Vermont Legislature SmartTranscripts:

[Rep. David Durfee (Chair)]: And the senate then accepted our they concurred with our proposal amendment a couple of weeks ago, and then it went to the governor. And the governor has signed it, so it is now in law. S-sixty? S-sixty, yep. That's There's no money yet, yep. So that's happening. That conversation will be happening in the appropriations process. But in the meantime, the governor's staff, they always review bills before he takes any action. They identified a small inconsistency between two sections actually on who had the final authority to authorize award payments or grant payments. But careful, I'll keep that language. I can't remember which it is there. But there was this inconsistency, and the governor's office reached out to me and to Senator Ingalls to say, want to flag this for you. Governor would like to sign the bill, but just would ask that the legislature take some action to resolve this inconsistency. Senator Ingalls and I will go on board with that. So, if you read his statement, you'll notice that it said something to that effect. So, we'll be either asked to put something in the budget or maybe it would fit in our miscellaneous ag bill or Senate's miscellaneous ag bill. There's a germaneness question there and I don't necessarily know the answer, but we'll figure that out.

[Rep. John O'Brien]: Now that it's existing statute, we could add an amendment, even in the same session.

[Rep. David Durfee (Chair)]: Other bills, so we've got Most of our bills are now out of the House and are in the Senate. I know that the Senate AG is looking at five seventy three today and has invited maybe I don't know if you've gotten asked to come in, John, but I don't know. That's Paraguay? 537?

[Rep. John O'Brien]: 739.

[Rep. David Durfee (Chair)]: 739. Sorry. Boy, I these numbers are all all these odd number builds. I

[Unidentified Committee Member]: was invited in to speak to it.

[Rep. John O'Brien]: Right.

[Unidentified Committee Member]: Yeah. And and I said, you know, I let them know that you presented the bill. Yeah. So when they're supposed to send an invitation to you as a presenter of the bill, and they still want me to go down. I

[Rep. David Durfee (Chair)]: love Fairmont.

[Unidentified Committee Member]: Yeah. Yeah. And my stance hasn't changed. It's exactly the way it came out of this committee. I'm I'm fine with that. And she probably talked to Greg too. Yeah, they could.

[Rep. David Durfee (Chair)]: Then, Michelle, you went off to another committee to

[Rep. Michelle Bos-Lun]: That was about the right to garden yesterday. And they seemed to think it was not controversial and they were very happy with it. So it it went to the economic housing and general affairs committee And they thought the right to garden sounded lovely. They were very encouraging.

[Rep. David Durfee (Chair)]: Okay. Good. Richard, did you have you heard anything about? I have heard

[Rep. Richard Nelson (Ranking Member)]: nothing on baby formula. I don't know. Maybe you could check

[Rep. David Durfee (Chair)]: and see where it was sent. Yeah. And if you have a colleague on whatever committee Yep. Sent to her or somebody who you Yeah.

[Unidentified Committee Member]: Chat with me. That one, we're gonna We're gonna have to watch out for that one because nefarious actors. Okay. Alright. Let's get Mary Katherine. Oh. Oh. And and Ashley Bartlett. Good. Ashley gave a great score speech on that as well, and Mary Katherine, and all the other mothers.

[Rep. David Durfee (Chair)]: We are not sure where we are with the bill that Jed reported on, but that's probably in the environment committee or natural resources committee senate. So remind me to check-in with him on that. Miscellaneous ag bill that Greg reported on is also in the Senate Ag Committee where you would expect it to be. I think they took testimony on that who are scheduled through this week also. Do I leave anything out of all the bills? And, of course, the municipal ag bill has their readings today, and then we'll be done. And no April fools.

[Rep. Richard Nelson (Ranking Member)]: Did

[Unidentified Committee Member]: you know what I wanted to do, Michelle?

[Rep. David Durfee (Chair)]: Yes, I

[Unidentified Committee Member]: wanted to stand up and ask some speaker if we could kick 09:41 down the road one legislative day in the spirit of the day that today is.

[Rep. Michelle Bos-Lun]: I don't think we wanted to

[Unidentified Committee Member]: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Well, I will

[Rep. David Durfee (Chair)]: We could have Jed interrogate the chair. I think a good day not to be here.

[Unidentified Committee Member]: Oh, Jed's gonna be back.

[Rep. David Durfee (Chair)]: So the plan, just sort of long term going forward, is to we're going be working on the Senate miscellaneous Ag bill. We'll get somebody in here. You'll have so tomorrow we've got the agency coming in to speak to a couple of short sections on pesticides. There's the pesticide compact repeal, which I think well, shouldn't be controversial. I would like to hear a little bit more about that. And then there was a section dealing with the number of times you get to get licensed to be a certified applicator. So we'll try and deal with those tomorrow. And then we've got kind of a lot to talk about with the hemp piece of it still, if you may not dig into that until next week. And there's also the seed part, which seems to be a long interesting section. We'll spend some time with that.

