We are stronger and more vibrant when we live and work in solidarity with one another
Every Vermont farmer should have equal right to prosper
Farming can heal the land
Farmers are health care providers
All Vermonters should have access to locally produced, nutrient dense food
Healthy soil makes healthy humans
On April 17, we mark the International Day of Peasant Struggles, an annual action day that brings rural communities together around the world to honor the ongoing struggle and resistance of agrarian workers everywhere in their pursuit of justice, dignity, and food sovereignty.
In Vermont, we commemorate this day during a week where we have witnessed Palestinian man Mohsen Mahdawi detained in Colchester during a scheduled citizenship interview, despite his decade long status as a lawful U.S. permanent resident, an arrest that Vermont federal delegation Sanders, Welch, and Balint have called “immoral, inhumane, and illegal.” This detention occurred as protesters gathered to condemn the arrest and detention of Tufts doctoral student Rümeysa Öztürk from Turkey, who was taken into custody by US Homeland Security agents in plain clothes and brought to Vermont before landing in an ICE detention center in Louisiana.
Also this week, agrarians gathered for a Farmer Day of Action outside of USDA offices in Middlebury to speak about the impact of USDA program cuts, tariffs, and the immigration stresses on themselves as farmers and farmworkers.
There is a continued need to stand up for ourselves, our friends, neighbors, and demand justice, dignity, and safety for our communities during a dangerous time where our constitutional rights are at stake. We encourage our network to show solidarity and for each individual to take mindful steps within your reach. Our work here in Vermont is part of and connected to an unwavering global fight for farmer and farmworker rights, and against genocides, wars, violations of people's sovereignty, constitutional rights, and the corporate control and domination over our food system.
Rural Vermont stands with Vermont farmers and farmworkers, alongside La Via Campesina, the international movement of peasants, youth, women, men, and diversities, migrants, rural and landless agrarian workers, fisherfolk, and indigenous peoples, who come together in unity with hope, connection, and unwavering determination to confront the multifaceted crises agrarian communities face here at home and around the world.
The Vermont Cannabis Equity Coalition (VCEC) is a coalition of Vermont not-for-profit, member based organizations representing thousands of Vermonters: the Vermont Racial Justice Alliance, Rural Vermont, Vermont Growers Association, Green Mountain Patients’ Alliance, and the Northeast Organic Farmers Association of Vermont. We share a vision for a cannabis economy in Vermont which is racially just, economically equitable, agriculturally accessible, and environmentally sound.
This is an opportunity for you to indicate your support for the recommendations of the VT Cannabis Equity Coalition - all of which have been deeply informed by our work with a variety of affected constituencies over time. Please read our recommendations in more detail here. More broadly, these recommendations include: 1) industry and community reinvestment, 2) direct sales for small producers, 3) treating cannabis like farming, 4) complete and cost-free cannabis expungement, 5) public consumption wherever lit tobacco is allowed, 6) increasing home-grow allowances, 7) positioning the administration of eligible conditions and oversight of the medical cannabis program under the Cannabis Control Board by re-establishing the Symptom Relief Oversight Committee.
If you are in support, please take the opportunity to sign the letter to Vermont State Senators and Representatives.
This Legislative Crossover Update provides a comprehensive overview of current bills that are relevant to the agricultural community (our legislative team monitored 38 bills this year!). Check out the Table of Contents to learn about the bills that are of most interest to you. There are two sections in this legislative update: bills that made the “crossover” deadline and remain active this legislative session, and bills that did not make the deadline to complete the legislative process in this year. There are a number of House bills related to agriculture that were introduced late this session that could move next year. Because of the two year legislative biennium, bills that didn’t move this year still have a chance to pass in the 2026 session.
We hope you can join us! Vermont’s ability to feed itself relies on thriving community scale farms working together towards food sovereignty and community resilience. We hope Join us Saturday, April 12 from 10-3pm at the Sharon Food Justice Garden for a tree digging work brigade! The Sharon Food Justice Garden was established as a collaborative project between the Regeneration Corps, the Sharon Academy and the Sharon Food Pantry to increase local food security while creating a teaching garden for local youth and community members.
Work brigades are a popular education tool used around the world to strengthen communities and build trust and solidarity through collective labor, connection, mutual aid, and knowledge sharing. Agroecological education will be provided by special guest Buzz Ferver, founder/owner of Perfect Circle Farm in Berlin VT and a long time naturalist who has been growing and propagating trees for over 45 years. Come learn about the Vermont People’s Agroecology School, the Sharon Food Justice Garden, and agroecology as a social, political, and ecological movement building tools to grow community resilience and food sovereignty.
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“The continuous and often brilliant efforts that Rural Vermont provides to our agricultural community, by not only exploring the impacts of current research, policies and politics on that community, but also speaking out to those that create those policies so they might be better informed about what they are doing. This is a key role for the Vermont community at large if we are to keep our working landscape and its farmers successful.”
