Read Now! The Executive Summary of the PES & Soil Health Working Group's final report outlines their consensus against creating a new program to measure or model units of ecosystem services that would be traded on a market to offset and carry on with pollution across the globe. Instead, the group noticed that there already is a federal Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) program, the Conservation Stewardship Program (CSP), that is rewarding regenerative agricultural practices but has very few Vermont farms enrolled - so far. The working group will soon launch a pilot Vermont Farmer Ecosystem Stewardship Program to enhance CSP with additional payments after completion of application and planning phase so that farms feel the benefits right away and not years into the implementation phase.
Thanks to NOFA-NH and Seacoast Permaculture for hosting the recent Food and Climate Panel including many Rural Vermont Board members and our Legislative Director Caroline Gordon! As we see the encroachment of investor backed, market based efforts which sell themselves as addressing climate change and contributing to the economic viability of farms and rural communities - we must recognize and confront these efforts as false solutions, and push for solutions which are driven by communities themselves and which directly affect the reduction of fossil fuel emissions and other environmental pollutants from the principle polluters, and which affect the broader structural changes related to economic, social, and political equity we need for our communities and farms to be healthy and just.
Phrases, concepts, and programs such as “off-sets”, “net zero”, “natural asset companies” (NACs) or “natural asset trusts”, corporate farmland acquisition subsidiaries marketed as “socially responsible investments” (such as TIAA’s subsidiary Nuveen which the State of VT invested $100 million of VT pensioners’ money into) do not require the reduction of emissions or pollutants, do not require the equitable participation or treatment of local communities in relationship to their lands / waters / natural resources and human rights, and rather than bring accountability to the primary creators and perpetrators of global climate change and inequity, they create further opportunities for them to create new asset classes, further profit economically, and extend further disproportionate influence and control over the lives and resources of communities around the world. This slide presented by the Regenerative Food Network at the 2022 Farm to Plate Gathering explicitly belies the primary motivations and intentions of investors to assign monetary values to “nature’s economy” - an investment opportunity many times the size of the existing economy:
These are concepts and programs with frightening real world consequences for communities locally and globally. Equitable tax policies, anti-trust enforcement, essential social welfare policies (healthcare, childcare, eldercare, housing, etc.), improved and cooperative programs for farmers, repairative policies for communities who have been disproportionately and historically harmed and discriminated against, price parity reforms, land reforms and many other efforts which are directed by and center the needs of people and the environment and which reclaim the agency and wealth of the public sector and the local and global commons are what Rural Vermont, our national allies at the National Family Farm Coalition, and our international allies at La Via Campesina understand to be meaningful and appropriate approaches to addressing climate change and a just transition.
Rural Vermont’s mission makes clear that our work is grounded in assuring the essential needs and health of our communities locally - and human and non-human communities around the world. Connecting the people we work with, and the issues they face, with global communities and allied organizations and the issues they face is essential to realizing food sovereignty, and is a growing part of our work at Rural Vermont. Producers and communities all over the world are affected by many of the same global policies and dynamics which marginalize and disempower producers in Vermont. Two of the primary organizations who work globally which we are members of are the National Family Farm Coalition (NFFC) and La Via Campesina (we are members through NFFC, and pursuing individual membership).
In November, Rural Vermont staffers Mollie and Graham and board member Nour traveled to Cuba along with a number of Rural VT members as delegates to the 8th annual International Agroecology Encounter, hosted by the National Small Farmers' Association of Cuba (ANAP), and co-coordinated by La Via Campesina North America, the Caribbean Agroecology Institute, and the Cuba / US Agroecology Network. We traveled to many farms and farming cooperatives, saw presentations from many farmers and researchers, and grew relationships with small farmers, agroecological organizations, and other delegates from all over the world.
Cuba is a global beacon for cooperativism and agroecology and its many decades of social, economic, and land reforms are also important and unique aspects of Cuba to understand. Agricultural producers are centered in the Cuban economy and politics - it is a constant refrain that “we want farmers to be able to farm”, meaning that cooperatives and the state substantially support distribution, processing, markets, and other needs connecting food production to its consumption.
However, Cuba is sadly in an economic crisis - largely due to the United States’ reimposed and strengthened sanctions (often referred to in Cuba as the “blockade”), sanctions which have been condemned yearly by a nearly universal vote at the United Nations (aside from the US and Israel) for 30 years. This blockade - like others like it around the world - intimately and pervasively affects the abilities of everyday people to live sovereign, healthy lives.
