Vermont staff: Locally produced food accounts for about 10% of state food spending; farmland continues to shrink

A staff member presenting to the Agriculture, Food Resiliency & Forestry committee said Vermonters now spend an estimated 10.1% of their food dollars on food produced in the state, a figure the presenter said was a 2022 projection based on revised state-level expenditure data.

The presentation matters because committee members are weighing targets and policy where state figures and land-use trends intersect: Vermont has set an internal target to raise local food purchasing and the state faces continuing loss of farmland even as woodland on farms grows. The staff member told the committee the data and methodology are being shared with other New England states and that the next statewide data collection will cover 2025.

The presenter said the 10.1% figure reflects two changes: an updated dataset that raised the estimated total food spending used as the denominator, and a projection of local purchases for 2022. Using previously available totals (about $2.3 billion for 2020) would have produced a 16.1% local share; the presenter said the revised denominators for 2020–2022 are nearer $3.6–$3.7 billion, which reduces the percentage. The presenter summarized the projection as about $381,000,000 in local food and beverage spending in Vermont for the year in question and explicitly noted the total "does include alcohol sales." The presenter also said the 2020 estimate…