Champlain Valley Farmer Coalition urges collaborative approach on water quality, neonics, labor and market access

At a meeting of the Vermont Senate Agriculture Committee, the Champlain Valley Farmer Coalition outlined immediate concerns for regional farmers, including pauses in federal and state conservation funding, the availability of seed following recent neonics restrictions, mounting labor shortages, and market consolidation among milk buyers.

The coalition, represented by Vijay Naswick, executive director of the Champlain Valley Farmer Coalition, told the committee the group has roughly 200 members and about 130 farms and focuses on three main programs: water-quality work, a high-school workforce-development program, and a Dairy Innovation Center cohort for young farmers. "How do we make sure of addressing water quality and how do we do it in a collaborative way?" Naswick said. He told members the coalition wants to work with both the Agency of Natural Resources and the Agency of Agriculture to achieve water-quality goals.

Those programs matter, coalition members said, because recent pauses or reductions in funding for conservation programs have put ongoing projects on hold. "A lot of that money has dried up or has been paused, and that puts projects on pause as well," Naswick said, adding that the consequence is delayed work on practices that have improved Lake Champlain Basin water quality over the last decade.

Market access and consolidation were raised as an…