Vermont ag stakeholders flag labor, tariffs, neonic limits and drone permits as industry shifts

Chair Russ opened the Feb. 7 committee discussion by saying members would spend the meeting “talking about fertilizer and feed and pesticides” and invited industry guests to summarize what they are seeing in the field.

Brad Laws, owner of Laws and Agriculture Service, said immigration uncertainty and labor availability are chief concerns for dairy operations, and that rising consolidation has left fewer customers for retail suppliers. “If I had to guess … probably 80% of the farms around here have Mexicans working for them,” Laws said, describing a period in which many workers “have kind of gone dark … till things calm down.” He also told the committee Canada produces “about 80% of all the potash that we use in North America,” so any tariff targeting Canadian fertilizer would be watched closely by Vermont suppliers.

Steve Guinell, director of the public health agriculture resource management division in the AT and T branch, said the agency registers and monitors pesticide, feed and seed products distributed in the state. “We register about 12,000 pesticide products annually, a little over 17,000 feed products” and roughly 5,000 fruit‑related products, he said, and described the department’s label review and sampling program.

Guinell and industry representatives…