Robb: Farm to Plate Strategic Plan a breathtaking roadmap

Editor’s note: This op-ed is by William Robb.

As I listened to Ellen Kahler, executive director of the Vermont Sustainable Jobs Fund describe how many Vermonters participated in the creation of the Farm To Plate Strategic Plan, breathtaking was the word the that came to mind.

“Breathtaking.” This was the word that came to mind over and over as I attended the release of the Farm To Plate Strategic Plan in Montpelier on a snowy Tuesday.

The plan is breathtaking not just in terms of scope — a set of statewide strategies to be implemented over the next decade that consider the full cycle of Vermont’s food system from soil, through farming, processing, eating and back through to the soil — but also in terms of the depth of the input and development process.

This is a plan that we can trust.

Developed over the past eighteen months by team of researchers and practitioners who digested input from over 1,200 Vermonters, the plan develops a set of strategies that recognizes the centrality of the food system both to Vermont’s economy, to the cherished working landscape that has come to symbolize Vermont, and to our community, the homes and schools where we sit down and share meals with friends, family, and neighbors.

We can trust this plan because it is our own. Eight regional day long summits were conducted across the state by people running food related enterprises from food shelves to seed companies to composting operations. These summits were attended by farmers — from small organic vegetable growers to large-herd dairymen — local food processors, restaurant owners, lunch ladies and feed dealers. A statewide summit, attended by over three hundred people helped clarify, sort and organize the material in a workshop format. Working sessions were held with knowledgeable, committed practitioners, to integrate this input with existing data and develop strategies.

Clearly, this is not an agenda imposed by outside interests, fueled by out-of-state dollars, or promulgated by lobbyists from some industry or another. These are strategies, in fact, that reach back to Vermont’s long agricultural heratige.

Vermont leads the nation in developing our local food supply. From the Intervale Center in Burlington, to RAFFL in Rutland, to Hardwick, the “Town that Food Saved”, we are looked to for our innovations in food production, for our leadership in farm-to-school programs, for innovative business models that make direct connections between growers and eaters, and, for enterprises such as High Mowing Seeds or Intervale Compost that complete the food production cycle as it circles from soil to soil.

The Farm To Plate strategic plan rides this wave. The thirty-three goals extend this work into the next decade. The plan then develops a set of strategies that supports these goals by building on what is happening in the fields, farmers’ markets and kitchens across the state.

We are doing this work anyway. But, as Ellen Kahler, executive director of the Vermont Sustainable Jobs fund puts it, “We can go farther and faster with a roadmap.”

The Farm to Plate Strategic plan is a roadmap that is breathtaking in scope. The food system that it maps cycles from farm inputs, through production, processing, distribution, to the table, and through waste management processes, back to the soil — the primary farm input. Throughout this cycle, the Vermont food system involves 10,974 businesses and provides 18.8 percent of private sector jobs.

Like a good roadmap, the Farm to Plate strategic plan makes clear essential connections. That the food system is an driver of the state’s economy is clear, through the numbers above, through the fact that a 5 percent increase in local food consumed by Vermonters could add 1,500 jobs to the state’s economy.

But there are other connections as well — to our children’s health, through improved diet, to improving access to food for working Vermonters, to preserving the farm economy that is at the heart of many Vermont towns, to the environmental stewardship that keeps our working landscape open, productive, our soils healthy and our waterways clear.

Looking at these issues through the lens of local food builds on the broad base of support built via the extensive input process. Local food work is inherently unifying — good food is something that is easy to get behind.

We saw this at the press conference, where leadership from the governor through committee chairs voiced support for the initiatives outlined in the strategic plan, regardless of party affiliation. As Lieutenant Governor Phil Scott put it, “We all share the need to eat.”

Supporting the development of emerging local food system developments across the state to build a food system that provides access to fresh, healthy food for all Vermonters is an inclusive venture. There is a lot of work to be done, and it will take a broad range of talents, interests, and skills to carry it off. There are plenty of places to get our backs into it.

Alignment of all this effort in a system that is inherently grass roots and community based will be a challenge. The eighteen-month conversation behind the current Farm to Plate Strategic plan is only the beginning. This conversation will continue, and will grow over time.

The Vermont Sustainable Jobs Fund has done a tremendous job in providing a framework for these efforts through the Farm to Plate Strategic plan. They have fostered the conversation, given it a workable, practical form, and held out a breathtaking vision of what it could look like as we move forward.