In the coming months, look for more community outreach from Rural Vermont around our time in Cuba and getting involved in exchange and solidarity with Cuban farmers. And look for more information on the formation of a VT Agroecology School - which will continue this thread of internationalism, farmer to farmer based education, and cooperativism.
For some quick introductions to Cuba and Cuban agroecology - see this short film from Belly of the Beast (which includes Rural VT member farmer Tom Gilbert).
Members Critique Power Push to Use Ecosystem Services as a Market Solution for Pre-existing Shortfalls
The last PES (Payment for Ecosystem Services) and Soil Health Working Group meeting finally addressed what had been unspoken - the increasingly clear power dynamic tailoring the development of new programmatic solutions in agriculture addressing climate challenges to the interests of Big $$. Despite the final decision away from outcome-based solutions, the final report seemingly read to satisfy the interests of private investors. These private investors may still glean lessons from the process and continue to push for market-based solutions that are sound, viable, and regenerative while also addressing the complex issues within the agricultural sector. Didi Pershouse, a VT Healthy Soils Coalition member, offered an initial critique that eventually led to several working group members expressing similar concerns.
Public Comment to the PES WG
Caroline Gordon for Rural Vermont 1/10/23
After 3 years of PES and Soil Health Working Group process a question arose for Rural Vermont. In how far was the PES WG process aware of/ and influenced by Wall Street interests around developing new market assets through monetizing ecosystem services? Throughout the process, the Small Farmer stakeholder group, that Rural Vermont is part of, was advocating for the PES WG process to be a democratic one that is farmer-led. We celebrate that advocacy effort in the unison approach towards improving the Conservation Stewardship Program, an idea that emerged from our group. Before the PES WG closes today, I want to flag that there was a strong continuous push towards establishing a new outcome based solution and that it’s questionable, while not explicit, in how far that push has been informed by private investor networks with access to large capital from international markets like RAIS, the Regenerative Food Network and others. Another indicator for the predominant macroeconomic framework projected often by the PES WG was demonstrated in the way farmer participation was facilitated. Rural Vermont recommended to “Facilitate a Participatory Decision-Making Process with Farmers” in May 2021, submitted with support form Cat Buxton, the White River NRCD, CLF, CAFS and Cedar Mountain Farm. That initiative was not discussed by the PES WG but reduced to a survey that measured the farmers’ “willingness to accept” - a terminology used in the capitalizing nature context. Following the farmers survey around WTA, program development options did not aim to meet that minimum bar of what farmers seek to gain from a PES program. When the PES WG decided against the approach to develop a new outcome based program the farmer input was not helpful anymore. I echo Didi Pershouse who flagged earlier today eloquently how that power dynamic towards market solutions is now being reflected in this critical draft final report and it is a huge relief that the group has been able to address that so constructively today.
While the PES WG will be more or less resolved now, I want to encourage all of us to be more aware about the context of private investors seeking to develop trillions of dollars in assets by capitalizing on nature and how that affects Vermont, our public interests, and those on the ground. Moving forward please join Rural Vermont in dialogue with lawmakers to share what you learned about the complexities and difficulties surrounding agricultural programming, for example surrounding cost share agreements (and so much more), and seek to keep this discourse a public one so that any policy decisions can be farmer-led. I know that most of the working group members entered this process with an open mind, like Didi, Jill, Maddie and Scott shared, they didn’t see a pre-set understanding of what PES means. Along those lines, research like the report from NEED (Coleman, A.F., Machado, M.R. (2022). Ecosystem Services in Working Lands Practice and Policy in the U.S. Northeast: Successes, Challenges, and
Opportunities for Producers and Extension (1st ed). Kansas City: Extension Foundation. ISBN: 978-1 955687-11-9.), about Ecosystem Services in the working lands across the northeast has identified over 1,300 existing programs that benefit ecosystem services that are outside of the commodifying nature context that could be understood as PES programs for that reason - even though they are practice based.
Before I close, I’m excited to share that:
Very soon the qualitative analysis of farmer participation that the Conservation Districts organized with support from UVM and others will be released. Retrospect that documentation will support to advance CSP and the broader effort to take farmers' expertise seriously in addressing other pre-existing shortfalls of existing programs at the root moving forward.
