6/9 2025 End-of-Session Legislative Recap
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.