SmartTranscript of House Agriculture – 2025-03-19 – 9:40AM

[Witness Dan Baker]: At UVM. I also am a principal investigator of several projects at UVM extension service, and I have been working on migrant dairy labor issues since about two thousand five. [Chair David Durfee]: Great. We're gonna talk we're gonna hear from you about that issue, migrant dairy workers, this morning. Okay. I'm David Durfee. I'm chair of the committee. We did meet you a couple of years back. I live in Shaftesbury, which is down at Bennington County, represent Shaftesbury, Sunderland, and Bostonbury. We'll just go around the room. [Representative Eileen Morgan]: Excuse me. I'm Eileen Morgan. I represent all of Grant, the five towns in Elk County and a a portion of, the town of Milton. And I live in Milton. [Representative Jed Lipsky]: Jed Lipsky, Lemoille one district. No. [Representative Richard Nelson]: Richard Nelson, Orleans one Derby. [Michelle Bos-Lun]: Michelle Aslan, Wyndham three, Westminster, Rockingham, and Brookline. [Representative Eileen Morgan]: Greg Burke, Abbott, Danville, We just had two Jamaicans flying in last night from on the h two a program. [Chair David Durfee]: Right. Sedona is our committee assistant to who you've met, and we're a smaller committee this year. So we've got two others who are not with us at the moment, and then that's it. Mhmm. I'll turn it over to you, Dan, and we've got a better part of an hour. I understand you've got a presentation to show us. I think it's on our committee page, and we want to look watch it there. Mhmm. And then we'll have some time for for questions and conversation perhaps afterwards. [Witness Dan Baker]: Great. And I just wanna ask, was it was it representative Burke, you said, telling me about h two a program I couldn't hear? [Representative Eileen Morgan]: Yeah. I I I have two gentlemen from Jamaica that worked for me for the last three years that, yeah, through the h two a program. [Witness Dan Baker]: It's good to good to know. I most of the presentation today, most of it is kinda looking at dairy, but we do have do have one project I did with Naomi Walker, McCausland, that, was looking at mental health and well-being. And we did some work with Jamaican farm workers and the housing program also does provides housing for Jamaican workers. And just recently, I think you probably saw there was a Department of Labor memo about kind of increased preparation for h two a workers in in relation to housing. Well, I you know, thank you again so much, everyone for your the committee for the time. Me see if I can get my presentation up here. There we go. That should be hopefully on your screen right now. [Chair David Durfee]: Yes. [Witness Dan Baker]: Okay. I'm sorry. I couldn't couldn't be there in person this morning. I appreciate the opportunity to present online. Just a little background. Like I said, I've been working on particularly dairy labor since about two thousand five when we did when we really started to see significant numbers of farms, dairy farms kind of experiencing a labor shortage and being able to access a willing and available migrant workforce. I've been interviewing farmers and farm workers kind of alternating for for many years. I just wanted to put this slide up and some of you may have seen this from past years. Just kind of reinforcing, like, why do we hire why do we need to hire so many migrant farm workers? It is because there is a worsening situation in terms of the availability of domestic farm labor. And that was we did a survey in twenty ten and a two farmers and a survey in twenty eighteen of farmers And by two thousand eighteen, [Representative Richard Nelson]: we're farms [Witness Dan Baker]: that we're interviewing, these are only dairy farms at higher labor. So not not those farms that were only using family labor, but farms at higher labor in Vermont, over ninety percent employed migrant workers. So we're very high dependence on this workforce. Gonna talk a little bit about that if you'd like, but overall, really, I think our dairy farmers overall very, very appreciative of that of that of the work that migrant farm workers do. I was gonna talk today a little bit about some of the kind of findings for some recent work, that I've done and, in partnership with several others. We did, in two thousand sixteen and two thousand eighteen, nineteen. I've been to the community before to talk a little bit about a research project on dairy farm worker migrant dairy farmers worker stress, which found that concern about being injured, concerns about housing, and particularly concern about immigration status were major stressors. That stress research led to some of the current projects right now. We just completed the migrant dairy farmworker safety program, which is funded by the Northeast Dairy Business Innovation Center Center. Have an ongoing project in partnership with Champlain Housing Trust funded by BHCB on farmworker housing, And that is both that's all farms and all farm workers that are receiving on farm housing. And then we just finished a project in partnership with Naomi Walker McCausland of UVM extension and, funded by the farmer and rancher stress network and the agency of agriculture on farmworker mental health. And that was we focused there on dairy on migrant dairy farm workers and as well as h two a workers. [Chair David Durfee]: Dan, are these all the the the three projects that you just listed there, the bullet points, are these research projects, or are they something else? [Witness Dan Baker]: Yeah. My approach to research for many years has been kind of taking action research approach. So, you know, you do research and then you develop kind of projects to address those needs. So in the case of the stress survey, we found high levels of concern about being injured on dairy farms, and we developed a program to actually train provide training on farm training for farm workers in Spanish and English on farm safety. Similarly, in the housing program, we found about a third of farm workers were stressed extremely stressed about housing, and we were able to use that really with your assistance to develop a program with Champlain Housing Trust and VHCB to actually repair farmworker housing. So that's been sort of my model to do to do research and then look for opportunities to address those priorities. I think they call it an action research approach. Yeah. Thank you for the question. I think the committee is aware that we have kind of many many sectors in our in our ag industry that are dependent on seasonal farm workers who are able to come here on the h two a visa. Like senator Brooke was we were talking about earlier, a very different situation with dairy farm workers where there is no legal dairy farm visa program for year round workers, which is a challenge and something I actually mentioned, and wrote about in that, VT Diego commentary. Right now, we've got about nine hundred and twenty five migrant workers and their families. Here in Vermont, working on about a hundred and fifty farms. The percentage of from Mexico has kind of varied. What we're now seeing is we still have, you know, over ninety percent of farm workers from migrant farm workers from Mexico, but we see an increasing, share from Guatemala. And in the most recent study that we just did, in New York state, we found a very high a higher percentage of folks from Guatemala. Majority speak little or no English. They're young. They tend to be young men. But those last two bullet points kinda point to a recent trend and some challenges. So an increasing percentage are women. And particularly in the last two years, we've seen, really pretty rapid increase in the number of children on farms. And, particularly with children on farms, it raises some serious safety issues. And there's been, in other states, some real tragic farm accidents involving children just playing around farms. And with women and children also comes challenges with housing because if before you had just young men living in a house, it's a really different situation when now you have women and kids in that house. And so we've had farms kind of request to build separate apartments in their, you know, kind of existing farm buildings to house families. Turnover between farms varies very widely. On some farms, we see very rapid turnover between workers and other farms, we'll see that farm worker farm workers that have been on that farm here in Vermont fifteen, twenty, twenty five years and have really kind of established a life here. And housing is one important factor in turnover. This is just a summary, and and I think I showed this to the committee last time, but this was a these were two important studies that we did, like I mentioned, really led to some of these current projects. In two different studies of the of migrant dairy farm workers in Vermont, we found very similar level with very similar kinda top ten stressors. Primary stressors really relate to migration relation related issues, and I'm happy to talk about that and some of where that's at right now today. But I just wanna kinda point out right now that that since these since these stress studies that we did, clearly that concern about migration has and is stressing out farm workers and their farm employers right now. The kind of the the one of the important findings from those two studies was that concern about injury. You know, more than forty percent of respondents. You know, we're moderately extremely stressed about injury and that led to this project. We had stressors related to social isolation, which has come up a lot recently in meetings I've had with farmers in in Vermont because we know that social interaction, being able to get off the farm, kinda meet other folks from your from your region, other Spanish speakers, play soccer, and just have social events is really, really important for farm workers' kind of well-being and mental health. And with increasing concern about immigration enforcement, that becomes more difficult. And so there's been this discussion about how to manage that. Certainly for farms in the northern third of our state, this is really a concern. It's a little bit easier if you're farther from the border, I mean, traditionally. And then being away from friends and family and not being able to speak English has always been a primary stressor stressor. [Chair David Durfee]: Question here from representative Nelson. Yeah. [Witness Dan Baker]: More of [Representative Richard Nelson]: a statement. Mister Baker, everything you've listed, I'm from Nelson Farms. [Krista McClure]: Mhmm. [Representative Richard Nelson]: You know, right right up on the border and everything you've listed is pretty pretty close to a hundred percent accurate. I I we live it every day and with our young young people that work with us and and the older ones, and and they're wonderful, wonderful people and bring great value to our dairy. And if they could, they'd be great value to our community. [Witness Dan Baker]: Yeah. Thank