Published on April 6, 2011

Louise Calderwood, the interim head of the Food Venture Center under construction in Hardwick, shows off the facility in a workshop at Saturday’s Farm and Food Summit.LYNDONVILLE — Agriculture has always been a mainstay of the Vermont economy, but the entire enterprise is getting a new look, as agriculture shifts away from fluid milk production.  That was the message given to more than 200 people who attended a day-long Farm and Food Summit at Lyndon State College Saturday.

Seventeen workshops treated matters ranging from how to sell local food to schools and institutions, micro dairy farming, to renewable energy for farming operations.  But if there was an overall theme, it was probably the effort to plan and build a food system for the Northeast Kingdom and for the state as a whole.

Erica Campbell and Heidi Krantz are working on planning food systems for the Northeast Kingdom in a project sponsored by the Center for an Agricultural Economy and the Northeastern Vermont Development Association.

Ms. Campbell said her study has come up with seven proposed goals for a regional food system.

They are:  developing local and affordable sources for agricultural needs, including land and compost; local production of a greater amount andEleanor Leger, one of the owners of Eden Ice Cider, spoke about her plans for a tasting center that would be located in Orleans County and feature locally produced foods. Photos by Joseph Gresser greater variety of foods; strengthening the region’s food processing and manufacturing sector; creating enough storage and distribution facilities to support regional agriculture; ensuring that Northeast Kingdom residents are able to grow, store, and prepare more local food; increased demand for local food through marketing, buy-local campaigns and agritourism; and proper coordination of the elements of the successful food system.

Each goal was followed in Ms. Campbell’s draft report, by suggested targets, with schedules that range from immediate actions to things that will take as long as 16 years to accomplish.

Ms. Campbell said that 90 percent of the people who have taken part in surveys for the project have been extremely positive in their responses.  She acknowledged getting some criticism as well.  Some people complained that locally produced food is not affordable.  One person, she said, objected to the move to create local food systems as “an elitist capitalist movement.”

One new piece of the Northeast Kingdom’s food system is scheduled to open for business in June, according to Ms. Krantz and Louise Calderwood.  That is the Food Venture Center, rapidly reaching completion in Hardwick.

Ms. Calderwood, who is temporarily running the center until a full-time director can be hired, said she hopes that her successor will be chosen in the next week.  The center, which is moving to Hardwick from Franklin County, is designed to give people who want to produce processed food commercially a state-approved space in which to work, as well as warehouse space for the finished products.

The new center will have a bakery, wet pack and dry pack facilities, as well as a test kitchen, Ms. Calderwood said.

A map of Vermont’s food system created by the Vermont Sustainable Jobs Fund, as part as their strategic plan for Vermont’s food system, shows what people working in the state’s agricultural economy do for a living. Chart by Vermont Sustainable Jobs FundMs. Krantz said over 50 potential users, including 12 from the former Franklin County location, have expressed interest in using the new center, which is designed to operate 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

The Cellars at Jasper Hill have signed up as an anchor tenant for the next five years, Ms. Calderwood said.  Not only will they use the space to expand their current Greensboro facility, but they have also committed to training new cheesemakers at a rate of about two a year.

Ms. Calderwood said the center was planned with the idea that there would be a meat processor as the second anchor tenant.  So far, though, no one has been able to come up with the $500,000 that would be necessary to outfit the 2,500-square-foot space.

The Northeast Kingdom study that Ms. Campbell presented is designed to mesh with a statewide project called The Farm to Plate Strategic Plan put together by the Vermont Sustainable Jobs Fund (VSJF), and explained by Ellen Kahler, that organization’s executive director.

Ms. Kahler presented an overview of the current state of Vermont’s farm economy.  She said the study showed the farm economy employs far more people than was previously believed, about 18 percent of the state’s private sector jobs, or about 56,000 workers.

A circular chart showed an inner ring indicating those directly involved in the food economy and an outer ring that listed other occupations that have a more tangential relationship to agriculture.

In the executive summary of an extensive report, the VSJF listed what foods can now be supplied by Vermont farmers at the national rate of average annual consumption.  As one might expect, Vermont produces many times the amount of milk, apples, and maple syrup that an average American consumes in a year.  The state could also be self-sufficient with honey, sweet corn, and pumpkins, but is far from that mark in almost every other category, even when oranges and bananas are taken out of consideration.

Ms. Kahler pointed to these figures as she noted the decline in the dairy business.  “If we lose dairy, the pie can shrink, or the pie could get larger,” she noted.

One of the important factors is making sure that agricultural land remains in production, Ms. Kahler said.  Unfortunately, there has never Vermont Fresh Network director Meghan Sheradin presents a preview of the logo for Dig In Vermont, an organization that will promote culinary tourism in Vermont.been an inventory of farmland that would show how much is available for production and how much is now buried under parking lots or buildings, she said.

Ms. Kahler also said that deep research is needed to make sure that resources are correctly allocated when seeking to increase production in such areas as meat and poultry.

The common impression is that such production is inhibited by the lack of slaughterhouses, she noted.  This may not be correct.

Ms. Kahler said that many existing slaughterhouses use their killing floors only a couple of days a week.  Most cows in Vermont are slaughtered around the same time, she said, and more slaughterhouses would not help that problem.

What may be more important is training more meat cutters, who are in short supply.

Some of the meat and produce brought to market by Vermont farmers ends up served to visitors in area restaurants.

Meghan Sheradin of the Vermont Fresh Network spent her session talking about the idea of creating a culinary tourism website that will guide tourists to establishments that produce or feature Vermont foods.

The site, which is to debut in September, will be called Dig In Vermont, and could feature tours that will take the visitor through different parts of the state and show the variety of cheeses, wines, beers, and other specialties produced in Vermont.

By the end of the day, conference goers, stuffed with information and loaded down with brochures, pamphlets, and fact sheets, staggered out into the afternoon sunshine to contemplate Vermont’s bright agricultural future.