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January 26, 2018 marks the first major compliance date for farms covered by the Food Safety Modernization Act Produce Safety Rule. To assist growers in making on-farm improvements that prevent or reduce produce safety risks, the Vermont Agency of Agriculture, Food & Markets launched the Vermont Produce Safety Improvement Grant Program.

Farm to Institution New England (FINE) has released a four-part series of white papers on the processing of local food products in New England. The white papers were developed to help processors, investors, and policymakers better understand some of the fundamental issues and opportunities that these operations must address to be a success.

The Center for Agriculture and Food Systems at Vermont Law School (CAFS), Northeast Organic Farming Association of Vermont (NOFA-VT), and the Farmers Market Coalition (FMC) proudly launched the Farmers Market Legal Toolkit on Tuesday, January 16th. This Toolkit is an online resource designed to support farmers markets throughout the U.S. by providing market managers with open-source legal tools, and will help farmers market leaders build and grow resilient and accessible farmers markets in their communities, while planning proactively to minimize their market’s legal risk.

The Vermont Agency of Agriculture, Food & Markets (VAAFM) announces the availability of grant funds for the purpose of enhancing the competitiveness of Vermont specialty crops, defined as fruits, vegetables, tree nuts, dried fruits, horticulture crops (including honey, hops, and maple syrup), and nursery crops (including Christmas trees and floriculture).

The Skinny Pancake does away with one of its most popular products due to environmental impact of palm oil.

Apply for the 2018-19 NE Farm to School Institute, Vermont FEED's unique year-long professional learning opportunity for twelve school teams from New England and New York.

The Vermont Community Garden Network is pleased to announce the hiring of Michelle Gates of Westford, Vt. as the organization’s new Executive Director. Michelle joins the VCGN team on Jan. 22 with two decades of nonprofit leadership and development experience, most recently as Senior Vice President of Special Olympics Vermont.

2017 Farm to Plate Annual Report shows successful implementation of Vermont’s food system plan has created need for more farm and food workers to meet food business expansion goals due to increased consumer demand

The Vermont Agency of Agriculture is pleased to announce the availability of up to 60k of funding for Local Food Market Development Grants to assist eligible Vermont farmers, businesses, and value-chain facilitators to grow new and existing markets. To qualify for funding consideration, applicants must be a Vermont producer, agricultural producer group, value-chain facilitator, or non-profit that will directly support Vermont producers’ access to institutional and other in-state wholesale market expansion. Grants will be distributed, through a competitive application review process, for projects that are addressing market access in Vermont institutions, defined as colleges and universities, early childcare and pre-k-12 schools, hospitals, nursing homes, and correctional facilities, and wholesale market access, including restaurants, grocery stores, independent retail, and food co-ops.

ThinkVermont is a state-sponsored campaign designed to spread the word that Vermont is a great place to live, work, and start a business. You can help by becoming a ThinkVermont Ambassador representing the farm and food sector. By sharing a few social media posts per month about the many resources and assets unique to Vermont, you can help expand awareness about our amazing little state.