NEK potato grower urges Farm Emergency Fund after consecutive summer floods

Matt Linehan, owner of Sparrow Arc Farm and the Northeast Kingdom Potato Company in Guildhall, told the Senate Agriculture Committee that consecutive summer floods in 2023 and 2024 cost his operation a substantial share of the potato crop and have prompted support for a proposed Vermont Farm Emergency Fund.

Linehan said Sparrow Arc Farm normally grows about 55 acres of potatoes but lost roughly 20 percent of its crop in 2023 and about 36 percent in 2024 to flooding along the Connecticut River. “Two years in a row makes a trend for me,” he told the committee, and the farm has shifted higher‑risk acreage out of the floodplain.

He described emergency assistance he received in 2024 through a state‑administered program (BGAP): $50,000 against an estimated $180,000 loss. “$50,000 is not nothing. It was well appreciated, but…we still lost a hundred and thirty thousand,” he said. Linehan said Sparrow Arc is not exiting farming but that recurring extreme weather makes planning and pre‑positioned assistance important.

Linehan told senators the farm sells across New England and into the Hudson Valley, with institutional customers including the Vermont Food Bank and regional distributors. He described marketing strategies emphasizing “Vermont grown” branding and direct retail distribution through co‑ops and independent markets.

Committee members and Linehan discussed the proposed Farm Emergency Fund; Linehan said he supports a more robust, planned approach to catastrophic events than the current ad hoc help. The committee did not take formal action during the testimony; Linehan said the bill will be discussed further in committee hearings that week.