Join Rural Vermont during a NOFA-NH panel discussion on January 18th at around the concerns raised today: Food and Climate Panel: Carbon Market Pitfalls & Better Strategies for Regenerative Organic Farming Practices — Rural Vermont
The PES and Soil Health Working Group reached a consensus at their thirty-first meeting on November 1, 2022, at the VAAFM Williston office to enhance the federal Conservation Stewardship Program with a Vermont enhancement (see photo). This milestone decision now leads the way to finalize the pilot approach recommendation from the Working Group. This approach was chosen after the group expressed a preference for enhancing existing programs. Goals include to enhance payments and enrollment and thereby increase the ability to access more federal funds in the future that could be used to develop a Vermont specific enhancement program.
“This approach would support farms to enroll their whole farm into the CSP program and have their cropland, pastureland, production area, and associated agricultural land be assessed against performance-based stewardship thresholds. State supplemental payments under this approach would initially support farms in their first year of engagement with the CSP program through the ‘resource assessment’ phase, which is a valuable exercise for farms and promotes comprehensive stewardship planning on the farm. Additional state supplemental funds would then compensate farmers for committing to increased stewardship upon execution of the CSP agreement. Finally, additional supplemental payments will be released by the state annually for successful implementation of the CSP plan, which will support engagement in the program over the five years of the agreement.”
Draft Approach 6: USDA-NRCS Conservation Stewardship Program (CSP) With a Vermont State Enhancement (VSE)
For more information please visit the DRAFT pilot approach here and the meeting summary or recording.
For the first time since 2019, Rural Vermont members gathered in person together in Bethel for the Annual Meeting Celebration! The night was dedicated to Carl Russell- farmer, horselogger, poet, Rural Vermont Board Member Emeritus, co-owner of Earthwise Farm & Forest, and beloved friend, family, and community member who passed this spring. Memories, laughs, tears, and photos were shared commemorating Carl’s life. Thanks to a generous donation of mutton from New Grass Farmstead and the hard work of our caterer Willy Walker, we enjoyed shepherd’s pie and an assortment of salads, bread, and more. Drinks were enjoyed, compliments of Babe’s Bar, and beautiful music was played throughout the night by Spencer Lewis. Members enjoyed block printing cards and posters designed by Erok Gillard, including a new design inspired by Carl. There was an incredible silent auction with many incredible items and experiences, including longhorn earrings, overnight stays on farms, handmade knit hats, an original Bread & Puppet banner, an icelandic sheepskin, and more. After a wonderful dinner, members voted to elect new and returning board members. We are excited to welcome new members Amanda Andrews, Earl Hatley, and Stephen Leslie, and returning members John Cleary and Silene DeCiucies to the Rural Vermont Board of Directors! Our policy staff shared Rural Vermont’s current work on an agroecology school, our Quarterly Member Forum series, raw dairy and slaughter workshops, and much more. Thank you to everyone who contributed to and attended our 2022 Annual Meeting. Your support and presence made this a night to remember!
It’s been three years since the Payment for Ecosystem Services Working Group picked up their legislative charges. The group is running out of time, recommendations to the legislature are due by January 2023 and in many ways the direction of program development is still undecided. The group started its process with a vision for a paradigm shift regarding how agriculture is valued in Vermont. At Rural Vermont, we are advocating that PES in Vermont rewards land stewardship that greatly benefits ecosystems AND that these rewards have a meaningful economic value to the farm. Over the past year, the working group has explored how to anchor payments to measurable outcomes (such as soil health or carbon sequestration) through measurement, modeling or observation. It’s desirable to find direct scientific links between land stewardship and ecosystem services, but these approaches will create more work for farmers. Effectively, they would be compensated for the additional work they will be doing to create measurements and records rather than cashing rewards for the actual beneficial land stewardship. In addition, farmers and working group members identify existing shortfalls like a lack of knowledge of existing programs, a lack of overlap and coordination between state and federal programs, the need to duplicate paperwork to enroll, limited amounts of cost-share funds, and limited technical assistance to implement conservation practices with a need to train more staff.
Now, the Small Farmer Group organized by Cat Buxton, that Rural Vermont is part of, developed and shared a draft programmatic proposal that is based on combining and advancing existing programs. The group envisions an online platform that streamlines all program enrollment. This approach aims to ease access to existing programs while also investing into conservation planning through more technical service providers. More efficient technical assistance would support farmers transitioning to advance their land stewardship. The program would issue payments for ecosystem services based on tiered stewardship levels.