you, representative Nelson. I think that is I think that's really important to hear Mhmm. For everyone to hear. You know, it's what, you know, it's what we have seen in public kind of a general statewide Vermonter poll surveys, very strong support for migrant workers and and I think great appreciation from farmers. You know, I I I will add as an aside, I've been meeting with farmer groups here in Vermont, and I would be happy to meet with any others about how to sort of manage in this current moment. But thank you very much, representative Nelson. I appreciate that. And please jump in anytime, we hope, with thoughts and comments on on some of these these issues. [Chair David Durfee]: Representative Lipsky has another question. [Representative Jed Lipsky]: Please. Dan, thank you. I'm going back when you were referencing trends that you're finding that there are more women or families with children. And, you know, if we have dwindling school populations, do these migrant workers, are they able to attend public school and participate? And has that enhanced their socialization, meaning the workers and their children in various farm communities? [Witness Dan Baker]: Yeah. Yeah. That's a great question, represent representative Lipsky. So the Vermont UAM extension, the migrant education program specifically works on has it specifically works on assisting children of migrant communities enter ours, you know, and function in our public schools. So they those children do go to public schools, and we do have a program at UVM extension to facilitate that. And I'll just as in a this is a story from about a month ago. About a month ago, we got calls about a farm in Vermont where the I think it was a middle school child did not want to attend school because he was scared of immigration enforcement. And the farmer was really concerned because of what that was doing to, you know, his the family of both his of his workers who had been on the farm for a while. Migrant education program was able to assist them returning to school and feeling comfortable, you know, preparing the school and understanding what the school's rights are, what the workers' rights are, what the farmer could do. But it was interesting that we heard from the school itself that, students, colleagues, his other kids in his class on his on his sports team were concerned that he wasn't in school. And so kind of the stress and concern sort of went out fairly broadly. But, yes, we do have migrant children in our schools. It's their it's it is their right, and we do have a program to support that at UVM. [Representative Jed Lipsky]: That's great. Thanks. [Chair David Durfee]: Yeah. Representative Nelson? [Representative Richard Nelson]: You know what? I think it's from UBM, but maybe not. But you have tutors also that go around and tell me if I'm correct on this, Dan, that teach English to these young children. [Witness Dan Baker]: You are correct. [Representative Richard Nelson]: Jeremiah, it was my cousin, actually, I think works. And we have a little girl on the farm, and she speaks English better. Some of our it's so bright and artistic, and the school bus stops at the other farm, and it just warms my heart to think of a culture they're able to share. If I could, Dan, I'd go to Washington and fix this problem in ten minutes, but I need a stick. [Witness Dan Baker]: Representative Nelson, I wish you could go and fix this problem. But, yeah, the the migrant education program does go to farms and provide English language training to farm workers, and they're also developing on online resources. So, those students can work remotely. And those are that that's what the that includes they call youth, out of school youth, kids that are old enough not to be going to school or working, but still wanna get an education. [Representative Richard Nelson]: Sure. [Witness Dan Baker]: So this is just a quick summary of what we did in this in the farm health and safety project. We interviewed farm workers, both here in Vermont and in New York. And we we interviewed workers on twelve in twelve counties in Vermont, so it was really, very widespread. We provided, farm training, on farm training, safety training in Spanish and English on forty one farms. That training was by provided by the Northeast Center for Occupational Health from New York State. We also did kind of in the about two thirds of the way through the project, we wanna make sure that we kind of return the research results, the interview results to farm workers. So with my colleague, Naomi Walcott McCausland, we held three meetings around the state in Spanish for farm workers kind of sharing the results and just having a discussion about what we were finding about kind of injury rates and their concerns and ideas about how to improve safety and kind of general well-being as well as mental health. And then last spring, we had a large research roundtable at UVM to kinda share the results from all these projects as well as have a really interesting discussion in the afternoon about kind of what folks in the room thought we could do to improve well-being. And I'll I'll finish with a little discussion there with that of those kind of like that discussion. So just a little bit of of kind of data. You know, when we look at where our farm workers are from here in Vermont, in New York, the majority are actually from about as far south as you can get in Mexico as well as Northern Guatemala, really coming a long way to get all the way up here in the north part of the United States. The majority, like I said, don't speak speak very little English English or no English. And I think what's happened, and I'm sure representative Nelson, you're familiar, this is, like, over the last, you know, ten, fifteen years, we see we do see more workers who have been here longer who can speak a little bit more English, which is really helpful. We also see more interpreters available. And then, you know, you go on farms all the time and people are they're using their phones, and they're doing that instant translation. So that's really been an improvement. However, even with all that, over sixty percent of workers thought reported that they thought their level of English affected their ability to work safely. And [Chair David Durfee]: Representative Nelson. Go ahead. [Representative Richard Nelson]: And beware what you say around them because they understand a lot English a lot better than they let on. I could tell you that for Oh, yeah. Absolutely. They are intelligent people. [Witness Dan Baker]: Very much so. [Representative Richard Nelson]: And they are uncomfortable speaking English, and they will work hard so I can understand their Spanish. But they can they can I I I I understand what you're putting up here, but they they learn? [Witness Dan Baker]: Yep. Absolutely. I'm just thinking back in, like, two thousand ten when we were talking to farmers about how they're communicating with their workers. Like, what like, hand signals was one of the ways. Yeah. It's still an important way even for English speakers you point, but things are improving for sure. And, absolutely, I think many workers would very much like to learn more English. [Chair David Durfee]: Go ahead. Representative Mark. [Representative Eileen Morgan]: You had mentioned that there are workers that have been there for many years, and I assume they're here, you know, under with with visas to be here to work. Is there a a process where those people that have been here so long could actually do what it takes to become US citizens or dual citizens, or did they not concern themselves about such things? [Witness Dan Baker]: There is no there is no visa program for year round dairy farm workers at this time. I mean, that would be because they're one of the most easy easy fixes that the federal government could take right now to address this issue. No. Many of these workers so there are some workers. I just wanna point out some workers that are here with green cards or residents or or residency or have married a US citizen, so they they would have a path to citizenship. In my research, we do not ask anyone's immigration status, and I've certainly met many workers who are here on on one form of a legal visa. There's also so that's possible. But simply being here for twenty years does not provide you a path to citizenship or residency. [Chair David Durfee]: Okay. Yeah. [Witness Dan Baker]: Yeah. And, again, in that VT Digger article, that was one of the things that I was suggesting to our congressional delegation that that might be an area where there could be some progress that we could actually have what used to be called the blue card program or some legal visa program. This slide here, I just wanted to point out, and I think everyone here knows this, but I just wanna point out that you know, farming is a is a a risky business. You have to be very careful, and there are quite a few injuries on farms. And this is from NIOSH, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, where they said that, you know, farming is one of the few industries in which family members are also at risk for for fatal and nonfatal injuries. So this is, you know, particularly in dead area, you're working with large animals, heavy equipment, long hours. For migrant workers, you know, they felt face those additional challenges of limited English, variable provision of job training, kind of those background stressors. So, you know, concern about family, social isolation, all the other concerns are on their minds as well as just kind of the the occupational hazards of of of agriculture. What we do find is that over fifty percent of, the workers we surveyed in Vermont had experienced an injury. Most of them the majority had experienced kind of multiple injuries, and we did collect some data on the type of injuries. There's there's certainly a lot of injury from working with working with cows. Guys, guys, couple indications of the severity of the injury, about thirty percent still suffered from an earlier injury. And about, you know, for the first injury they reported, about fifty percent had to go see a doctor. About two thirds of those of those visits were paid reportedly a hundred percent by the farmer, and about seventeen percent were covered by in Addison County by the Open Door Clinic, which is a free clinic, really a tremendous resource here in in Addison County. And about forty two percent of the folks who were injured had to miss work due to that injury. And what we did find is about fifty percent for for those workers who missed had to miss more than three days of work due to injury, a little bit over half were paid for recovery time. In New York State where farms are larger and have more workers and a much higher percentage of them are under essentially the OSHA the OSHA threshold over eleven workers, but eighty percent were paid for missing work for three or more days. [Chair David Durfee]: Dan, did your research look at whether migrant farm workers were enrolled in any sort of health insurance, so