Burlington Free Press
By Lisa Rathke, The Associated Press
MONTPELIER — A new report predicts that 1,500 jobs could be created in Vermont over the next decade if residents double their consumption of locally produced food.
The Farm to Plate Strategic Plan presented to lawmakers and the governor Wednesday outlines 33 goals and 60 strategies for boosting the state’s food and farm economy. Those, along with public, private and philanthropic investments, could lead to an increase in economic output by at least $177 million per year, said Ellen Kahler, executive director of the Vermont Sustainable Jobs Fund, which developed the report.
“As bleak as it looks right now for many of our dairy farmers, Vermont has an extraordinarily bright agricultural future,” Gov. Peter Shumlin said at a Statehouse news conference. “We will beat the other states to the prize because of planning like Farm to Plate.”
Among the strategies, the report suggests expanding goat dairies to serve the state’s growing cheese operations; helping slaughterhouses find money to expand so they serve increased livestock production; and increasing egg production.
Shumlin, his adminstration and legislative leaders pledged to work to implement the 10-year plan’s strategies to boost agriculture and jobs in Vermont.
The Vermont Sustainable Jobs Fund developed the plan over 18 months, by engaging more than 1,200 residents and meeting with more than 75 food-system organizations, Kahler said.
The report finds that at least 10,974 businesses are involved in Vermont’s food system and employ at least 55,581 residents, representing 18 percent of private sector jobs, Kahler said. The total economic output of Vermont’s food system was $2.7 million in 2007.
Vermont leads the nation in direct agricultural sales, with an average of $36.77 spent per capita per year at farm stands, farmers markets and community-supported agriculture, or CSAs, in which people buy shares of a farmer’s crop and get weekly deliveries during the growing season.
“While it may seem like a small amount, it does represent a total of 23 million in direct sales in 2007, which is up from just $4 million 15 years earlier,” Kahler said. “So we’re seeing a huge increase in folks wanting to eat local.”
But the state faces challenges, such as the 12 percent of residents who are food insecure, which means at times they don’t have enough nutritious food, she said. And there are increased costs of fuel and feed to farmers, on top of a dairy crisis in which conventional dairy farmers were paid some of the lowest prices in recent memory.
Still, she said, there’s much to be hopeful for, pointing to the 413 new farms created between 2002 and 2007; more young people entering farming; a vibrant artisan cheese movement; and a new yogurt manufacturing plant in Brattleboro.
The Vermont Sustainable Jobs Fund on Wednesday released the executive summary of the plan, which cost about $250,000 to develop. It plans to roll out specifics over the next two months.
The Vermont Farm to Plate Investment Program was created during the 2009 legislative session to improve the state’s food system.