The PES Working Group took a poll earlier this week on all programmatic options currently on the table. While there’s neither a clear winner nor a decision made at this point, a majority of the members expressed a preference to assess how to combine existing programs and or how to enhance them instead of issuing a new stand alone program. As a next step, the PES WG is planning to gather more feedback prior to settling on recommendations in November.
Save the date! We look forward to hearing from you, join our next virtual Rural Vermont Quarterly Member Forum on 12/14/22 from 7-8:30pm to share your thoughts on Payments for Ecosystem Services.
In the meantime, check out the Small Farmer Group DRAFT PES proposal:
On September 20th, the Payment for Ecosystem Services and Soil Health Working Group (PES WG) reconvened after a summer break that began in June to consider options on how to invest the $1M in funding secured in the State’s budget. There are five options on the table, and the group is open to creating a hybrid option. Noticeably, none of the options presented meet what farmers indicated they are willing to accept on an annual basis. A decision will need to be made soon on how to spend the $1M already allocated to develop a pilot program. Rural Vermont supports a proposal that would invest the funds to further research how to best streamline existing programs and financial incentives with improving the interface operability of various programs and under consideration of service providers, as well as piloting farm teams that advance whole farm planning together with farmers.
The roadmap for the PES WG throughout the end of the year includes discussing how to best mix and match options for program development throughout September, soliciting feedback in October and starting to shape the cornerstones for the final report to the legislature at the end of November (report due on January 15th). At the September 20th meeting of the PES WG, all options that the smaller summer team discussed were presented and initially discussed. Those include:
One option on the table is to compensate farmers for generating soil health data - with no explicit link to ecosystem services, nor payments for improvements of the same. Rural Vermont is concerned that such a proposal not only doesn’t enhance ecosystem services here in Vermont, but it would pave the way for whomever has the data to sell the information as carbon credits elsewhere! We say NO to FALSE SOLUTIONS to CLIMATE CHANGE as nothing changes when carbon emissions are offset!
More information about farmer survey results from UVM
35 farmer interviews were conducted by a UVM research team for the PES Working Group with an emphasis on acceptable compensation levels and additional bureaucratic burdens for farmers. Farmers like Paul Doton (CRWFA) expressed independently that they feel overburdened and frustrated by the process of enrolling and implementing multiple different programs and practices without sufficient technical and financial support. In a letter to the PES WG sent on 9/19/22, Paul Doton states:
“Fundamentally, we have too many programs to navigate, and they don’t work together - in fact in many ways they negate each other.”
While we’re waiting for the PES WG website to feature a link to the report, you can view and download the full UVM report on farmer interviews now on UVM scholarworks.
Nearly all farmers surveyed indicated that they would weigh administrative workload with perceived program benefits. Aside from the pre-existing focus on soil health, existing programmatic shortfalls and opportunities have not been discussed. Farmers flagged a need for more access to technical assistance, which is in alignment with a Vermont Farm To Plate priority strategy # 12 that recommends funding at least 25 more full time technical assistance providers. The UVM report suggests that a PES program should at the very least compensate farmers for paperwork burdens on a per acre basis. Farmers also voiced concerns about how undifferentiated per acre payment rates across different farm types would favor the participation of farms with more acres and those which were less intensively managed. The PES Working Group originally envisioned a program that would facilitate a “paradigm shift” in agriculture. We support Paul Doton’s expressed vision in this week’s letter to the PES WG:
“What I would like to see come out of the PES Working Group is for farmers to have a clearer picture of what is involved with getting help to begin with, including knowing upfront what the criteria is, what the procedure will be, and having streamlined access to funding. We should be figuring out how to put programs together to get maximum benefits to the farmers and to ecosystem enhancements. Let’s give farmers options, not mandates.
We need to complement federal programs, avoid state-level duplication of efforts, and to build improved communication between agencies and agriculture service providers.”
Along these lines, we expressed support via public comment for investing into more service providers, whole farm planning, tiered stewardship levels and the development of an online platform similar to VT Health Connect that would streamline existing programs and financial incentives in a consumer friendly manner during the ongoing PES WG process.