either through the state or possibly by an employer? [Witness Dan Baker]: We did look at that a few years ago. It's very, very few farmers farm workers, have health insurance. A very a very small fraction. We did look at safety training, and this was kind of the focus of this project. So a couple of things. About almost sixty percent of workers in Vermont farm workers in Vermont, migrant farm workers said they received some safety training when they began work on their current farm. The majority of that safety training was trained by, was by coworkers. So a lot of times when I go on farms, I'll see a farm worker on a skid steer, and I'll say, you know, you know, how'd you learn you know, who taught you how to drive a skid steer? And a lot of times, it's another farm worker. And I think a lot about skid steers a lot. I think it's a area where we could I'd love to see more training. We did we did several trainings on skid steers in the classroom in this last round. Thinking about the future, I'd love to see more hands on, you know, get on get on the skid steer, get on the tractor on your farm, and and talk about that particular unique piece of equipment because a skid steer coming off of a dealer's lot is a lot different than a skid steer that's been working for many years on on any individual farm, and a lot of farmers will have certain things they know about their equipment that would be good to share with workers. So, you know, they're always they're always concerned about that kinda like the the kind of the children's game of telephone where, you know, how well that coworker that's doing the training understands the safety issues. And that's a little bit why we did, this project. The vast majority, almost ninety percent of of farm workers in Vermont would like to see more safety training. So the way we did this project is, you know, we talked to farmers and about the trainings that they'd like to see. And just on the in the in the table, you kinda see what we what we were able to deliver. Animal hand large animal handling, skid steer and chemical safety as well as down cow. Kinda those were the primary requests from farmers, and those are also areas where, we saw a lot of concern from farm workers and also a lot of injuries in that area. So that that was lined up. You know? I think, farmers and farm workers all wanna understand better how to work safely around cows, how to work safely around skid steers. In the photo there, we did a a training in Spanish and English. Liz Kenton from UVM Extension and the trainer from from New York kind of doing a a modeling exercise about points of balance and concerns about tipping on farm equipment and how to work safely around tractors and skid steers, we would love to see that expanded. And we did about we're able to train and do about a hundred and seventy train about a hundred and seventy workers, here in Vermont, again, in Spanish. Prior to this program, New York State, does do bilingual farm safety training. Vermont did not have a farm safety training program in Spanish. This DBIC program was able to deliver it. That program has now ended. And so one of the, I guess, one of the questions for all of us here in Vermont is how we can continue to provide on farm safety training. You know, there's a a one farm in in Addison County who, I think, over a two year period asked us for four or five trainings. And when I was talking to farmer about why you, you know, why come back and what that farmer was telling me was that, you know, a, they've got you know, there there's a lot of things they wanna talk about with the workers if we do a training on on managing down cows. Well, you know, come back and do a training on chemical safety. And the other thing that they said is, you know, they've got turnover. And so there's workers that were on the farm that attended the first training. Now they got new workers, and they want them to have that training. At this moment, now that this program has ended, we don't have that program anymore. And so one of the things is how can we continue and sustain, farm safety training? Other things I just wanna mention, like fire hazards and fire extinguishers really came out of some of the discussions with farm workers that they just wanted to understand better how to put out fires, and that was quite popular. [Krista McClure]: We got [Chair David Durfee]: a question from representative Boswell. Dan? [Michelle Bos-Lun]: Yes. Hi, Dan. It's actually more of a comment. So I actually work part time for UVM Ag Extension as well. And, Liz Kenton, that you mentioned, the tractor safety instructor is actually my supervisor in Wyndham County. And she actually told me she's the only certified tract tractor safety instructor in the state of Vermont right now. So just in terms of like, you know, your focus of your presentation is talking about migrant workers, but lots of people use tractors in Vermont. And having only one certified safety instructor regarding tractors seems like something maybe that the committee should be aware of because it's as an agricultural state, that's not a lot of people that we have ready to help train our farmers and people that work on farms. [Witness Dan Baker]: Oh, I couldn't I couldn't I couldn't agree more. You're really speaking. I I I love that comment. I think that as you were talking about Liz, Kent? [Representative Richard Nelson]: Yep. Uh-huh. [Witness Dan Baker]: Yep. And so in addition to only having one farm safety trainer in Vermont, which is kind of incredible, Liz Liz is her funding and focus is on youth on youth training, I believe. Yes. And so we actually also have this gap for training for adults. And I think that's I couldn't agree more. I think that is a real challenge. And particularly for the for dairy farm workers, you know, they're really they they're doing a lot of work on skid steers. And I don't I think there's there's a need for additional skid steer training as well as tractor training. But, absolutely, there's there's a real need there. And as I was saying before, I think developing the capacity in the state to really be working directly with equipment where we where we could, you know, do equipment training outside the classroom, sitting on a tractor or skid steer and making and being able to just communicate for this piece of equipment on this farm what you wanna be aware of. I would love to see that, and I'd be very happy to work with the committee in any way I could to do that. And I I think Liz I just wanna say, I think Liz does an awesome job, and she we really appreciated her help in this past project and kinda doing those on farm trainings and we learned a lot. Now I'll just share with the committee. If you haven't Liz, she's got all these little models that she can bring out that are really engaging and entertaining while teaching some really important and really could be potentially life saving safety features. I'll mention just in the last couple of years, and I'm sure you all know this, you know, the risk is not just to farm workers, but definitely to farmers. And we've had a couple of really severe and in one case, fatal injury to farmers on equipment, which is tragic on so many levels. Beyond kind of that the the kind of the core safety training, we we kind of expanded out a little bit, and we talked to farm workers about kind of other interests they have in training. And some of these we did this a couple this was a couple of years ago last year, year before. And, no, I had an interest in in what farm workers understood about animal to human, human to animal disease transmission. They call zoonotic diseases, and we found very little training about that. Seventy five percent of of the folks we interviewed had never received any information on that human animal transmission. More than half are very interested, and, you know, most of the rest are quite in somewhat interested in receiving that training. Now, today, when we're facing, you know, issues of bird flu, it really points to the need to do this type of work. And, really, at this moment, right now, we are we don't have a program to do this, but something I think that, we should be considering. So I'll give you one more slide. I think that, you know, the the the potential to really help our farms from the farmers to US workers to migrant workers just learn more about how to be safer and healthier on farms. I think there's a a a real tremendous opportunity there to go a little bit broader. I'll give you one more example. You know, we asked farm workers about whether they wanted to learn about personal practices to manage stress because we know that we have there's a lot of stress that they're experiencing as are are farmers experiencing. You know? And we found, you know, more than three quarters said they definitely like to learn how to manage and reduce stress. And we actually did do some trainings in in New York. They've been working on some trainings to just teach very kind of basic sort of, as you've heard, sort of mindfulness, breathing exercises, ways to just sort of be here now and not get too wound up. I mean, I I was talking to one farm worker, and we asked about his stress levels. He was like, oh, I'm not, you know, not stressed, not stressed, not stressed. But then later on, he was like, but I can't sleep. And, you know, clearly, he was very stressed. And, you know, from an employer's perspective, having a worker who's really not sleeping well, obviously, he or she's not gonna be as productive and it's more dangerous. So this is an area I think of great potential. I've talked to, again, within UVM extension. If we were able to obtain funding, I think we would love to start working on this sort of a a wellness program that could do some traditional farm safety training as well as kind of doing this some a little bit expanded health and well-being. So very high interest in learning things like breathing, yoga, mindfulness. With Naomi, again, we did a program sponsored by funded by Firsthand A mental health, we met with we're really focusing on kind of the availability and access to mental health services here in Vermont. What we found is that there are there is a lot of work that's being done sort of on the end of staying healthy and staying mentally healthy. So the the soccer programs that we do around the state, social social programs, that outreach that representative Nelson was talking about to teach English, all those things are kind of on the thriving end of the spectrum. But for folks that are in crisis or really struggling, we really don't have very much. And I always think it's important to remember that for many workers, they've gone through a lot to get here. I mean, they there was a reason they had there's a reason they migrated because of stresses at at home, you know, economic stress or social turmoil, even threats of violence that may that caused them or required them to leave their homes. They get up here through a lot of times a a really tremendously difficult journey. And all of that stress in their