[Unidentified Committee Member]: Are there bills in other committees on our side that came over from senate that had any jurisdiction in this room as well?

[Rep. David Durfee (Chair)]: Not that I know of, but possibly. And the by the that does remind me, though, that the hemp piece of our bill may might be of interest to Judiciary. Or go to ops. Yeah. I I don't know. There's also lots of bills that are still in that, you know, that half of of our wall that we could revisit and see if we want to put into 323 if it's your name.

[Rep. John O'Brien]: Dave, how does it work? I'm thinking about 181 and s 325. How does it work when, you know, it's not like that bill would be assigned to us. But given the discussion about tier three, it's a lot of our constituency, farmers, it's loggers, it's rural Vermont are affected by that. And if there are going to be any changes, how could this committee have discussions or hear testimony on that? We're not really allowed to.

[Rep. David Durfee (Chair)]: Well, I think we have some leeway. And if there's a section that specifically mentions agriculture, that gives us more, or forestry, more. But I think that we can also go and sit in on hearings and have a committee. The tier, I have spoken to the chair, the board just to be sure that farming and forestry under two fifty feet are exempt from F250, tier one, tier two, tier three. So that does change. There is the question about roads, driveways.

[Rep. John O'Brien]: As what Alison was talking about yesterday, if your residential home and your sugar house are on the same lot.

[Rep. David Durfee (Chair)]: Yeah, yeah. Or if you're farming or if you want to build farm housing, is not accepted.

[Rep. Michelle Bos-Lun]: In terms of the idea of taking a small bill and adding it onto a miscellaneous, I'm wondering about rep O'Brien's bill about compostable stickers. We just heard about that the other day. I feel like we took a baby amount of testimony on that at one point.

[Rep. David Durfee (Chair)]: Very little, yeah.

[Rep. Michelle Bos-Lun]: But it feels like it might be a decent idea.

[Rep. David Durfee (Chair)]: Yeah, think so too. And while it's fresh, maybe Patricia, we could start with the retail Vermont Retail Grocers Association. Our buddy. We've had them in. And

[Rep. Michelle Bos-Lun]: Okay. They're gonna love us this year if we ask the bills that are gonna change retail

[Rep. David Durfee (Chair)]: stuff, but

[Rep. Michelle Bos-Lun]: that's all.

[Patricia (Committee Assistant)]: Reach out to them.

[Rep. David Durfee (Chair)]: Who do you so do you know the bill we're talking about, Patricia? It's

[Rep. Michelle Bos-Lun]: It's $4.78.

[Patricia (Committee Assistant)]: $4.78. Okay.

[Rep. David Durfee (Chair)]: Is that you can give

[Unidentified Committee Member]: it to me? The only thing, Michelle, we talked about formula. I don't know if Vermont's a big enough state to move the bar, you know, how many bushels of Chiquita bananas come into Vermont. I agree with it 100%.

[Rep. David Durfee (Chair)]: John, who would you, that's certainly big question, but who else do you think you like to hear from?

[Rep. John O'Brien]: I mean, it'd be interesting to hear, say somebody knows about places that have done this already, like the EU, are working towards it. It may not even be an EU-

[Rep. Michelle Bos-Lun]: Have any states done

[Rep. Richard Nelson (Ranking Member)]: it yet?

[Rep. David Durfee (Chair)]: Yeah, California, I don't know.

[Rep. John O'Brien]: I mean, I think that the obvious thing, I mean, first step would just be to transition to a non biodegradable sticker rather than vinyl.

[Unidentified Committee Member]: Why does mosquito need to have a sticker on them at all?

[Rep. David Durfee (Chair)]: Maybe you could check-in with the state councils, state legislators, and CSL. They can tell you if anybody else who's done it. Okay. Let Council maybe has that answer too. Could

[Rep. Michelle Bos-Lun]: we do it where we just require Vermont labeled products to be as a start? We could do a phase in. Vermont labeled products must be labeled with biodegradable things. And we could put some kind of future thing about if there are other states. We're getting good at that. Well, it's just phased

[Rep. David Durfee (Chair)]: into it so

[Rep. John O'Brien]: we give people enough time.

