering determination to confront the multifaceted crises agrarian communities face here at home and around the world.
The Vermont Cannabis Equity Coalition (VCEC) is a coalition of Vermont not-for-profit, member based organizations representing thousands of Vermonters: the Vermont Racial Justice Alliance, Rural Vermont, Vermont Growers Association, Green Mountain Patients’ Alliance, and the Northeast Organic Farmers Association of Vermont. We share a vision for a cannabis economy in Vermont which is racially just, economically equitable, agriculturally accessible, and environmentally sound.
This is an opportunity for you to indicate your support for the recommendations of the VT Cannabis Equity Coalition - all of which have been deeply informed by our work with a variety of affected constituencies over time. Please read our recommendations in more detail here. More broadly, these recommendations include: 1) industry and community reinvestment, 2) direct sales for small producers, 3) treating cannabis like farming, 4) complete and cost-free cannabis expungement, 5) public consumption wherever lit tobacco is allowed, 6) increasing home-grow allowances, 7) positioning the administration of eligible conditions and oversight of the medical cannabis program under the Cannabis Control Board by re-establishing the Symptom Relief Oversight Committee.
If you are in support, please take the opportunity to sign the letter to Vermont State Senators and Representatives.
This Legislative Crossover Update provides a comprehensive overview of current bills that are relevant to the agricultural community (our legislative team monitored 38 bills this year!). Check out the Table of Contents to learn about the bills that are of most interest to you. There are two sections in this legislative update: bills that made the “crossover” deadline and remain active this legislative session, and bills that did not make the deadline to complete the legislative process in this year. There are a number of House bills related to agriculture that were introduced late this session that could move next year. Because of the two year legislative biennium, bills that didn’t move this year still have a chance to pass in the 2026 session.
We hope you can join us! Vermont’s ability to feed itself relies on thriving community scale farms working together towards food sovereignty and community resilience. We hope Join us Saturday, April 12 from 10-3pm at the Sharon Food Justice Garden for a tree digging work brigade! The Sharon Food Justice Garden was established as a collaborative project between the Regeneration Corps, the Sharon Academy and the Sharon Food Pantry to increase local food security while creating a teaching garden for local youth and community members.
Work brigades are a popular education tool used around the world to strengthen communities and build trust and solidarity through collective labor, connection, mutual aid, and knowledge sharing. Agroecological education will be provided by special guest Buzz Ferver, founder/owner of Perfect Circle Farm in Berlin VT and a long time naturalist who has been growing and propagating trees for over 45 years. Come learn about the Vermont People’s Agroecology School, the Sharon Food Justice Garden, and agroecology as a social, political, and ecological movement building tools to grow community resilience and food sovereignty.
H. 401 is a bill that seeks to affect VT's "cottage food" laws, which regulate non-licensed home kitchen-based food manufacturers and bakeries. This bill would raise the "cottage food" gross income caps (which are a threshold for licensure for non-licensed home kitchen-based food manufacturers and bakeries) from $10,000 and $6,500 respectively, to $30,000 gross sales for both. In comparison, according to the Institute for Justice, Massachusetts, Maine, New Hampshire, and New York do not have an annual sales cap at all. In Wyoming, the annual sales cap is $250K for cottage foods.
Rural Vermont has created a survey that seeks to: inform our advocacy on H.401 and other legislation that may affect cottage foods producers and eaters; grow our understanding of the types and scales of cottage food and value-added businesses in VT; to assess people’s experiences with the cottage food laws, and tiered value-added products regulations in VT; to provide some basic information for people about current laws and regulations; to get proposals and feedback on particular options for improving the laws, regulations, and technical support; and to support organizing people who would like to participate in advocacy and more discussion about how to amend the laws. There is space in this survey for participants to explicitly note if they are interested in testifying on H.401 in the State House.
*Individuals' identifying information from this survey will be kept private, and information gathered and presented will be done in such a way as to preserve the anonymity of respondents to the best of our ability.
Set yourself up for a successful outdoor 2025 season! Join Vermont Growers Association, Rural Vermont, and Ben Wilcox of Off Piste Farm, a licensed Tier 1 Outdoor Cultivator, in the Northeast Kingdom on Saturday, April 5th from 10am - 1pm for a cannabis pre-season planning and prep workshop. Founded in 2015 in the NEK, Ben is committed to growing high-quality, sun-grown cannabis. Off Piste’s mission is to grow and produce the highest quality products possible, with as little negative impact on the environment and ecosystem as possible, while supporting the local economy as much as possible. Off Piste uses locally sourced organic inputs and materials, works with other small, independent, locally owned businesses as much as possible, and uses off-grid solar power to generate their own electricity.