in their in their that they're holding inside themselves for some folks can really be, really pretty devastating. You know, what we found was that, when mental health services are provided, so Open Door, for example, had a counselor, and is now, I think, actually got a a part time counselor. When counselors are available, workers wanna go, and and those services are are are are very much utilized. We we talked to some workers during the in those little stakeholder meetings about the potential for a peer to peer counseling, which has been sometimes used for police officers. And we found that that that particular model, peer to peer, doesn't didn't sit well with folks. They they like they wanted that privacy and the confidentiality of a professional counselor. Right now in Vermont, we have very few of those. We we we we have very few Spanish speaking mental health counselors, and then we have very limited funding to pay for the ones that we have. So that's a real need. You know, I remember talking but a farmer calling me up about two years ago saying, I'm just I've had this worker on my farm for many years, and I'm just seeing in the last few weeks, like, something's going on with that person. And we did refer them to to Open Door Clinic at that point. And kind of last bigger project, I've talked a little bit about this last year. For Latino and Latino workers, their workers about a hundred percent receive housing on farm. Much more a much higher rate than by from US workers who have more mobility and and more connections into the community. We saw in twenty sixteen about eleven percent of farm workers were stressed about stressed about their housing. And I always point out I think I probably mentioned this last year. This I think this is useful because we do have some farmworker housing that really is deficient, but it's not all our farmworker housing. And about two thirds of workers had either no stress or or limited stress about farmworker housing about their housing, which is important. So because it helps us kinda get our handle around, you know, the problem. That it's not every single farm that has an issue. It is about in this in twenty sixteen, about a third of farms had an issue. And we do see some progress from the survey in twenty twenty two, twenty twenty three. We're gonna talk about one program that we're doing with Champlain Housing Trust funded by VHCB, Migrant Justice, and Milko Dignity also has a program. So there's been a a fair amount of work in the few last few years to improve farmworker housing. I think that is, kind of a a success story we should be talking about. There's still lots more to be done, and, we're doing that right now. So the housing program, has kind of two subprograms. One is housing repairs. It provides thirty thousand dollar, interest free forgivable loans to farms that wanna repair their on farm housing. So over if you maintain good quality housing for ten years, you can see that thirty thousand dollar loan basically disappear. It's been a very popular program. We we have a smaller program that is housing replacements. In that program, farms have that have an existing house have been able to be funded to put a entirely new house there. I will mention that one gap that we are hearing about are farms that there's kinda two situations that is not currently funded. One is where you've got where you where a farm farmer wants to build a new house that wasn't a wasn't an existing house and needs assistance for that. There is no funding right now to help them build a brand new house or sometimes you'll see a farm that has housing on an adjoining lot or a lot owned by a or not a joint lot, a remote lot or a lot owned by another family member or even rented that they want to repair, and there's no money for that. So these these programs are really for existing on farm housing. And just some data on the farm worker kind of repair program, it has really been been successful up to this point. We've completed nineteen units. We got twenty two under construction right now. There's another twenty seven that are in process of being closed closed and committed, and nine more were doing site visits. It's an active program for I hope everyone on the committee, if you are are talking to any farmer that has an existing house and would like a repair, I think, you know, please contact me, contact Champlain Housing Trust. It's a pretty straightforward application, and I think that the feedback from farmers have been really positive. I have a little box here at the bottom. You know, part of the success of the program has been actually getting feedback from farmers and kind of refine refining the program to make it kind of function better. It's been a really dynamic program. I think it's working quite well. It benefited about two hundred eighty two farm workers so far. So this is an existing program, thirty thousand dollars forgivable loan. We would love to have more farmers access this program. And just a kind of a one illustration of the kind of work that the program does. You know, here's a farmworker housing before. Clearly, some deficiencies here. Insulation broken windows, some access to kind of to rodents and and deficient siding, and here's the here's the same house afterwards. A pretty dramatic set of improvements. Champlain Housing Trust, and actually I have lots of different photographs of similar results. Looking at a house before, definitely identifiable issues. I think most people would agree that should be fixed and and then be able to go in there and and fix that program. And I just I've got two stories I like to talk about a lot, which is a lot of times, like, a lot there's a lot of frustration about housing that I think comes from that those challenges of communication we were talking about earlier. You know, the the picture on the left there, innumerable times, I go on a farm. I'm talking to a farmer about housing issues, and our farmer is very, very, very frustrated about grease in the sink and, you know, can't understand, like, he's in there or she's in there every couple weeks cleaning out a clogged clogged drain because the workers are putting grease down the grain drain. And, you know, a lot of times, I'll talk to a farmer and be like, well well, have do the workers know what to do with the grease? And a lot of times, they haven't had that conversation. And we talked to the workers, they're like, you know, we don't know. So in the picture on the left here, that's actually kitchen grease being chucked out a window because there's not really any solution or there no solution's been talked about. So both farm workers and farmers would just be a lot happier if they had that conversation or what like, what to do about that issue. Another one you see really really common, drives everybody crazy, farmers and farm workers, is is is workers tearing out a smoke alarm because they're being bothered by that beeping. And it's same thing. Like, have you had the have you taken the time at a farm meeting to talk about how to change batteries and smoke alarms, how to deal with, you know, issues with, you know, a hardwired smoke alarms and and batteries. Why not to just tear them off the ceiling? Also, a lot of that is just like a a communication issue that make everybody's life better if we had that. And, again, language issues and cultural issues are challenges, and I I do think UVM extension can help there. [Chair David Durfee]: Representative Nelson, you had a question? Yep. [Representative Richard Nelson]: Yeah. Dan, they are incredibly resourceful in how they cook. And when you go with them to the grocery store or pick your groceries up for them, they buy, you know, raw ingredients, and they make their own salsa. And they they do and they they cook so well, but they use an incredible amount of oil, and they cook it on nuclear. And and the stove tops and the smoke and and I I realized it's a cultural thing, but it in part of the training when we trained about skid steers, if we trained about the kitchen, it would it would help the farmer and their employees a little bit because I just think that picture could have been taken at one of our places. I know it wasn't, but I've seen it. I've lived it. [Witness Dan Baker]: Oh, yeah. No. You know? Yeah. It's no joke. It drives people crazy. [Representative Richard Nelson]: It it it does. And I and, you know, just in refining life, it's a small thing, but it's just part of refining life. [Witness Dan Baker]: Yeah. Well and and for the farmer, I mean, they're in, like or I mean, in that huge list of things they gotta do, now they gotta go in and do that same job again of unclogging that pipe or hiring somebody to unclog that pipe. It's really a stress. At this at this meeting, the slide up here, this research roundtable last spring So it was bilingual. So we had a we had a it was wonderful. The the Association for Africans Living in Vermont has translators, interpreters available, and we were able to borrow translation equipment so we could have simultaneous translation. And we were having this just this discussion about about grease in the sink. And this one farm worker gets up, and he was like, yes. We do not wanna put grease in our sinks either, but we don't know what to do about it. And, you know, when you've got, like you said, language and cultural issues, it really takes some effort to have that conversation. I I asked one farmer, well, what do you want them to do with it? And they were like, You know? Like, it they, like, takes them a moment to think about, well, what is it they even wanna tell? Like you said, representative Nelson, that's a lot of grease, you know, and a lot of frying. And, you know, what's what's the plan you want to be sharing with them for how to manage it? Because you don't wanna put it putting it down the sink, and you probably don't wanna chuck it out the window. So what's your what's what is your farm's plan for how to manage that grease? [Representative Richard Nelson]: Exactly. So I just five percent thing, you know, five gallon oil bucket in a pump in a pump. [Witness Dan Baker]: There you go. [Representative Richard Nelson]: And You know? [Witness Dan Baker]: And it it solve a lot of problems. So this last spring was was interesting. Like I said, we did this we want kind of our our interest right now is really just sharing this information, having a good conversation. I worked on kind of this question with with folks from around the dairy industry prior to the to the to the meeting. And there was a lot of consensus that this is that on this statement, everyone agrees that farm workers should be safe at work from moral and ethical to practical reasons. How we get to the place where all farm workers experience good, safe, healthy workplaces and living conditions, that's the question. As farmers, farm workers, dairy industry representative, service providers, and advocates, what strategies do you support to get us to that place? And really where people came together that afternoon was making a greater