[Rep. David Durfee (Chair)]: Yeah, there's also, well, there are stickers that come on the fruit when it comes into the state, and then there are stickers that are applied in the state. So maybe there's a distinction that we can make there. It would be useful to add some, just in to know why, what the requirements are when labels are required by law somewhere, and why they ended up being the, you know, why does everyone have one, every little piece of fruit have one, and why are they made of plastic? Right. Why did all that happen that way? And why is there a reason we need to keep doing it that way? Is AI answering that question?

[Rep. Michelle Bos-Lun]: Well, there's a handful of states that have enacted strict laws about labeling with compostable stickers and packaging. So California, Washington, Colorado, Maryland and Minnesota. They're on fruit? Just says compostable materials, stickers and packaging. So, yeah, I would assume that would be for everything.

[Rep. David Durfee (Chair)]: Do do you wanna do we wanna have the groceries in or do you wanna do a little research first? Let's do a little research first. Okay. So, miss Patricia, obey that instruction.

[Patricia (Committee Assistant)]: So, yeah, I won't I won't move on that.

[Unidentified Committee Member]: Okay.

[Patricia (Committee Assistant)]: If there's any help I can give with research, let me know.

[Rep. David Durfee (Chair)]: Oh, thank you. All right. Like infant formula all over, yeah. Okay, good, good.

[Rep. Michelle Bos-Lun]: Looks like we already have a few states ahead of us, so this might be an easier one.

[Rep. David Durfee (Chair)]: We are going to have the agency person of Abby Willer to buy next on Maple. Morning, Abby. Good morning. You sharing your screen today?

[Abby Willard (Director, Agriculture Development, Vermont Agency of Agriculture, Food & Markets)]: I'm hoping to.

[Rep. David Durfee (Chair)]: Is this

[Rep. Michelle Bos-Lun]: your water bottle, Abby? No, that is Zach's.

[Unidentified Committee Member]: Oh. Zach left it here and I'll Agency. I can bring it over for now. You could bring it over for a minute. That'd be great because I told I called up I called over there and said he'd love to hear Okay. Maybe I'd run it over. It's either Zach's or the maple lady.

[Rep. David Durfee (Chair)]: Allison. Oh, yeah. I think it's

[Abby Willard (Director, Agriculture Development, Vermont Agency of Agriculture, Food & Markets)]: The color of maybe Allison's, but I don't know for sure.

[Rep. David Durfee (Chair)]: Let me if

[Rep. Michelle Bos-Lun]: she needs a maple sticker on it, then you would know.

[Abby Willard (Director, Agriculture Development, Vermont Agency of Agriculture, Food & Markets)]: I have, that's true. It could be Zach's, I don't mean to prejudge.

[Unidentified Committee Member]: Let me send out a little text still on that.

[Rep. David Durfee (Chair)]: Can we have it?

[Unidentified Committee Member]: Taking me just a minute to get Good morning, Tucker.

[Tucker (Director, Food Safety & Consumer Protection Division, Vermont Agency of Agriculture, Food & Markets)]: Hi, good morning.

[Rep. David Durfee (Chair)]: Can we hear

[Tucker (Director, Food Safety & Consumer Protection Division, Vermont Agency of Agriculture, Food & Markets)]: you okay?

[Rep. David Durfee (Chair)]: Yeah, we can hear you fine. I think Abby's just getting ready to share her screen. While we're waiting for that, we should have somebody hold up the little sample of very fancy Vermont syrup.

[Rep. Michelle Bos-Lun]: Said it was his lightest syrup he ever made.

[Rep. David Durfee (Chair)]: That is like incredibly light. Yeah,

[Unidentified Committee Member]: it is.

[Rep. Michelle Bos-Lun]: How's your taste? Said,

[Unidentified Committee Member]: Open it up. And I said, I'll wait till you hear.

[Abby Willard (Director, Agriculture Development, Vermont Agency of Agriculture, Food & Markets)]: I'm curious. I'm sure that's where he is today. Yeah. We did run all

[Rep. David Durfee (Chair)]: night. Good.

[Rep. Richard Nelson (Ranking Member)]: No. Frozen all this morning.

[Abby Willard (Director, Agriculture Development, Vermont Agency of Agriculture, Food & Markets)]: Well, that's good to hear. I know that season's not been a full season quite yet. So

[Rep. Richard Nelson (Ranking Member)]: But we got bugs.

[Abby Willard (Director, Agriculture Development, Vermont Agency of Agriculture, Food & Markets)]: I think you do already.

[Rep. Richard Nelson (Ranking Member)]: So I know.

[Unidentified Committee Member]: That's not good.

[Patricia (Committee Assistant)]: Abby, I've made you a co host, Abby.

[Abby Willard (Director, Agriculture Development, Vermont Agency of Agriculture, Food & Markets)]: Thank you.

