Appendix A: Enabling Legislation
Download Appendix A (PDF 110K)
Governor Peter Shumlin signs Mutual Benefits Corporation legislation (Act 84) into law in 2012. Photo: VSJF
Appendix A provides the enabling legislation that instructed VSJF to create a strategic plan for agricultural economic development by gathering existing data, studies, and analysis about the components of Vermont’s food system.
Over the past 10 years, a growing movement in sustainable agriculture—involving increased local food production and consumption, value-added processing, and diversified farms—has taken off. During the 2009 legislative session, two member-based public policy organizations, Vermont Businesses for Social Responsibility and Rural Vermont, and a number of state legislators (including Representatives Chris Bray, Will Stevens, Carolyn Partridge, Shap Smith, Bill Botzow, Martha Heath and Senators Vince Illuzzi, Sara Kittell, Susan Barlett and Peter Shumlin) crafted and helped win legislative approval for the creation of a Farm to Plate Investment Program (F2P). It was approved by the Senate and House in May 2009 and signed by Governor Douglas, as Sec. 35. 10 V.S.A. chapter 15A § 330. The legislation tasked the Vermont Sustainable Jobs Fund (VSJF), in consultation with the Vermont Sustainable Agriculture Council (SAC), with crafting a strategic plan based on a broad scope of work.
The primary outcomes of the legislation are to:
1. Increase economic development in Vermont’s food and farm sector.
2. Create jobs in the food and farm economy.
3. Improve access to healthy local foods.
By Dominique Giroux, Vermont Agency of Agriculture, Food, & Markets Prevention versus reaction. For the produce industry, these words have become the backbone of a federal regulation that shifts the focus of our national food safety system from responding to foodborne illness to preventing it. The Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA)…
Local kids line up for lunch at Roosevelt Park in Burlington
Photo: Hunger Free Vermont
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Kelsey and Phelan O'Connor
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Johnson State College Staff at Peaslee’s Potatoes in Guildhall, VT
Photo: NOFA-VT
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Meat processing in Vermont
Photo: Over the Hill Farm
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Greenhouses at new Mighty Food Farm location in Shaftsbury
Photo: Mighty Food Farm
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Food preparation skills are developed through cooking for Meals on Wheels in the Cornucopia program in the NEK.
Photo: NEK Food System Plan
Written by Taylar Foster The Northeast Kingdom Food System Plan was re-released in December of 2016, marking a substantive update to Vermont’s only regional food system plan. The Center for an Agricultural Economy, the Northeastern Vermont Development Association, and a steering committee composed of Northeast Kingdom cross industry experts and social…
School Lunch at Edmund's Middle School
Photo: Hunger Free Vermont
Written by Alida Duncan Hunger Free Vermont’s vision is for Vermont’s school cafeterias and classrooms to be a welcoming place where all kids equally share meals together, and that school provide a learning lab for healthy eating—including exposure to local foods and creating localvores for life. This vision aligns with Vermont’s…
Happy consumer at Nea-Tocht Farm during last year's Breakfast on the Farm
Photo: UVM Extension
Written by Julie Smith, UVM Extension, Animal and Veterinary Sciences and Ted Ferris, MSU Extension, Animal Science The first Vermont Breakfast on the Farm event gave consumers and farm neighbors a first-hand look at modern food production. Hosted by Nea-Tocht Farm in Ferrisburgh in August 2015, the event was organized and…
The Vermont Tech greenhouse with nutrient management specialist Sosten Lungu (right)
Photo: Vermont Higher Education Food System Consortium
Written by Vicky Tebbets Students from around the country plunged into a whirlwind tour of Vermont last June with one goal: immersion in Vermont’s food systems. For 21 intensive days they traveled 404 miles, learned from leaders at five colleges, one university, and a law school, and spent 54 afternoon hours…
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