effort to collaborate and work together and sort of build a coalition more than what we see now is groups kind of dividing. And I think that was it was a very positive kind of view of the potential last spring. And so I think that's still kind of on deck about how we do this, how we really bring people together more frequently to talk about these issues. And, you know, again, the grease and the fire alarms is one sort of simple example where what we need is to be talking. You know, I think there's a lot of other areas where greater collaboration could really help. Just a couple of conclusion. Last slide here. Our dairy farms, both here and Vermont and across the United States, are very, very, very, very, dependent on their fore workers. You know? The last really, is done in by in twenty, you know, found that more than about eighty percent of the milk in the United States was produced from migrant labor. At this moment, as far as I have heard to date, we have not seen a spike in immigration enforcement on dairy farms. You know, we did just see nine workers picked up at a sawmill over in New York state. And I think for any individual farm to lose all their workers with regard to their workers, would really be quite devastating. There really isn't a plan b right now, and, that is a concern. A legal visa program at the federal level would obviously help us tremendously. The other thing is to that's a real concern we've been talking about today about farmworker training, educational services, health care services. A lot of those a lot of those critical services that support our agricultural industry are under threat from budget and staffing cuts. And, you know, how we're gonna make up for that is a real a real real important very, really important question at this moment. Yeah. We made a lot of progress designing and implementing programs. A lot of those programs are were were shoestring before, and we really don't have a lot of extra in their budget to manage many cuts. So we wanna we we're gonna need to move forward on that. I think a lot of the ideas that came up today, I think, are really speak to that. There's a lot of opportunity. We just need to support it. You know? And with that, I'll I appreciate all the questions, and I really appreciate the time and interest of the committee today. I always just kinda welcome ideas or questions about things about how we can move forward, and certainly always helpful happy to share any data that we have. And thank you very much. [Chair David Durfee]: Dan, thank you. Thank you, Dan. It's been really helpful to hear [Representative Jed Lipsky]: heard you both. [Chair David Durfee]: Directly from you as having been involved with these these development of the program to research and the and the follow-up. It might be helpful for us, and this is I'm I'm thinking aloud, and it may apply well beyond the, you know, the work that you do. But to the extent that that, the committee that the legislature and and the committee, you know, particular can be made aware of, you know, specific areas where federal cuts are having a, you know, a direct impact, that the the state, it may or may not be able to step in and and pick up some slack on, you know, that would be helpful. So if you could just keep that in mind and, you know, at some point between now and and the middle of May or whenever we wrap up, The budget is a work in progress [Witness Dan Baker]: Mhmm. [Chair David Durfee]: But next year's budget and I know that there's everyone is clear that, you know, there there may be areas where federal cuts are are, something we have to deal with and that the state may need to step in in some cases. And so having as much data and information as as we can, you know, would be helpful, in general. [Witness Dan Baker]: Well, thank you very thank you very much. I I appreciate that very much, and I will share that with kind of colleagues and organizations. I just also wanted to share that I'm also happy to, meet with any, farm organization. Some like, there are some things that I think farms could be doing now to just better or just to sort of ride out some of these these the the potential situations they could face. And so just to kind of extend that out to anybody. I just had a really good meeting just a few weeks ago within a group of farmers that was very I think very positive. And it was actually some summed up in the Champlain Valley Pharma Coalition newsletter recently. [Chair David Durfee]: Alright. Well, thank you again. [Witness Dan Baker]: Again. Yeah. Thank you. And thank you for that feedback, and I certainly would be happy to share that with I will share that with colleagues. [Chair David Durfee]: Alrighty. Okay. We'll we'll we'll see you soon. [Witness Dan Baker]: Thanks very much. K. Bye bye. [Chair David Durfee]: So we we we're we're running a little over, and we've got next on our agenda is introductions from some of the folks at Susu Community Farm down in Windham County. I wonder whether the any whether the committee could take three minutes just to take a quick break, and I apologize. We'll add on some time at the end to make sure that we, have enough time to cover this, but let's just take a quick pause. We will we'll we don't even need to turn off the live streams, but we'll we'll mute the room, folks' instruction, and we'll be right back. And thank you for your patience, Krista and Amber. Yeah. [220 seconds of silence] [Michelle Bos-Lun]: Yeah. I'm Michelle Boslin. I'm a rep from, Wyndham County. I actually have to go testify about a program, called Vermonters feeding Vermonters, h one sixty seven, that's gonna provide hopefully two million dollars to make designated grants to farmers around the state to provide food for vulnerable individuals. And I just was I was just wondering if you folks had participated in that already because the program's actually been around in one form or another since twenty eighteen. [Amber Arnold]: Are you asking us? [Michelle Bos-Lun]: Yeah. Yeah. Sorry. I'm sorry. I'm looking at you on the screen. I don't know where [Krista McClure]: to go. It's just [Michelle Bos-Lun]: you and the I have to leave in, like, three minutes, and I just thought, oh, if you guys had participated, that would be interesting for me to know. [Amber Arnold]: Yeah. We did have participated in Vermonters Feeding Vermonters. [Michelle Bos-Lun]: And what was your experience? Was it was it useful? What kind of utilization were you [Amber Arnold]: Extremely useful program, and they supported us starting when we first started our farm. So that was really our first funding for funding Yes. Program. And they did share with us that they were losing a lot of the funding, so that got significantly cut for us. But that is one of the main foundational pieces that funds our free CSA program. [Michelle Bos-Lun]: Right. So it funds the free, CSA. Was there any other specific produce that, like, you got a contract to provide berries to the food bank or something like that, or the CSAs were were how you used your funds? [Amber Arnold]: Yeah. We use it for our BIPOC CSA, and then we also use part of it to pay another local farmer to grow food for our CSA boxes. [Michelle Bos-Lun]: Great. Thank you so much. [Chair David Durfee]: Michelle, if you wanna get the door maybe to see if anybody lurking out there and [Representative Richard Nelson]: Yeah. I mean, that would be [Chair David Durfee]: come in. Okay. Alright. We'll we'll go ahead and get started. And, sorry for the informal introduction there or Thank you. Lack of introduction. But, but I do wanna say welcome to both of you, and thank you for I thank you again for being patient. We should do a quick round of introductions, and and then I know representative Bosman has to step out and testify in another committee. A couple of our folks will will be joining us again in a moment. Why don't we start? Those those two are here. And if and if you wanted us to add again. [Michelle Bos-Lun]: Yeah. Michelle Boslin. I represent Wyndham three, which includes Brookline, Westminster, and Rockingham. John? [Chair David Durfee]: Hi. John O'Brien. I represent Windsor Orange one. That's Royalton in my hometown of Tonbridge. And I'm David Durfee. I represent Shaftesbury, Sunderland, and Blossenberry down in Bennington County or for you over in Bennington County. I'm [Representative Eileen Morgan]: David Leland Morgan. I represent Grand Isle County and the western portion [Chair David Durfee]: of the town of Milton where I live. [Representative Richard Nelson]: Hi. Richard Nelson, New Orleans one up in Derby. [Chair David Durfee]: That's us. [Amber Arnold]: That's nice to meet you. I'm Amber Arnold. I use sheher pronouns, and I'm one of the cofounders and codirectors of SUSU Community Farm in so called Newfane, Vermont. [Krista McClure]: And good morning, all. I'm Krista McClure, She, her pronouns. I'm actually in support of SUSU, in Southern Vermont. Our collaborative director is also on the call, not on camera, but here with us, Naomi. [Chair David Durfee]: Good morning, Naomi. So, welcome. And I I'm not sure whether you are sharing anything on the screen or not. If you if you are and you need access, we'll make sure that you get it. And if not, we're happy to have just a conversation as well. And I'll turn it over to you then at this point. [Amber Arnold]: Great. Thank you. It'd be great if we could have sharing access abilities because we are gonna share in a little bit. You are indeed. Okay. Great. Thank you. I'm happy [Chair David Durfee]: to help troubleshooting getting into their [Amber Arnold]: Great. Thank you. I just wanna take a moment to invite you to bring your hands to your chest and your belly and for us to take a few breaths together and to feel your feet on the land, on the earth. When we speak about the land and when we speak about our relationship to the land, we love to feel our bodies on the land and remind ourselves who we are and where we come from. And so while you feel your breath, just allowing your body to breathe however it breathes. And I wanna invite you to speak these words three times with me. [Representative Richard Nelson]: And I'll [Amber Arnold]: say them once, and then we can say them together three times. Nobody is free until everybody is free. [Krista McClure]: Nobody is free until everybody is free. [Amber Arnold]: Nobody is free until everybody is free. [Krista McClure]: Nobody is free until everybody is free. [Amber Arnold]: You can just bring your hands back to your legs or your body wherever you want. Just giving thanks to the land. [Representative Richard Nelson]: And the [Amber Arnold]: words that I just shared with you are the words of our elevated ancestor, Fannie Lou Hamer, who in nineteen sixty four stood before the Democratic National Convention and demanded accountability. And in that meeting, she challenged the seating of Mississippi's all white delegation, and she asked the question, is this America, the land of the free and the home of brave, where we have to sleep with our telephones