Vermont growers and bakers urge more grain-processing infrastructure, cite gap left by local mill closure

MONTPELIER, Vt. — At a Feb. 26 hearing convened by the Working Lands Enterprise Initiative, bakery owners, farmers and University of Vermont Extension staff told state officials that Vermont’s small but growing food-grade grain sector needs more shared infrastructure — cleaning, drying, storage and processing — before it can reliably supply regional bakeries and value-added food makers.

The session brought four presenters: Randy George, owner of Red Hen Baking in Middlesex; Heather Darby of the University of Vermont Extension and a founding member of the Northern Grain Growers Collaborative; Seth Johnson of MorningStar Farm in Glover; and Todd Hardy, president of the Northern Grain Growers Collaborative and project lead for the Champlain Valley Grain Center. Elizabeth Sippel, program manager for the Working Lands Enterprise Initiative, opened the hearing and described four grants the program has made to support the sector.

Why it matters: Presenters said demand exists among Vermont and regional bakeries for locally grown, food-grade grain, but multiple missing pieces in the supply chain — local cleaning capacity, accessible milling, coordinated distribution and market data — prevent farmers and processors from scaling. Without centralized services, farmers struggle to find buyers, and bakers face sudden supply disruptions when a nearby processor closes.

Presenters described a chain of recent investments and shortfalls. Sippel said Working Lands has made four targeted investments: a FY2021 supply-chain-impact grant of $75,000 (with a $75,000 match) to a bakehouse in Middlebury Springs to add processing capacity; a FY2022 business enhancement grant of $25,000 (with a $25,000 match) to NEK Grains to buy a mill and renovate its farm store; a roughly $9,000 grant (with a like match) to the Northern Grain Growers Collaborative for strategic planning and outreach; and a $150,000 supply-chain-impact grant to the Champlain Valley Grain Center, which has an approximately $2,500,000 match and is under construction.

Randy George, whose Red Hen Baking has been certified organic for 25 years, said his bakery now sources about "99%" of its grain from three suppliers within roughly 300 miles, and that a Quebec mill supplies roughly three-quarters of the flour his bakery buys. "At one time, Vermont was the largest producer of grain in New England," George said. He and other presenters described a recent, abrupt loss of local cleaning capacity when Champlain Valley Milling, a decades-old operation that performed grain cleaning and roller milling, closed. That closure forced farmers to find used cleaners and to run ad hoc cleaning operations.

Heather Darby, UVM Extension, said the principal constraint to expanding food-grade grain production in Vermont is processing infrastructure and an effective "middle dealer" that can move grain from farms into mills and bakeries. "There's no way to get it from the farm to the bakery," Darby said. She pointed to the Grains Quality Testing Lab at UVM as a local asset that helps producers meet quality standards, but she said that testing alone does not address cleaning, drying, storage or coordinated distribution.

Seth Johnson of MorningStar Farm described his diversified operation (about 450 acres of certified organic hay and field crops, roughly 300 acres of hay and about 25 acres of dry beans) and detailed on-farm processing: a New American Stone Mill-based flour mill, cleaning and a prototype sunflower oil label. Johnson said his farm mills thousands of pounds a month for retail and wholesale bulk customers and uses processing byproducts — bran, screenings and sunflower meal — as higher-value livestock feed, another outlet for imperfect product.

Todd Hardy described the Champlain Valley Grain Center project in Ferrisburg (presented in the hearing as Ferrisburg/Fairsburg), which aims to add drying, cleaning, storage and small-scale distilling and baking capacity. "By buying the grain earlier, we're supporting our mission of supporting grain-farming families, the working landscape, organic agronomy, plants and soil, and jobs," Hardy said. He said the center will also produce malt and whiskey as higher-value products that make paying farmers a higher price more feasible.

Presenters and committee members identified practical priorities for state support: targeted infrastructure grants (bins, dryers, cleaners, presses and shared processing space), help identifying and acquiring used processing equipment, improved distribution links to larger regional markets (Boston, New York) and more market research and data so entrepreneurs and public agencies can estimate demand and plan investments. Sippel and others said Working Lands grants have helped launch projects but that additional, focused infrastructure funding and distribution planning would accelerate scaling.

Costs and numbers discussed at the hearing included the grant awards listed above, a reported local grain-cleaning price of roughly eight cents per pound paid historically to Champlain Valley Milling, Red Hen's 300-mile sourcing radius, MorningStar's on-farm milling of about 4,000–5,000 pounds a month of byproduct-based chicken feed, and MorningStar's 25 acres of dry beans and 30 acres of black-oil sunflowers used for oil production. Presenters repeatedly emphasized that local grain farming in Vermont is primarily part of diversified farm businesses rather than a commodity-scale, high-margin enterprise.

No formal votes or policy changes were made at the hearing. Presenters asked the committee to consider directing further Working Lands or similar infrastructure funding toward shared processing facilities, drying and cleaning capacity, and distribution analysis to connect Vermont processors with regional buyers.

The hearing also highlighted broader ecosystem benefits of locally produced organic grain: soil-building practices, crop rotation for pest and weed management, pollinator habitat associated with sunflower plantings, and on-farm diversification that helps farms manage weather and market shocks. "By growing grain in Vermont with less chemicals organically, we can provide something that's more nutritious for the consumer and for the farmer to grow, and build the soil at the same time," said Todd Hardy.

Committee members asked for more market data and clearer numbers on demand as next steps, saying better market analysis would help staff and legislators target limited public funds where they would most increase scale and economic return.

Ending: Presenters offered to return with more detailed proposals. The Working Lands Enterprise Initiative said it would use the testimony to shape thinking about future infrastructure grants and technical support for the state’s emerging grain economy.