Real Local Control

Recently the Time Argus, a local paper out of Montpelier Vermont, published an article on getting back to control of our local food and becoming more aware of what we are eating. They talk about how far Vermont has come with selling local products and having the focus on local food. There is not a negative to that, but a younger generation hasn't let learned about why they should care about what is in their food. Vermont of all places has a stronger suit in being able to provide that education. A excerpt from the article states: 

"This is a huge step toward real local control — building local food systems through awareness and knowledge about the food we eat everyday. It seems logical that we would want to know what we can about our food and have free access to local, fresh, healthy food."

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So how is it we get people to care about what is in their food? The main point the article brings up is how not all organic is created equal. Getting a better sense of awareness toward learning about what is in the food you eat will make you double check on what exactly the product contains. There have been issues in recent years on the topic of raw milk. 

"It turns out that not all fresh local food is created equal, and raw milk is one such product. Only in recent years has it been legal to sell raw milk at all, largely thanks to the efforts of Rural Vermont (www.ruralvermont.org), and then only under tight constraints including a limit of 25 quarts per day, and only on the farm."

Now how would you realize this issue without doing a bit of research? It requires more than just walking into the local convenience store and grabbing a gallon of milk. Its an important topic to discuss particularly those who are younger so they learn that by putting in a conscious effort and taking control they can make sure they are fully aware of what is in their food. For more on this and the full Times Argus article: Click Here

Christopher Wagner, Burlington Farmers Market Interview

Main Four to Six Interview Questions: 

If you could please state your name and title? If you could also spell it for me that would be great! 

      Christopher Wagner, market manager for the Burlington Farmers Market

How did you get involved in Burlington Farmers Market? How long have you been a part of it?

      I have been with the market for 7 years now and they were looking for a site manager to run the day to day operations when I got hired. I got accepted as the site manager and then someone who ran the behind the scenes stuff left so I got asked to take on more behind the scenes responsibilities too. I work with both the summer and winters markets, I also have culinary backgrounds working in kitchens which helped me get the job, I knew where the vendors where coming from.

In your own words can you please define what sustainable living is? How does this pertain to households and local farms?

      It is making those conscious decisions everyday about your impact on the environment, and even on your own little world and the bigger picture. It's making decisions that are right for you. Everyone might have a different idea of what that means to them and have their own definition. In regards to the farmers market, my job at the market is to provide an opportunity for those vendors and what they envision it to mean, and for the customers too. I am like a go-to bring those two groups together. 

How prominent do you feel that sustainable living and local foods is in Vermont? How do you feel Vermont would be without it?

      I have been here 10 years but it would be hard to imagine it any other way. It has really been kind of a safe haven for a long time. Really get back to the earth and it’s one of those untouched areas by pollution or big businesses. I don't know how Vermont would be if it wasn't the way it is now, there would really be no Vermont. 

More Possible Questions:

How long has Burlington Farmers Market had its own farmers' market? Where is it usually held and does it work in coalition with any other markets? How many local farms and businesses does it support and source from?

      We just got done of our 27^th year of the summer market and we are going into the 7^th year of the winter market. The summer market has 94 vendors, and the winter has 54 vendors. The summer one might be able to grow, it depends on the capacity we can hold. The winter market is really maxed out. We have done head counts with NOFA-VT before and we had a count of about 8,000 people walk through in the summer market but now on a busy day in the summer we might have about 10,000 people. We do have a lot of tourists so vendors sometimes cater to that crowd, same with college students. It’s interesting to see the different groups of people that come in whether to hangout or to just grab their produce and go. The Rutland market and Norwich market are big but ours has to be up there. 

How beneficial do you feel that it is having an organization such as a farmers' market in the community?

      It's one of the largest aspects that community has because we are that avenue for people. We do have City Market and other great places and groceries but to have that interaction with the farmers themselves is huge. They work all week long and they come and you are buying the food from the actual farm. I think that is huge but when you are handing them that money, it might be expensive, but you are handing it to the person who raised that. Its huge that there is no middle man between you and the person who created that product. It s a huge culture here and Vermont, it has been here for a long time, and now its spreading across the country which is hard to argue about. Its hard to say that wouldn't be an asset to the community. 

Strolling of the Heifers Interview

   Stacey Conn – General Manager

   Orly Munzing – Founder & Executive Director

Orly:

Heifers is from the German word and are cows, as you know cows are inseminated these days artificially. Until a heifer has a baby, and its provides milk for its baby it is called a heifer, once it has the baby and feeds it milk it is cow.