on the hooks because our lives are threatened daily, simply because we want to live as decent human beings in America. And her testimony shook the world. She stood with unshakable courage exposing the painful realities Black Americans were facing. And today, as I am here before you, I feel her spirit and her wisdom and the weight of her words in my bones. Because I too, as a Black womanist farmer, a liberatory worker, much like Fannie Lou Hamer was, I'm here because she was, and so many Black femmes and female farmers like me have mustered the courage to farm and protect our communities because of the road that Fannie Lou Hamer paved for us. And you see, for far too long, the voices, the work, and the lives of Black women have been silenced because we have always known how to care for our people. We know how to build the worlds we need and we understand the strategies required to transform oppressive systems from the inside out. And that is a threat to those in positions of power who perpetuate oppression, violence, and racialized trauma. And that's why I ask you to connect your hands with your [Krista McClure]: heart, and with your [Representative Jed Lipsky]: breath, and with [Krista McClure]: the earth beneath you, and [Amber Arnold]: to reflect on Fannie Lou Hamer, and to reflect on Fannie Lou H and with your breath and with the earth beneath you and to reflect on Fannie Lou Hamer's words, nobody is free until everybody is free. These hands and our heartbeat and our breath and our presence, this is our power and this is our strength. And it's our commitment to collectivism, to the SUSU, to the vision of community reciprocity, resource sharing, and collective action that is necessary for our survival in these times. And as Vermonters, I know that I don't need to convince you of the importance of thriving farm systems in our communities, especially as many local farmers are struggling due to a lack of funding. I trust that local farming has touched each of your lives in some way. But I also need to turn our attention to the stark reality for BIPOC and disadvantaged farmers both here in Vermont and across the country. Fannie Lou Hamer said if you give a man food, he will eat it, but if you give him land, he will grow his own food. And our food system has been built on the stolen labor, inhumane working conditions, and the exploitation of farmers of color. The health of our ecosystems and the survival of our communities depend on the wisdom of Indigenous peoples who have protected the lands and waterways for millennia. Yet this sacred knowledge has is being bulldozed in a race despite the fact that Indigenous people protect eighty percent of the world's remaining biodiversity. In Vermont, while only around eighteen of over seven thousand farms are black owned, we know that the labor that feeds our communities, especially in agriculture, is disproportionately performed by BIPOC and disadvantaged farmers, yet these communities remain disenfranchised without power, land ownership, resources, or agency. Large institutions continue to receive generational support while we're passed down crumbs. But let me tell you this, we are the ones planning for the next seven generations. We are the ones with the tools to restore our relationship with the land through cultural reclamation. We are the last hope for the survival of our people based on ancestral practices that are under threat daily. And we imagine a different future. And we believe that you too know that change is possible. We're calling on you to help create that future, to walk alongside resourcing BIPOC and disadvantaged farmers to provide them with a true voice, agency, and support. And we need to protect and pass down traditional ecological knowledge that will cultivate resilience in our climate and in our communities. And that's why we're requesting an appropriations line for Susu Community Farms immersive incubator program, which will serve BIPOC and disadvantaged farmers in Vermont. We ask for your hand in solidarity to invest in a program that will empower farmers, protect our ecosystems, and create a thriving and resilient food system. This immersive incubator program aims to address the challenges faced by BIPOC and disadvantaged farmers by creating a network of partners working together to build systems that go beyond conventional practices. And we envision a world where accessibility to food is rooted in our communities where traditional and ecological knowledge, kinship networks, and cultural farming practices are at the center and where the resilience of BIPOC farmers is centered, boldly resourced, and uplifted. We're asking you to support this initiative by including a line item in the state budget for the sustainability of BIPOC and disadvantaged Farmer Immersive Program Fund. Just as Seattle's sugary tax has supported health programs and food access, we believe Vermont can be a leader in supporting these farmers and the transformation of our food systems. Our work is not just about food, it's about building systems that honor the wisdom of the land and the people who have protected it. We stand here asking for your bold action to take a stand for justice, equity, cultural reclamation, and sustainability, and to remember nobody is free until everybody is free. This is an invitation to bring Fannie Lou Hamer's words and work to life. And I want to take a moment to just share a little bit about SUSU Community Farm and who we are and some of our our origin story. Do you think, Krista, you can share the dossier on the screen? Yes. [Krista McClure]: Is it shared? [Chair David Durfee]: Yes. Yeah. We can see it. Perfect. [Amber Arnold]: So my name is Amber as I've already shared, and also Naomi, who's the other cofounder of SUSU. And we started SUSU in two thousand nineteen. SUSU actually started as an LLC and not a nonprofit, and one of our reasons for starting SUSU was to create a space in Windham County in Vermont where people of color could come together and have access to space to reclaim culture and to feel safe and, like, they could be surrounded by their people and have access to the things that allowed them to feel nourished and well. And through our original Susu Botanica, we had, we had a botanica, a place where we offered medicinal herbs and remedies for people of color, and we offered different healing programs, sound healing and yoga and other classes like that. And when COVID happened, we started to see a lot of the inequities that were happening in our communities where a lot of other communities around the country were experiencing food apartheid, what we were seeing was that, you know, in a state that highly values farming and access to local and fresh foods, that there was disproportionate amounts of access to white folks to be able to access food and people who had access to wealth, where people of color and people who did not have access to wealth were not able to access food in the same ways. And so part of us starting SUSU Community Farm was to create equitability amongst our community so that everyone could have access to fresh and local food. And our organization was built off the premise that food is a birthright. It's not something that should be commodified, and it's not something that people should have to work for for in order to access. And so we started with a free CSA program, which brought together a bunch of local farms in our community to all bring food and different farms in our community to all bring food and different herbal products and things that our community was making to people of color as a tangible and physical reminder to our people that you matter, that we care about you, and that you deserve beauty, you deserve nourishment, you deserve joy, and you deserve care. And through that program, we grew into purchasing a thirty seven acre farm in Newfane where we still run the BIPOC CSA program where we grow a large variety of Afro indigenous crops, and we work with many local farmers to include organic meat and eggs and bread and dairy products, vegan products, rice, locally grown rice and beans, and all different things from our local farm partners to really start to build a collective ecosystem in Vermont around resource sharing and around collective farming and what it means to actually care for our communities together rather than centering into individualistic farm practices that leave many people burnt out and struggling and lacking resources. And our farm also hosts many other programs that are all designed to connect people of color and our allies back to our relationship with the land and back to our relationship with our bodies and able to reclaim traditional ecological knowledge and ancestral practices so that we can really grow food and work within the earth in a way that not only provides sustenance for all of us, but actually is in deep relationship with the ecosystem that we are a part of so that we can be building very climate resilient food systems and life ways for our people to live in because, clearly the way that we have been practicing farming and tending to the earth isn't supporting the earth. But we have many ancestral practices, and we have many cultural practices that exist today that have the antidote and the answers to really building healthy, thriving, climate resilient communities. And so that is the work that we center into, bringing forth to Vermont at Susu Community Farm. [Krista McClure]: Thank you, Amber. Good, morning again all. My name is Krista McClure as I had previously, introduced myself. I actually was welcomed by Sushu Community Farm last fall. And so I had been kind of brainstorming ways in which Sushu can look to diversify revenue that's coming into the organization in order to be able to uplift the overall long term goals and objectives of this organization. Thank you all again for carving out time to allow for us to share this space with you and allowing us to be virtual because I am actually at home now with COVID. So please, as I'm sharing the screen, I do not see your faces, so don't hesitate at all to, you know, interject if necessary if you have any, questions. Otherwise, we certainly are hoping to have time towards the end to be able to answer, any questions that you may have. So as, collaborative, director, Amber Arnold, had just shared a little bit about, kind of the groundingness of SUSU, which I hope was a really beautiful experience for you. This, I think, is really this photo here that I'm sharing is really the epitome of what Sault Ste is. Right? This beautiful land in Southern Vermont with the intention of being able to not only provide a resource for folks in the community as far as an outlet, as far as produce and meals, but also as a safe haven for folks that might be looking for retreat or respite. And so as Amber had spoken to earlier, we are occupying thirty seven acres in Southern Vermont, in what's called Sioux Newfane, Vermont. And our collaborative directors, Amber and Naomi, have really blended, the intentionality around