More on PES Small Farmer Group
Rural Vermont is part of the PES Small Farmer Group that supports an approach that would invest the $1M in research and focus groups with agriculture service providers. Goals are to inform and further develop programmatic improvements that enhance and streamline existing programs and financial incentives to improve soil health, enhance crop resilience, increase carbon storage and stormwater storage capacity, increase biodiversity, and reduce agricultural runoff by also lowering bureaucratic burdens on everyone involved. (See White River NRCD proposal here)
The PES Small Farmer Group includes NOFA-VT (Maddie Kempner), the VT Healthy Soils Coalition (Cat Buxton), Guy Choiniere (Choiniere Family Farm), Stephen Leslie (Cedar Mountain Farm, Cobb Hill Creamery), The White River Conservation District (Jennifer Byrne) Rural Vermont (Caroline Gordon) and more allies and supporters from the farming communities across the grassroots (on farm) and tops (organizations).
The group met throughout the PES WG process to include farmer voices in the decision making process around program development. Aside from promoting educational outreach to farmers to ensure a transparent public process, the group advocated for farmer surveys to inform key elements of program design. Farmers developed and submitted their own visions and ideas with support from the group, such as the CSP+ proposal that Guy Choiniere co-developed and Stephen Leslie’s vision for a VT Soil Health Protection and Restoration Act based on whole farm planning with service providers (read a comparison of these and more farmer concepts submitted here).
We celebrate the publication of the UVM survey before the summer break. The “Results of the 2022 Vermont Farmer Conservation & Payment for Ecosystem Services Survey” will inform the development of a PES program for Vermont.Vermont made historic investments in soil health this session and included $1 million for the development of the state’s Ecosystem Services program in the FY 2023 budget.
We are proud to share that our current Board Member Noah Nour El-Naboulsi made significant contributions in his lead role as UVM Research Assistant in development and rollout of the surrey. More grassroots farmer participation in program development has been an advocacy goal of Rural Vermont and allies since the working groups existence in 2019. Find the report here.
Background about the Payment for Ecosystem Services Working Group and Rural Vermont advocacy and organizing in the realm:
The related Payment for Ecosystem Services (PES) Working Group was established in 2019, had their timeline extended twice and is now approaching the final phase for submitting a programmatic proposal by the beginning of the 2023 legislative Session. The PES working group is charged to present a legislative proposal that outlines how the state can improve soil health, enhance crop resilience, increase carbon storage and stormwater storage capacity, and reduce agricultural runoff through either modifying existing incentives or creating a new, so-called PES, program. This work goes back to an initiative of three farmer watershed groups, The Champlain Valley Farmer Coalition Inc., Franklin-Grand Isle Farmer's Watershed Alliance and the Connecticut River Watershed Farmers Alliance, who were “working together to launch a pilot project hiring farmers to produce better ecosystem services across Vermont.” Upon this initiative, the collaborative working group process was created to develop a program.
Rural Vermont and allies secured seats at the table for representatives of the Vermont Healthy Soils Coalition (VHSC) and diversified farmers. Cat Buxton, who also is a current Rural Vermont board member and the co-founder and board member of the Vermont Healthy Soils Coalition is part of the working group representing VHSC. Cat is also facilitating a group around small farmers and other stakeholders who inform the working group process with programmatic proposals like CSP+ and through public comment. Rural Vermont had also partnered with the White River NRCD and the Center for Agriculture and Food Systems at Vermont Law School to provide an overview of the working groups progress and recommendations on how to move forward early in 2021. Advocacy goals for Rural Vermont always included to ensure any development of a new program is not creating insurmountable bureaucratic costs and burdens for farmers that hinder enrollment or doesn’t pay off for them. Reasons why Rural Vermont took stake in the legislative charges that outline a process based on the assessment of existing programs and financial assessments as well as the opportunity to change or combine those to ease enrollment, and set more functional incentives that would address soil health, enhance crop resilience, increase carbon storage and stormwater storage capacity, and reduce agricultural runoff. Through public comment and sign-on letters (e.g. “Recommendation to thePES & Soil Health Working Group to Facilitate a Participatory Decision-Making Process with Farmers, May 24, 2021) Rural Vermont and allies called upon the working group members early on to ensure the process of program development is led democratically by the working group and based on farmer input. In the future, a good implementation of the Environmental Justice Policy (signed into law as Act 154, 2022) now mandates such “meaningful participation” of those most affected by policy decisions. With this in mind, we celebrate the efforts made to involve farmers strategically in program development and to allocate capacity to UVM to undertake a survey with Vermont farmers on the issue. Stay tuned for a summary of the report in our From The Statehouse Blog soon.
