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Presenters urge coordinated capital, technical assistance to grow Vermont food system
Summary
Speakers at a legislative briefing described frameworks for strengthening Vermont’s food system, emphasized private-sector viability, and outlined a capital continuum—grants, debt, convertible instruments and near-equity—to support scale-up and resilience.
Ellen Kayla, executive director of Vermont Farm to Plate, told a briefing for state lawmakers that strengthening and expanding Vermont’s local and regional food system will require coordinated investment, targeted technical assistance and industry-level infrastructure rather than only farm-level fixes.
"There's an awful lot that goes into the development side of things," Kayla said, describing a “soil-to-soil” model that places private-sector producers at the center and surrounds them with a support system of policymakers, extension, lenders, grant programs and nonprofit technical-assistance providers.
The presentation outlined why a one-size-fits-all approach does not work for farms and food businesses. Kayla walked the committee through two complementary frameworks: (1) a triangle linking a business’s stage of…
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