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January 12, 2007: In Vermont, collaborative
efforts amongst community members, non-profit organizations,
retailers and local farmers are broadening the appeal of local
products to more consumers through targeted education and
improved accessibility.
“Buying Local” is not a new trend in Vermont.
The grandparents of “woodchucks” (the real Vermonters,
i.e. people with at least three generations in the state),
remember local food as a necessary staple. Maple syrup and
honey were cheaper than conventional white sugar. Apples were
the available fruit, while oranges were a Christmas stocking
delicacy. Seasonal game shared amongst families and friends
was the main source of protein.
“In the early twentieth century, many immigrants who
came to Vermont from the cities to work in the woolen mills
and granite quarries continued to grow their own garden plots,
foraged wild greens, and bought animals whole from local farmers,”
explains Melissa Paesen, food writer for the Burlington Free
Press, northwestern Vermont’s daily newspaper. “The
immigrant ethic went well with the New England do-it-yourself,
self-sufficient farming ethic. You grew or made what you could
and nothing was wasted.”
Because of the media buzz about it, many consumers now think
of local food as a specialty product, purchased at cooperative
markets for prices often higher than the similar commercial
product.
“When it comes down to it, local food isn’t any
more expensive than the food that most people buy at the deli
during a lunch break at work,” says Dave Zuckerman,
an organic vegetable farmer and chairman of the Vermont legislature’s
agricultural committee. “What’s really important
is educating people to realize, 'Okay, this food is tastier,
better for you, and equally priced, if not cheaper than my
lunch. I just have to take the time to make it myself.'”
Efforts under way in Burlington show that it takes a community
to build a local food system and lots of different strands
to allow people to take first nibbles or big bites of local
food, depending on their knowledge, motivation and economic
ability.
Hybrid co-op reaches out
A drive through the downtown area of Burlington, a progressive
city seated above Lake Champlain, reveals a single grocery
store, the community-owned City Market (www.citymarket.coop).
Its presence shows what some talking and planning can do to
create new food options—and how new models take time
to develop.
When a commercial supermarket chain closed its downtown store
in order to open a bigger store several miles outside the
city center, Burlington leaders had a choice. There was a
strong bid from a commercial competitor and interest from
the smaller Onion River Cooperative market housed in a less-appealing
part of town.
The marketability of a community-owned cooperative in the
center of an already alluring downtown pedestrian marketplace
had obvious appeal. Some argued, however, that a cooperative
market would isolate the elderly and low-income citizens who
counted on a commercial market for many of their needs, which
were different than those of the co-op’s customers.
The skeptics believed a city cooperative would sell a more
expensive product, offer reduced selection, and hence, appeal
less to residents of the community.
A compromise was reached that created the City Market concept.
The lease agreement with the city allocates 70 percent of
the market’s shelves for organic unprocessed foods to
serve the co-op’s membership. The remaining 30 percent
of the shelves contains conventional groceries, priced competitively,
to meet the needs of the general downtown community.
Five years after its inception in 2002, the City Market contains
enthusiastic and vibrant college students working the cash
register while organic-conscious consumers contentedly stroll
the aisles. The store’s website boasts that 73 percent
of the store’s vendors are located in Vermont and that
60 cents of every dollar in sales stays in Vermont. Yet the
customer profile fails to reflect the diversity of the Burlington
community.
When questioned about this impression, Jodi Harrington,
public relations representative for the City Market, explains:
“It’s an absolute issue and absolute challenge
to make our market more accessible to the broader community.
But it has to be done.”
Several efforts to ensure that the market welcomes diverse
members of the community include lunches with the elderly,
additional television advertising and machines for bottle
recycling, which Harrington contends is “a seemingly
insignificant measure, but a necessary part of the process.”
Harrington speaks with encouragement of the “thirty
percent annual increase in the food stamps that come through
the store each year,” but contends, “The local
paper gave us a C minus on this type of work; we have to do
better.”
The City Market is a relative success, but it demonstrates
the difficulty of expanding local food marketing into the
homes of community members where convenience and price remain
top concerns. Reaching a diverse range of community members
may take effort, but it brings a lot more local dollars to
the marketplace.
