Committee drafts appropriations letter urging higher funding for food security, conservation districts and working-lands programs

The Agriculture, Food Resiliency & Forestry committee reviewed a draft letter to the Appropriations Committee that recommends restoring or increasing funding for multiple agriculture and food-security programs and asked staff to finalize language before a formal vote, which the committee postponed until the chair returned.

The draft letter seeks to transmit the committee’s priorities—requests heard during testimony and discussion—to appropriators. Members discussed specific dollar figures, where they appear in the governor’s recommended budget, and which asks are intended as base funding versus one-time support.

Committee members focused on several specific items: a small-farm diversification program that committee members said was cut to a $150,000 pilot after an original $500,000 request; a Natural Resources Conservation Council (NRCC) request for $3,000,000 to stabilize district workforce capacity (members noted last fiscal-year base funding of $612,000 plus a one-time $100,000); and a Vermonters Feeding Vermonters request that…