this, program. There's the Afro Indigenous Farm, which is rooted in the black womanist beliefs of our collective ancestors. And in general, we're committed to creating a homemade fill of love for the people of the global majority to heal, gather, and thrive in safety, dignity, and belonging. We do this in honor of our elders and ancestors, connecting us time and space to those who come before us and after us. Susu is a verb. It moves in reciprocity and rhythm much like the land we steward, and we embody this work by practicing land and food sovereignty in addition to offering land based connections and ancestral healing. So we know that we are asking for a pretty hefty ask, and there are two approaches to this certainly. We are asking for a line item in the budget, for the next four years, to be able to help us move into fruition that homemade field of love. The idea of our ask, to be able to support the immersive incubator model is something that we're actually already doing. You heard briefly from, a lovely, representative who was in the room who I know stepped aside and had asked us whether or not we had the opportunity to benefit from Vermonters feeding Vermonters. And to that answer, we stated, yes. There was a moment in time for our organization and much like the other disadvantaged farmers that we do work hand in glove with to be able to support their ongoing efforts in order to be able to move the resources that they are able to produce on their land to the broader community. And so we understand that our ask to you all, again, while it is hefty, it's necessary. We are understanding, of course, of all the chaos that is existing in this moment in time on a political landscape. The harm that is going to be created in the near future is gonna have long term effects. We're already looking at potentially seeing SNAP as being a benefit that is going to potentially be cut. And what that looks like is not only folks within our communities, maybe some neighbors also within your communities, but those that would be losing a really beneficial resource where they have access to breakfast, lunch, and dinner in their local district or local school or even out of school time meals that might be available during the summer months. So what we're imagining, again, is something that we've already been really doing and doing very well, and that is we have, on our land where we occupy our space, we grow an abundance of Afro indigenous crops and produce, and we recognize that that's not all what defines a healthy, quality, nutritious meal for a household. So we eagerly work alongside various partners that are listed also on this deck that I'll be sharing with you momentarily that allow for us to be able to really get some of the meats and the dairy and the cheese and the nuts and even some chocolates and flowers to our community members so that they feel whole, so that they feel right, and so that they're fed in a very nutritious manner. That is definitive based on, what their dietary restrictions are. That is something that I really find admirable about SUSU, and that is not only do we provide these CSA boxes, but we actually cultivate a very nurturing box that is beneficial for families across our communities that have their needs met based on their dietary restrictions. So the intention behind the immersive incubator program is to combat the various challenges that many BIPOC and disadvantaged farmers across Vermont and the New England region face. We understand firsthand the challenges that exist within our neighboring farm communities as it relates to flooding, for example, and wanna serve as a weaver of resources. Naomi spoke quite a bit earlier to this point, and that is that we really wanna see ourselves not only as a universal food hub, but how do we work in partnership with our farming peers? How is it that we can actually be of a network and a resource to one another, whether it's access to land, whether it's access to knowledge, and or it's access to resources? We want to imagine what would be for us to kind of be able to reimagine conventional practices around, for example, the riparian border. Right? And and so what does that look like? That might look like we're working with the local community conservation departments, but that might also look like we're learning as a community about the benefits of the conservation district or conservation agency and then actually moving in parallel with an abundance of support from our neighboring partners whereby not only are they supporting the land and the work on Susu, but we also see ourselves moving and supporting the land elsewhere on our neighboring farms. Really, again, trying to rethink and reshape what does farming look like and to move away from this ideology of doing, you know, doing it alone. We know going alone doesn't always go fast. Sometimes it goes slow. And at this point in time, I think at the pulse of where we are in our country, we want to be able to, be of service, not only to those within our community and our region, but for others to see us as a resource to them as well. SUSU has long established its relation to Wyndham County residents through community engagement activities at a local farm whereby we were first introduced again under the LLC. That was prior to acquiring the thirty seven acres of our cultural reclamation, which not only serves as an antidote to colonialism and racial capitalism, but serves as a path to climate resilience. Since grounding ourselves in our sanctuary, we've continued to support Wyndham County residents through meaningful community engagement and providing nutritionally add value foods through our CSA project program. Our impact, for example, over the last three years has been that we have been able to engage sixty member households. And just to give a little bit more data, each household typically consists of about four. So that's quite a large number of of members that we are serving compared to, I think, like, how small geographically we are and how much land we're actually activating in the sense of what we're growing. And so that converted to roughly sixteen thousand pounds of fresh produce. And in that was also the dairy, the meat, locally harvested honey, bread, eggs, and so forth. And it has been a really wonderful thing. And these are some of our partners that we've included. And, again, what makes, our relationship very unique is that we actually really move in in, through Hand and Glove in partnership with, Circle Mountain Farm, for example, or Wingate Farm. These are organizations that we actually lean into deeply. When we had funding, we would actually compensate them for x number of pounds, x number of quantity based on the number of, families that we were serving within our CSA box of resilience, to BIPOC families across Windham County. And so, you know, I guess, in a way, what we're hoping for is not only, you know, the the funding source to be able to continue this work on on on the scale which we're at and possibly to scale up more, but I think it's also allowing us to be able to kind of recreate a system that is really fruitful, no pun intended, for our community that we are serving in this area. And so some things that we've considered and looked into is, again, as Amber had alluded to, the sugar tax bill, you know, and looking at kind of what Seattle had done. And I know that there have been some bills similarly within Vermont that have been introduced around creating this this model. But I think what was really fascinating in the takeaway was just how much money they had seen in just the first few years that they were able to actually tangibly turn that into grants for organizations within the community. Some of those organizations are grassroots organizations similarly to farms, and in addition to, like, child and health, services. And so for now, our immediate ask, again, would be a a line item within the state budget with the idea that maybe over time, once we can kind of test the model, I believe this is you know, we're considering this a kind of a pilot phase. But I think once we've been able to really test the model and see the fruition, of of our work, through the support of of, you know, your committee to move to see whether or not we can actually reintroduce a bill that would be, you know, elusive for now and certainly into the future of of CSU and beyond. So why now? Again, as I spoke to a little bit earlier, we know. Right? We're we're not turning a blind eye or refuse to turn a blind eye to what we're seeing that's happening in the political landscape. And so we know that the farm bill was extended a bit. We also know that there's quite a bit of things that are being dismantled, whether that's the SNAP program, whether that's CDFIs potentially. And and so what again, the importance right now that I think we're looking to is that the need for families and communities across, Vermont or even the region, it's a basic need. We know that there are individuals that are going without at this moment in time, especially with the high increase of costs on on foods that are in the local market. And so we want to be able to kind of continue to to serve in that gap in the interim and for the long term. We imagine a world where food accessibility is readily available within our communities. And we know that DEI is being, you know, dismantled. It's being chipped away. And so we don't we ask that you see this as not only supporting, of course, BIPOC, but also disadvantaged farming community members. Those might be a mom and pop shop. And that might even just be a small group of folks that are actually doing something where they started to grow an item, and they decided to move it to an add value. We understand that we're not in this alone, and so we are here not only speaking on our behalf, but on behalf of our farm partners, Windham County and all of Vermont. Thank you again for your time, and certainly happy to answer any questions that you might have. [Chair David Durfee]: Thank you, Krista and Amber. And Krista, did you I have a question. I'm not sure whether to direct it to you. Did you say that you have only been part of the community for the past year or so? Or [Krista McClure]: yes. [Chair David Durfee]: Correct. Well, I'll I'll post the question to whomever. We're we're, recently aware of federal action on two programs that have brought grant money into the state for the last several years. The local food purchase assistance program and the food for school childcare programs. And in one of the news articles I read about this, I think I saw Susu mentioned as a grant recipient in a previous year. If you if either of you could confirm that and tell us what that grant money helped you do, I think it would be, useful for us to understand a little bit more about SUSU's work, but also about that program, which is apparently now, in jeopardy or or terminated. [Amber Arnold]: Yeah. We have we received the LFPA grant the past two years, and that was another grant along with the Vermonters Feeding