The Story: I am the founder, and the executive director and I came up with the idea. It has been about 14 years close to 15 years ago since I started it. I was walking with husband on our lovely trails which connect to a beautiful orchard in Dummerston, Vermont called Millard orchard. We have walked trails for years, so about 17 years ago I stopped and talked to my farmer neighbor Dwight Miller and I felt guilty we were his neighbor and enjoyed what was around and we did nothing. I thought to myself you do all the work and we just enjoy it. What is it we can do? At the time I was a consultant and I chose to live in Vermont for a better quality of life when raising my kids. He said you know what (in his Vermont slang), “You do this, why don’t you go tell all your friends that they need to start supporting local farmers because if you like seeing this, you won’t see it in 10 years.” I went home and looked at the news and statistics, and it really hit home. Later, I was entertaining merchants at my house for a casual dinner and listening to conversation and noticed that they all were talking about how the town needed to be rejuvenated, what is it we have that no one else has? We have abundance of cows. At 19 I visited Spain and visited this small little town in 1972 where they had the running of the bulls. I said to my friends at that table; want to put Brattleboro on the map? I looked to capture people’s attention. Why don’t we stroll a bunch of cows down the street to capture people’s attention, and supporting farmers and connect people with the food they eat? I went to Dwight with the idea and asked him what he thought. “Best idea I have heard since mom’s apple pie,” he told me. Dwight had a big personality. He then went to a meeting about this rejuvenation of the town and mentioned the idea there. The local paper covered it in about one paragraph and then it went viral, everyone loved it and kept calling Dwight about it. “I am going to have them call you, and tell them that you are going to do it for me in June,” he said. I said June? That soon? But it happened so fast. I was everywhere with the news and media, took a bunch of heifers to NY with me to go on the news. It was crazy.  Strolling of the Heifers is really an engine that supports all the work that is done. \

We raise money and every two years the giving of the money changes. Regards to farmers in the early stages we also wanted education for kids about farms. We ran program for this for 5 to 6 years. Now there is huge initiative almost across the country with connecting school to food education which we support and try to do. Being an educator I knew I would have to do that through the back door. Then we started the Beginning Farmers Program which went on for 2 years and has now been taken over by other programs. And now there is a career center that has an agriculture program and has helped developed careers. We then moved to agriculture microloans since 40% of new farmers and 20% of old farmers can’t take loans because most banks don’t understand the lifestyle. We worked with banks which were a process but it was around $10,000 – $15,000 loans. This included a few banks in VT NH Mass and Maine. It raised a lot of money and we realized it is a good investment, made for a lot of success and many programs are still running. This became a way farmers could show a history of good borrowing success. – Sustainable. Once we could catapult that, we moved to the next program which we are on now. We are still now in the process of our Farm Business Plan Competition for our 4^th year. Mostly younger folks start businesses that would support farmers. Big Picture Farmers for example was one of the winners and they worked with goat milk and are now national. Many success stories! Also in the developing stage a farm food incubator accelerated program which is for those who would like to start a agriculture business. They can come to us for consultation, mentoring and connect them to appropriate funding to help get it off the ground.

Very dedicated people working on this organization which is why it is successful, 90% of funding is through sponsorship for the event and parade. Takes place the first weekend in June and beginning of dairy month, all about sustainable culture.

Our Locavore Index is done each year to help states to bring their rating up so they are supporting local agriculture in their state community. It’s a conversation tool and a way to get people to stop and think about what they are doing in personal community.

What is sustainability and sustainable living in your own words?

•  Reason why you want it to be sustainable is because the world at large right now wherever you are is very shaky, every country state and place has this issue. This issue of having control is there. None of us have control of our climate. Every person on this planet can take a stand now and start one step at a time no matter how big or small and take control. They start with the first in industry on this earth which is agriculture. If they start investing in their community, it will have control of what they are doing at the moment, local control is sustainability. Personal sustainability is what I put into myself and the choices I make. It’s a complicated situation but to me it is having control of choices and those I make in my personal lifestyle and community.

 What do you think Vermont would be like without this focus on sustainability?

•  Like Vermont, its every state. It is such an important issue that it is a world issue. VT is clearly a leader in our country but when you step out of the continent there are the same issues. We all have to as citizens of this earth take action in our local community. Its important issue for VT but also other states.
•  For a small state and a small population, we accomplish and prosper a lot and successfully. That is why people choose it because of the land and quality of life. But go to other states and talk to these issues they might just talk about dollars and cents.
•  People are realizing more about the food that is going into their body and of their health. By the way statistically, Vermont has more farms now than it ever did before. But the farms have changed. There are more boutique type farms such as a 4 to 5 acre farm selling herbs. Large farms not so much as opposed to smaller second income farms. Close to 3000 farmers but not as large. There are not many dairy farms left; you probably can just count them on two hands. Lots of dairy producers having tough times getting milk from VT because VT can’t produce dairy that they used to.

Strolling of the Heifers has a lot that are sources and sponsors, we have a estimate of probably more than 400.

We have put Vermont on the map nationally and internationally. We have Facebook friends from all over and it is great how we are totally connected.

     Stacey-

     

     What I have seen and heard from some people we get tremendous feedback from work we do. Also run programs around The River Garden where they can promote businesses they can come in and talk about an area of interest they have. A free event for participants which creates a community forum kind of place and a springboard for businesses. We are connecting also a lot of local artists to the public that comes to visit us. It starts a great conversation! It is preserving the community here in town and drawing attention to great efforts put on by other organizations, helps connect community members to each other. “Support local economy and local farms – mission of Strolling of Heifers.” People are paying attention to what is going on here and there has never been anything like it. 
     

      The River garden is new and brand new building, we have become the ambassadors for sustainable agriculture we invite people and it is really good community values here. What it is about, slowing down and supporting business- Orly