Farm to Plate is Vermont’s food system plan being implemented statewide to increase economic development and jobs in the farm and food sector and improve access to healthy local food for all Vermonters.
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Vermont Farmers Graduate from Livestock Profitability School
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This month, 14 Vermont farmers graduated from the leading livestock profitability school, Ranching for Profit School (RFP), held in Burlington, Vermont.
Forty-three farmers and ranchers from Vermont, 12 states across the U.S., Canada and Australia examined their business, were challenged to examine practices they currently employ and explored new ideas to increase the profitability, productivity, and sustainability of their farming operations.
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2018 Farm to Plate Annual Report
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Farm to Plate is requesting the Legislature open a new chapter and decade of Farm to Plate’s existence by reauthorizing the Farm to Plate Investment Program for another 10 years. Our hope is that this year’s Annual Report begins to outline the challenges, opportunities, and approaches Farm to Plate will focus on now and into the decade to come.
Since 2010:
• Purchases of local food in Vermont have increased by $176 million to $289 million in total (12.9% of total food and beverage sales).
• 6,559 net new jobs and 742 net new businesses have been created.
• The percentage of food insecure Vermont households has dropped to 9.8% from 13.2%.
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Network Update: Health CCT
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Increasing Local Food Availability and Affordability in All Market Channels
Addressing Food Access in the State Health Improvement Plan
Over the past year, the Farm to Plate Health Cross-Cutting Team has explored ways in which the healthcare system can be used to increase access to healthy, local food for all Vermonters. As part of this effort, the group successfully submitted strategies on food access to the 2019-2023 State Health Improvement Plan (SHIP).
The SHIP, released in December
, lays out priorities and high-level strategies that “will be used to set direction for the next five years for budgets, policies, and programs across the health system – and by partners from the variety of sectors that contribute to health and equity.” One of these strategies is “
Health care incentives and flexibility: use health care payment reforms and regulatory levers (health insurance and health system regulation, health care organization, workforce licensure, etc.) to create incentives and encourage flexibility in using health care resources to support access to food, housing, and transportation.
” Food also appears in the Priority Health & Social Conditions and in the Health Outcomes & Measures.
Suzanne Kelley (Vermont Department of Health; co-chair of the Health CCT) will lead the action planning phase for these food access portions of the SHIP, and the Health CCT,
along with other food and health partners
, will be used as a vehicle to carry out the next steps: developing relationships and a shared agenda with the communities most affected by inequities; outlining the actions needed to implement these high-level strategies; identifying partners to carry forward the work; and developing performance measures to track progress. Contact
Suzanne.Kelley@vermont.gov
for more information on the CCT’s process and timeline.
Learning by Example: New Resource Celebrates Existing Food/Health Programs in Vermont
The Health CCT has also recently published the
Vermont Food and Health Program Inventory
, which compiles information on over 30 programs that address the intersection of food and health, from community-based nutrition education to a hospital supporting a community cold storage facility. The resource also identifies programs with an intended outcome of “increasing consumption of local food” or “assisting local farmers with costs,” which the Healthy CCT hopes will be helpful to health and food access organizations who would like to add an emphasis on local food to their work.
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Food System Events and Workshops
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Please join the Vermont Forest Industry Network and the Vermont Working Lands Enterprise Board Forestry Committee on March 7 in Hardwick at a Meet Up to explore biochar’s potential as an innovative wood product.
Speakers include nationally-recognized speaker and author Kathleen Draper, U.S. Director of the Ithaka Institute for Carbon Intelligence; Kaitlin Hayes, Vermont State Water Quality Specialist and manager of the Vermont Phosphorus Innovation Challenge; Donna Pion and Luke Persons with Green State Biochar in Greensboro Bend, and Tom Vanacore with Rock Dust Local in Bridport, who will share their knowledge and experience with this intriguing product made from woody biomass.
Registration is $25, and includes coffee and light pastries, the morning program and lunch. After lunch we’ll travel to a nearby woodlot to tour a timber sale being logged by students at Green Mountain Technology and Career Center in Hardwick.
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Is your Farm or Food Business listed on the
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3 Pitkin Court Montpelier, VT 05602
Copyright © 2019. All Rights Reserved.
Vermont Sustainable Jobs Fund, 3 Pitkin Court, Suite 301E, Montpelier, VT 05602
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