Vermonter that was very, very crucial and substantial in us being able to fund our CSA program. Because as we were sharing before, our CSA program is a free program for Wyndham County members who identify as people of color or have people of color living in their households. And, over the past few years, we've served sixty families, so a bit over two hundred and fifty people. And that program allowed us to purchase to grow food on our farm for the CSA boxes and to also purchase food from other local disadvantaged farmers in Vermont. And so we were able to use that funding to purchase eggs and bread and meat and beans and vegetables and items like that for our CSA boxes, which allowed us to provide boxes that included, like, very nutrient dense, like, full, you know, like, meals throughout the whole entire week so that people could have everything that they needed it to really thrive in their bodies. Okay. [Chair David Durfee]: Do you happen to remember how how large the grant was that you received? [Amber Arnold]: I believe Naomi probably has the or you might have the exact numbers. I believe it was fifty thousand dollars. [Chair David Durfee]: Okay. That that that's good enough. Yeah. We we were taking some testimony or hoping to later this week on those two programs. And that that's just a good sense of what the, you know, a size of the of the typical grant might have been. That's helpful. Representative Lipsky, question. [Representative Jed Lipsky]: Yeah. What does LFPA stand for? [Amber Arnold]: Local food assistance purchase program or pro something like local food assistance. I think it is local food. [Chair David Durfee]: Local food purchase assistance, I think, is the the name of the program. Yeah. [Representative Richard Nelson]: Actually, thank you. [Chair David Durfee]: Yep. Many other questions for SUSU. I thought you were gonna ask what does SUSU stand for and maybe you said that or maybe it doesn't stand for anything. But if there's For her. Okay. Somebody was paying better attention. Yeah. He can stand for something. Yeah. Can you can you elaborate, Amber? [Amber Arnold]: Yeah. So Susu is a word is a West African word often spelled s u s o u s o u. And so our spelling is a plan, that word. And in many West African communities, the Susu is well, that is, for example, where we got our, cooperative banking models from in the United States. But the practice of the SUSU in West Africa and in the Caribbean Islands is a practice of resource sharing where people as a community come together, each person puts money into a communal pool, and then that money rotates to a different member of the community so that everybody can afford to do something like build a house or things that would otherwise not be possible without community support. And so we use the word susu. It operates that way, but also in a lot of West African traditions. Susu is also a culture. It's a way that we take care of each other, and it's an ethos and a way that we see ourselves not as individual people looking out for ourselves, but as our commitments caring for each other and sharing resources. And so for us, we use the word susu to mean community reciprocity for the healing and affirming of all of our people. So it's a practice of everybody has something to give to community, and everyone has something to receive from community. [Chair David Durfee]: K. Welcome. Alright. Any other any other thoughts? I don't see any other hands up. So any other thoughts that you wanted to share, either Krista or Amber? [Krista McClure]: Yeah. I think I'll just add. So I wanna answer kind of the question around some of the funding that I know that you were speaking to that has been cut. There's a great portion of our funding has been cut due to the impacts of, kind of more of, like, local funding that's been cut. The Vermont Food Bank as an example. And so while we face those, impacts, right, the trickle down effect, I think it's really important that I wanna uplift that what we're trying to do is something different than just being a service provider partner. As Amber was speaking to around, like, what SUSU is, it is moving in Unisom and in parallel with our other partners. We are fortunate to be, beneficiaries beneficiaries of funding simply because we're a five zero one c three. However, we know that quite a bit of farmers across the country, not just Vermont, but across the country, are actually either an LLC or a b corp or a corp of some some sort. And so we kind of are not only seeing ourselves as being a partner to those entities, right, in order to be able to have supplemental produce or products to be able to place into our CSA boxes. But we also wanna see ourselves in having more of an immersive and deeper relationship, again, than just being a service provider. We really wanna see kind of more of a communal approach to really addressing the gaps that we're seeing and that we're facing, and how do we move into healthier practices even around farming, right, or or or conservation of of land. How do we take some of the resources and knowledge that we're receiving at Sault Ste, which is great in abundance? We have great local partners. We have some national partners as well. How can we take what we're learning and apply it across, our network of of farm partners? So I just wanted to speak to that as well. [Amber Arnold]: Yeah. And just to add a little bit to what Christa was sharing, like, I have a lot of gratitude for us being able to receive funding and work in partnership with the food bank and with the LFPA. And one of the things that is very, very crucial and important for us to be able to see is that this opportunity and what's happening now is an opportunity for us to really look at and reimagine how we're funding and how we're moving money and resources and supporting disadvantaged farmers, people of color farmers. Because often what's happening is that we're moving large amounts of money to institutions and organizations who are not local farmers. These are not people who are in our communities are actually farming food, and then that money is getting distributed to local farmers in in very tiny amounts in ways that has very little wiggle room and isn't always adaptive and responsive to the needs of local farming communities. And so what we're wanting to do with this funding is really create a model where we can create a responsive and fluid system where we are bringing together local farm partners throughout the state of Vermont so that we can actually share resources, share ways and techniques of learning how to actually care for, work with the land, and understand how to be adaptive and to work with the different impacts of climate change to actually you know, one of the things that we at SUSU do is we actually go into our communities in the Caribbean and different places to actually learn from our elders and teachers who are protecting land and learn the farming practices of our people. And so we wanna create a space where we can all come together and share the different ways that we actually grow food and care for the land in a way that creates climate resilience rather than continually pulling resources out of the land, which actually further perpetuates climate change. Or no shade to the USDA, but, for example, when we have programs where we're just massively spreading one type of tree all along riparian buffers to try and prevent flooding, what actually happens is that attracts large amounts of pests because it's one kind of tree and there's no biodiversity, which then it creates all of these different pro issues. There is a beauty that happens with biodiversity that we have to be in deep relationship with if we really want to navigate climate change and we really want to build strong in food strong food systems. And to build strong food systems, we need to heavily invest in local food growing networks so that we, as farmers, can really foundations that can be responsive to, all of the different things that are happening in our environment right now and that we can really bring this money and resource into our community. So when we have lots of money going to food programs that are heavily emphasizing canned food, which has very low nutrient quality and doesn't actually provide the nutrient density that people need to be healthy and well, what is happening is that money is all going out of our state. It's going to large corporations that are actually causing a lot of harm. And so we want to create systems where we're actually bringing resources back into our local farming networks in a way that is growing food for our communities, growing nutrient dense food for our communities, not just vegetables that are void of the minerals and nutrients we need to be well, but that also those resources are going to resource farmers who are really starting to learn and share resources with one another around how to build climate resilient systems so that both of those things are happening and they're not separate from one another. And that's one of the major reasons why we want to create this pilot program where we can really start to kind of, like, bring all of these pieces together that we oftentimes are putting in different buckets of climate change and flooding and all of these things. They all deeply impact one another, and they all have to happen on a local communal scale. And we need to bring these groups of people together to be able to learn and build systems that are responsive and that are very, very localized so that they can actually make sense for the communities that, we have right here in Vermont and the needs of the landscape here. [Chair David Durfee]: Well, we have Dana Vossen. [Michelle Bos-Lun]: Yeah. I just thought of a question. So I'm wondering, in terms of your CSAs that you were talking about, are they a hundred percent scholarship? Or does anybody like, if people don't have a low income need, are are there do some people buy in for the CSA, or everybody's scholarship on those? [Amber Arnold]: Currently, they are all, they're all grant funded. [Michelle Bos-Lun]: Have you ever thought of adapting that so that your funds could go farther and you could provide some through grants and others through people that are that are buying it? [Amber Arnold]: Mhmm. Yeah. That is something that we have been exploring. [Chair David Durfee]: K. Thanks. Well, I, really appreciate your coming in today. And, I imagine on a nice day like this, you might be actually doing some farming work. So, we'll we'll let you go. And, I know Representative Supernacht, who is not with us today is sorry that she missed your testimony and perhaps she'll be in touch separately. But thank you again. And, we committee will take, we've got, our next witness is already in the room, but I think we'll take ten minutes and then we'll come in and, have to walk through that next step.

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SmartTranscript of House Agriculture – 2025-03-19 – 9:40AM

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