Committee schedules small-farm testimony, neonicotinoid briefing and review of S.45; judiciary asked for ag input

The Agriculture, Food Resiliency & Forestry committee scheduled its next meeting to begin at 9 a.m. with roughly an hour of testimony from small farms and a subsequent presentation on neonicotinoids, committee staff said. The committee also plans to take additional testimony on S.45 later in the day.

Why it matters: the judiciary committee asked Agriculture, Food Resiliency & Forestry to weigh in on agricultural portions of S.45 because the bill includes changes to Title 12 (nuisance), an area where the judiciary has jurisdiction but requested technical input from agricultural experts.

Committee staff flagged that Michael Brady will present an overview of previous neonicotinoid legislation and that Heather Darby, an agronomist with the University of Vermont, will share field-trial results. The committee tentatively scheduled S.45 testimony for 2:30 p.m., contingent on floor activity.

The chair noted the committee received highlighted sections from House Judiciary showing proposed changes and identified two specific edits that drew concern. The chair said one of the edits (page 6, line 14 in the materials shown to the committee) would, in the chair’s view, “annihilate the bill,” while the edit on page 7, line 7 was acceptable to the committee reviewer. Committee members agreed to review the judiciary’s redlines and provide feedback, with no fixed timeline other than the committee’s normal deliberative process.

Ending: The committee confirmed the schedule and said it will reconvene the next day for scheduled testimony and presentations, and will provide feedback to the judiciary committee on agricultural sections of S.45 as available.