Vermont farmers, advocates urge lawmakers to back S.60 Farm Security Fund after repeated flood losses

At a committee hearing, farmers and farm-support organizations told the Agriculture, Food Resiliency & Forestry Committee that the state should create a standing Farm Security Fund through S.60, the Farm Security Act, to provide fast, reliable aid to producers hit by extreme weather.

The measure is meant to give farms a predictable source of emergency support so they can replant, keep employees, and preserve local food systems. "Iwant to say the hope is that farmers aren't expected to carry the risk of extreme weather events on their own," said Hillary Martin, co-owner of Diggers Mirth Collective Farm in Burlington, adding that the farm lost its entire crop in both 2023 and 2024 flood events.

Why it matters: Witnesses said federal programs and available insurance are inadequate for Vermont's small and diversified operations, and that ad hoc philanthropy and one-off grants are not a sustainable backstop. "In 2023, using the BGAP formula the state provided, I calculated my crop and equipment losses from the July storms to be $84,647. On 07/02/2025, I received my USDA net payment for…