Each year, Rural Vermont invites our farmer members and ally organizations to learn about and engage in the legislative process, advocacy, and pending policy during the legislative session. This event series offers farmers and the agrarian community at large - homesteaders, gardeners, (urban) farmers, medicine makers, and food activists alike - opportunities to speak with lawmakers, voice their real-life issues, and to empowerment from learning more about the legislative process. In 2025, we’ll be hosting two Small Farm Action Days at the Vermont State House in Montpelier: Wed., March 26 & Wed., April 23.
The new federal administration is unleashing a shock and awe campaign against the institutions and norms of US government and democracy, and is threatening and actualizing persecution of our neighbors and deep instability for our farms and communities. Executive Orders and dehumanizing narratives have targeted immigrants, transgender and gender non-conforming people, communities of color, as well as people affected by Diversity, Equity and Inclusion initiatives and programs. The January 20 Executive Order that placed a freeze on spending authorized by the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 and the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act has been broadly felt through the farming community. Funding for many NRCS and USDA programs are funded by those laws, and the impacts have been compounded by the monumental overhaul in federal staffing and structure. Subsequent court rulings have stated that the funding freeze cannot continue, though uncertainty remains if court decisions will be followed or enforced. The New York Times reported that over 2,600 programs were temporarily paused. Sen. Welch, speaking at the NOFA VT conference this past weekend said, “I'm often asked if things are as bad as they look. I’m here to tell you they are much, much worse”.
Read More Here…
The People's Agroecology School of Vermont, an independent project of Rural Vermont, wants to know how to best serve the needs of local agrarians. We hope you will take a moment to share your thoughts in this survey, including topic areas of interest (want education and training around draft animal power? Home-based organic fertilizers and ferments? On-farm plumbing and electric...?), as well as how you might want to participate (interested in hosting a work brigade at your farm? Being an educator? Participating in local events or International Exchanges?). For more information, visit this page or email mollie@ruralvermont.org
Did you know that at the very end of the 2024 legislative session, the Vermont legislature passed a new law (see Section 18, Act 181 of 2024, starting on p.25) that exempts farm stores from Act 250 permits but not farm events or farm stays - functionally implying these types of accessory on-farm businesses will need act 250 permits? It also addresses and affects the development of value-added products (the preparation or processing of farm products) as an Act 250 permit is now required unless that aspect of the farm business will make at least 50 percent of the total annual sales from products of the farm itself - without outlining how that is going to be monitored or enforced. We would like to hear from you if you are impacted: AOFB Survey
Rural Vermont is organizing a call this Wednesday 2/12 (two options: 10:30am - noon and 7:00pm - 8:30pm) for stakeholders that are affected by this new law - we would like to hear from you! If you would like to share your concerns, thoughts, and questions with the Rural Vermont team, please follow the link below….
In D.C., the first week of the new federal administration has brought a series of executive orders that directly threaten our communities and the wellbeing of many. Rural Vermont is in close dialogue with our federal delegation and allied organizations while we witness many proposed changes coming forth at high speed. Many of our community members are not safe, some are threatened with detention and deportation, critical funds supporting businesses and federal programs may be discontinued, and more. We encourage our members to be in touch about how these new federal policies impact you, your farm, and your community.
In Vermont, a new biennium has launched with many new legislators being assigned to new committees. The House Committee on Agriculture, Food Resiliency and Forestry shrank from eleven to eight seats and welcomed four returning and four new members. The Senate Committee on Agriculture still has five seats and almost entirely new members, with the exception of Senator Brian Collamore from Rutland who has been serving on the committee for more than 20 years. At the beginning of a new legislative session, all committees typically invite relevant organizations and agencies to introduce themselves and their priorities. You can watch Rural Vermont’s introductions to both agricultural committees online (Senate; House). Check out our “2025 Legislative Bill Monitor” to track progress on some of the issues of most interest to the Rural Vermont community. Also check out our Activist Toolkit where we share tips and tricks to prepare you for your advocacy in the peoples’ house, and stay tuned for a Small Farm Action Day - announcement coming soon! Finally, we continue to offer audio recordings of our legislative updates so that you can get our briefing while you go about your farm chores or other daily duties. Tune in, be in touch, & speak up!