Resources:
UVM report “Results of the 2022 Vermont Farmer Conservation & Payment for Ecosystem Services Survey”
Meeting notes and materials, recordings and registration for upcoming meetings of the PES WG here: PES WG MEETINGS AND MATERIALS | Agency of Agriculture, Food and Markets (vermont.gov)
This year in March, the Payment for Ecosystem Services and Soil Health Working Group picked up their work after their break in 2020. Rural Vermont had used the year off to partner with the White River NRCD and the Center for Agriculture and Food Systems at Vermont Law School to conduct legal research to create an overview of the working groups process to date under consideration of their legislative charges. The CAFS report was shared
with old and new working group members; as well as
to inform the Vermont Commission on Native American Affairs; and
To inform farmers in a subsequent series of farmer discussions on PES led by the conservation districts with critical support from UVM. Rural Vermont provided stipends to compensate farmers for their participation in this format.
At the first working group meeting of 2021, Rural Vermont shared key findings of the CAFS report via public comment.
The findings suggested to not focus on the development of a new program without also generating an inventory of practices and their related financial incentives by existing federal and state programs to enhance soil health and crop resilience, increase carbon storage and stormwater storage capacity, and reduce agricultural runoff into waters as pursuant to its authorizing legislation.
As a fundamental step Rural Vermont also echoed the CAFS report calling on the working group to include the voices of Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) farmers and stakeholders in the process to ensure the proposal incorporates equity and combats systemic racial inequities in our food system. In further collaborations with CAFS and partners, including Conservation Law Foundation, Stephen Leslie (Cedar Mountain Farm), and working group member Cat Buxton (VT Healthy Soils Coalition), Rural Vermont submitted a proposal:
to strategically and equitably survey and include farmer voices in the decision making process; to use some of the unexpected $250K in funding made available through H.315(2021) to facilitate this participatory process; and
to compensate stakeholders for their participation, including farmers and working group members that currently don’t receive compensation.
Excitingly both recommendations are actively being worked on by the working group. The working group approached their work this year from begin on differently and formed three task groups (Economic, Soil Health, Program Development) instead of focusing on webinars. Originally the program development task group began to inventory existing programs and sparked an interest and support for the participatory piece as well. Now both subjects will be part of the limited number of summer projects while the working group itself will reconvene in September. Progress of the other two task groups is about finding the scale on which to measure and act (farm vs. field); a definition and unit price for soil health or other Ecosystem Services - these and more conversations still face a lot of open questions. The good news is that the legislature did extend the working groups timeline for 2022, with legislative recommendations to adapt pre-existing programs and/or to establish new ones due in Jan 2023.
Did you know? About the Vermont Soil Health Policy Network that Rural Vermont co-initiated in fall 2020 to facilitate crosspollination among soil health initiatives? Check out this presentation to the PES & Soil Health working group, presented by Jennifer Byrne (Conservation District Manager of the White River NRCD) for the VT Soil Health Policy Network steering committee. Contact Caroline@ruralvermont.org if you want to get involved.
Rural Vermont noticed that the enabling statute of the PES & Soil Health WG did not include a participatory element and began to raise awareness on the issue via public comment early on as the group reconvened winter 2021. The program development task force soon agreed - a participatory piece could help to inform the PES & Soil Health Working Group process. Together with our partners from the White River NRCD, the Center for Agriculture and Food Systems, Conservation Law Foundation, farmer Stephen Leslie and working group member Cat Buxton, RV presented a recommendation in May on how such a participatory process could look like.
The proposal includes using available funds from H.315 (2021) to facilitate a participatory decision-making process with farmers. The 6-Point Plan also includes values and guiding principles for developing a participatory process. A background section underlines the importance to acknowledge that farmers are not monolithic and that ongoing farmer involvement is needed to ensure decision making is farmer-led. Read the proposal here.
The PES and Soil Health Working Group is reconvening on March 16th, 1-3.30pm -> contact facilitator Elizabeth Cooper ecooper@cbi.org to listen in!
Get an overview of the working groups process and work to date by checking out research that Rural Vermont has partnered on with the White River NRCD and the Center For Agriculture and Food Systems at VLS -> download here.
Next steps? Farmers should design the PES program focussed on soil health! Participate in farmer conversations at your conservation district and request a stipend from Rural Vermont for your participation -> contact Jennifer Byrne at whiterivernrcd@gmail.com.
In collaboration with the VT Releaf Collective, NOFA-VT, and the VT Healthy Soil Coalition, we’re working to amplify farmer and BIPOC voices by offering stipends to BIPOC engaged in soil health policy -> contact caroline@ruralvermont.org and get more info here.