Editor’s note: This commentary is by Jostein Solheim, of Shelburne, who is the CEO of Ben & Jerry’s.
[R]egeneration Vermont and members of the Franklin Watershed Committee invited a team from Ben & Jerry’s to tour Lake Carmi and the surrounding watershed last week. They found it tragic to see the polluted condition of this usually beautiful lake, which is currently experiencing the worst cyanobacteria bloom in recent memory. The condition of the lake, the hardship it’s forced upon local residents and businesses is, well, heartbreaking.
Ben & Jerry’s recognizes that we are connected to the farms in the Lake Carmi watershed. Our Caring Dairy farm program, which we implement through the St. Albans Cooperative, has members in the Lake Carmi watershed. Caring Dairy focuses on regenerative agricultural practices for building soil health including cover cropping; no-till and rotational crops; cleaner water, improved nutrient management, and healthier animals; reducing chemical use; reducing the farms’ carbon footprint; and providing for a more dignified livelihood for farmers and farmworkers. While we’re proud of the work that’s been done over the years, there is obviously more that we must undertake together.
To improve conditions at Lake Carmi and in watersheds across the state, we need to work collaboratively: neighbors, farmers, co-ops, businesses, and the state of Vermont. We need to ensure that existing regulations are robust enough to protect Vermont’s waterways and are consistently and thoroughly enforced. We need solutions and we commit to working with these stakeholders to chart a path forward that provides a healthy ecosystem for our waterways and environmentally sustainable and economically viable farms. We were heartened to see the state of Vermont’s commitment last week of resources and support for Lake Carmi.
These problems are not ours alone to solve and we cannot do it by ourselves, but we believe we can help to catalyze this effort. It starts with our renewed vision for dairy farming in Vermont that is built upon strong, measurable and verifiable standards for regenerative agriculture, farmer well-being, farmworker rights, herd health, and environment sustainability. We’ll have many more details of our vision for the future of our farms soon, and we hope and expect to be held accountable for achieving the standards we set. In the short term, we propose to come to the table with these stakeholders to understand what we can do to address the urgent crisis of Lake Carmi. We commit to supporting the farmers and dedicating the resources to ensure changes are made and these conditions improve. We look forward to working together.
