The global pandemic disrupted many aspects of society, not least of which was our food system.

“Last spring we witnessed the fragility of our national food supply chain, as milk was dumped, vegetables were plowed under, meat processing plants were temporarily shut down and restaurants were closed,” said Ellen Kahler, executive director of the Vermont Sustainable Jobs Fund. “We all came to realize just how essential Vermont farmers and food workers are.”

Kahler’s remarks came earlier this year at the unveiling a the “Vermont Agriculture and Food Systems Strategic Plan 2021-2030” — a detailed plan to increase sustainable economic development, improve the environment and working landscape, increase access to healthy food for all Vermonters, and improve racial equity.

The plan, which was recently released through the Sustainable Jobs Fund’s Vermont Farm to Plate Initiative, is a 202-page document developed over 18 months with input from more than 1,500 Vermonters and from focus groups with more than 120 members of the state’s farming and food industries. It lays out 15 strategic goals to achieve by 2030.

The foundation for those goals is a set of 54 product, market and issue briefs written by 149 experts, including farmers, food business owners, producer associations, Vermont Agency of Agriculture Food and Markets (VAAFM) officials and others.

A brief on apples, for instance, provides an overview of current conditions (the state has lost more than half its apple acreage since 2017, but the price per bushel has almost tripled over that time period), then lists five problem areas, four opportunities and five recommendations, including “VAAFM should work with Vermont’s federal delegation to urge sensible reform to immigration and labor rules that affect fruit and vegetable growers.”

The dairy industry gets the most attention in this section: An eight-page brief with subsections on scale bifurcation, consumer trends, forage-based production systems, value-added processing and alternative milk-pricing strategies.

The brief notes that with the exception of Essex County, every county in Vermont has lost at least 10% of its dairy farms since 2009. At 35%, Addison County suffered the third-highest loss in the state.

Recommendations for the industry include:

•  reinvigorating farmer cohort learning groups by funding a position that can coordinate meetings between diverse farmers.

•  establishing a formal mentorship program that will pay successful, retiring dairy farmers to work one-on-one with young farmers to help them navigate the challenges of being a new farmer.

•  giving incentives to new farmers.

•  maintaining or increasing the current processing capacity.

•  providing energy-efficiency incentives.

Secretary of Agriculture Anson Tebbetts praised the strategic plan as “impressive.”

“It’s all in one document,” he said. “Sometimes (the information) is really revealing. Sometimes it’s a little discouraging. But it’s real, it’s been vetted by the people that have been working in the field. This is not a government-dictated report. A lot of this information was compiled by people working in those sectors, which is very important because the best ideas and the best research always comes from the bottom up.”

Many of the solutions proposed in the plan would have an impact on more than one industry or goal, the plan’s authors point out. And it focuses, too, on the economic concerns of workers.

“The plan lays out steps for providing livable wages and improving workplace conditions for all food systems employees by developing policies, shared workforce programs, market incentive programs and relative technical assistance for farm and food businesses,” said Jake Claro, director of the Vermont Farm to Plate Network.

NEW DECADE, NEW PLAN

In 2009 the Vermont Legislature tasked the Vermont Sustainable Jobs Fund with administering the Farm to Plate Investment Program to create a farming and food system strategic plan that could be revised and updated as needed.

The new 2021 plan reflects some of the data collected during the first decade of the program. Between 2009 and 2019:

•  Vermont’s food system economic output increased by 48%, from $7.5 billion to $11.3 billion.

•  more than 64,000 Vermonters were directly employed by more than 11,500 farms and food-related businesses, and the food system added 6,560 net new jobs.

•  local food purchases rose from $114 million (5%) to $310 million (13.9%) of the total $2.2 billion spent on food in the state annually.

And in 2017, Vermont farms sold $781 million worth of products.

Gov. Scott reauthorized the program in 2019, which led to the new plan.

“It is a 10-year plan but I would not want to leave the impression that we’re going to wait until the end of the decade to tick off some of these issues,” Tebbetts said. “We’re going to get to work right away.”

And it’s not just about ensuring the economic health of food producers and distributors, though that is one priority.

“There is universal agreement that support for food and farm businesses must be coupled with funding and policy to enable low-income consumers to access this local food,” the 2021-2030 strategic plan says. “Recommended actions to this end include funding for the charitable food system to purchase local products (e.g., Vermonters Feeding Vermonters), programs that supplement 3SquaresVT (e.g. Crop Cash), models such as produce prescription programs, and more.”

Planners estimate that additional federal and state funding, as well as philanthropic investment will be needed to achieve the plan’s ambitious goals: approximately $9.7 million in one-time funding and $23.3 million in recurring funding.

“Our open working landscape and the jobs that are connected to it and our ability to have healthy local food year-round are at risk from industry-level consolidation, the number of farms without a clear succession plan to the next generation, trade wars, federal milk and farm policy and more,” Kahler said. “It’s important to remember that quality farmland in Vermont is a finite resource, and demographic changes and climate change-induced migration are putting farmland at risk. In addition, many farm families struggle to make ends meet because of national policies that do not pay them for the true cost of production.”

The Vermont Agriculture and Food System Strategic Plan 2021-2030 can be viewed and downloaded at vtfarmtoplate.com/plan.