Linking the farmer to the community
“Good old fashioned entrepreneurship” is how
Hank Bissel of the Lewis Creek Farm in Starksboro, Vermont,
defines the solution for expanding local food. “A good,
consistent product and consistent delivery is really what
it takes.”
Bissel has owned and operated Lewis Creek Farm since 1981.
The 150-acre farm is located in a picturesque valley at the
foot of the Green Mountains, 20 miles southeast from Burlington.
Lewis Creek runs through 50 acres of lush river bottom soil.
The farm’s produce includes potatoes, spinach, carrots,
lettuce, tomatoes, cabbage, broccoli, fresh herbs and squash.
Though not a certified organic farm, the crops are either
unsprayed or come in contact with organic sprays.
Bissel is an active member of the state’s farming community
and has been president of the Burlington Farmers’ Market
for more than two decades. The market works with the Farm
to Family program to provide lower-income community members
with food stamps used to purchase produce at the farmers’
market. This expands local-food access for that sector of
the community.
Several of the vendors at the Burlington Farmers’ Market
also accept Burlington Bread Currency, implemented by the
Burlington Currency Project (www.burlingtoncurrency.org)
in an attempt to help small businesses and farmers by encouraging
exchanges between community members. The idea is that a local
currency will forge a central exchange for trading locally
produced and supplied products and services while also promoting
visible loyalty to the community.
Since the currency is backed only by shared confidence, however,
many farmers and businessmen—including Bissel—do
not currently accept it.
Bringing the farm to the school
Both the City Market and the farmers’ market have
helped to raise community awareness for buying local food.
A collaboration of food and farm groups has tapped into another
significant community resource, the public schools.
Vermont’s FEED program (Food Education Every Day www.vtfeed.org)
is a partnership of Food Works, the Northeast Organic Farming
Association of Vermont (NOFA-VT www.nofavt.org),
and Shelburne Farms (www.shelburnefarms.org).
It works with school districts to provide local food in cafeterias
and agricultural education. This is a sound market for obvious
reasons, including the fact that what a child learns in school
often generates discussion and interest at the family dinner
table.
VT FEED works with schools and communities to raise awareness
about healthy food, the role of Vermont farms and farmers
and good nutrition. It acts as a catalyst for rebuilding healthy
food systems and serves to cultivate the links between the
classrooms, cafeterias, local farms and communities.
“When we present programs at schools, we have been
told that student attendance always goes up and that visits
to the planning room go down,” says Dana Hudson, the
enthusiastic program coordinator for FEED, “The kids
really look forward to it.”
Bissel, of the Lewis Creek Farm, credits FEED for helping
to introduce his farm to school students. Currently, Bissel
is active with several school districts and Middlebury College.
“Each school district is completely different,”
he says. “It’s difficult to sell your product
as a farmer to schools; it helps a lot to have someone more
active in the education community to market its benefits for
you.”
His interaction with schools has taught him that people are
starved for a connection to the land. “They want a good
story that makes them feel closer to the farm and the product.”
Community enterprises
A visible and active example local agriculture building
economic opportunity is the Intervale Farm in Burlington,
which exists under the non-profit Intervale Center (www.intervale.org).
Its mission is to develop both farm and land-based enterprises
that generate economic and social opportunity while protecting
natural resources.
This productive landscape, lying within the city limits,
has been an agricultural parcel for more than 10,000 years
due to its location on a flood plain—with a short stint
as the city dump before a rejuvenation project restored the
land.
The Intervale participates in a farms-to-school program called
Growing Farms-Growing Minds. This collaborative effort helps
teachers develop food-based curricula that use food, farms
and nutrition to meet the Vermont Framework of Standards.
Today, 12 small, local organic farms in the Intervale Farms
Program provide a diverse range of Vermont residents with
about 6 percent—or 500,000 pounds—of their fresh
produce needs per year.
Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) at the Intervale and
around the state is another successful local-food economic
stream, linking households to a particular farm for the CSA
season.
The CSA commitment to buy a weekly delivery of what’s
in season where you live is a strong step toward a new partnership
between families and farmers, one that doesn’t suit
all households. Intermediate steps—retail stores, schools,
farmers’ market and restaurants—increase access
and attention to local food that can draw more food into the
local economy. When they are done well, the flavor, stories
and benefits of eating local will increase opportunities for
more local food more often in more places. 
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