Speak Up for Vermont's Working Landscape

Several months ago, the Vermont Council on Rural Development brought together a diverse group of stakeholders, including VNRC, to develop a comprehensive strategy to support local agriculture and forestry, farm and forest entrepreneurs, and the conservation of Vermont’s working landscape far into the future.
The result is the Working Lands Enterprise Investment bill (click here for the bill as introduced) now under consideration in the Legislature.

Momentum is building for this exciting initiative, but we still need your help. Lawmakers need to hear from Vermonters who care about our working landscape and who support state investment in working lands enterprises.

Please consider weighing in at an upcoming public hearing that will take place Wednesday, January 18, 2012 from 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. in Room 11 of the State House. Each speaker will be given two minutes. Written testimony is also welcome.

This bill is about more than just making grants and loans – it’s about systematically combining funding sources and policy to help Vermont’s working lands entrepreneurs.

The bill proposes to:

• Develop a major campaign to celebrate and promote Vermont’s working lands enterprise economy and establish Vermont as the national leader in food systems and innovation.
• Create a fund for start-up businesses, provide a “one stop shop” for support services to new and growing businesses, and fund the infrastructure needed for a strong farm and forest economy.
• Create a board to oversee the Working Lands Enterprise Fund, administer the Working Lands Designation, and coordinate all economic development efforts related to working lands enterprises.
• Allow municipalities to designate “working lands enterprise areas” in their municipal plans, and allow individuals to get farm and forest parcels they own designated, through the Working Lands Enterprise Board.
• Create a new Office of Planning Coordination in the Agency of Administration. The Office would assist the Development Cabinet in fulfilling its duties: to ensure collaboration among agencies regarding economic development activities, while staying true to a growth pattern that supports compact village centers and downtowns surrounded by rural countryside.

For more information about the partnership click here or email Kate McCarthy.