[Unidentified Committee Member]: Greg's got snowed meaty up his words.

[Abby Willard (Director, Agriculture Development, Vermont Agency of Agriculture, Food & Markets)]: That's it. That's variability of the state. It's

[Rep. John O'Brien]: his pee is already here.

[Unidentified Committee Member]: Really? And I came over. I note I looked today coming down Route 12 up over the honey. There's a lot of snow along Route 12. A lot of sky. Yeah.

[Rep. David Durfee (Chair)]: Okay. There's all

[Rep. Richard Nelson (Ranking Member)]: getting that at once.

[Rep. David Durfee (Chair)]: Did your town get savaged by those storms last night that were running across the banner on my TV? No. I yesterday morning, I woke up at six to thunder. Really? And that, yeah, that went on for quite a while, like forty five minutes of Rainy shots. Sorry. Heavy rain. Yeah. Yep. Oh, last night. There were some Not winds. Just heavy rain.

[Unidentified Committee Member]: There were some pretty severe storms coming through down south.

[Rep. David Durfee (Chair)]: Channel that goes, like, right through Albany that you must get a bunch of down there that you Stuff we don't get. Yeah. Yeah. It's even just between, like, Manchester and Chester, there can be quite a difference too. Not elevation related, just right now, path of storms. Well, good morning, and we can turn it over to you, I guess, Abby.

[Abby Willard (Director, Agriculture Development, Vermont Agency of Agriculture, Food & Markets)]: Okay. Thanks for having the agency in to talk about the maple industry. I think Tucker and I, if the chair permits, we thought we would start by talking about the regulatory and inspection role that the agency plays in the work that Tucker does. And then I'll advance the slides for him, and then I'll talk on the ag development side, talk a little bit about the marketing that we do for Maple, the investments that we've made over the last few years, and then some of the needs that have arised from both the drought survey and some stakeholder conversations. So that's what we were prepared to share with you. Does that align with what the chair and the committee wanted to hear from us?

[Rep. David Durfee (Chair)]: Lines swell, I think. We had yesterday, Alison was in from the association, as you've heard. Yes. And then later this morning, Mark is coming in. Mark is still following you, actually. So we'll for context.

[Abby Willard (Director, Agriculture Development, Vermont Agency of Agriculture, Food & Markets)]: Yeah, Doctor will have great consent. Is Tucker full time maple?

[Rep. David Durfee (Chair)]: I wish you some percentage. Well, Tucker can

[Abby Willard (Director, Agriculture Development, Vermont Agency of Agriculture, Food & Markets)]: tell you all about it if you want to start to hear from him. I think we've had some changes at the agency and trying to really carve out the capacity to invest existing staff positions on both the regulatory and inspection side and on the development side. So I think we probably have 1.25 FTEs total at the agency that are really working on Maple. That's my guess. Tucker, I don't know what you would say.

[Tucker (Director, Food Safety & Consumer Protection Division, Vermont Agency of Agriculture, Food & Markets)]: Yeah. I think that's a good ballpark.

[Rep. David Durfee (Chair)]: Yeah. Madison's name came up this year.

[Abby Willard (Director, Agriculture Development, Vermont Agency of Agriculture, Food & Markets)]: And Madison. Right. So Madison is the team member from within the ag development, the division that does most of the maple work. Then we have other staff within our marketing team that have done some of the maple marketing projects. Okay. Okay. Great. I think you're ready to go, Tucker. You can tell me when you want me to advance the slides.

[Tucker (Director, Food Safety & Consumer Protection Division, Vermont Agency of Agriculture, Food & Markets)]: Yeah, thank you. Sorry, I can't be there in person today. Yeah, so just to I'll start with just a little introduction from myself. I am the director of our food safety and consumer protection division. This is relatively recent for me. Our previous director, Eby Florrie, decided to take a bit of a step back and just focus primarily on the dairy program and is actually on some medical leave right now. So, my role has changed slightly, but I'm still involved in Maple Maple. And between me and another one of our inspectors within the division, we are kind of the the Maple regulatory specialists. So I can yeah. That's why I I can talk quite a bit about Maple as being one of those specialists from from the beginning. And I put together about 10 slides. I'm not sure how interested you are in in any of these topics, but just as an overview of some of the activities that we're doing. Thanks, Abby. So as Abby mentioned, I can I can talk to the kind of regulatory aspect of it, and then Abby can share more of the promotional and the development part? But just to introduce the regulatory aspects that we do, it kind of falls into two categories. One is doing retail inspection, and the other one is a newer activity, but is to actually go and inspect our licensed processors. And so the the the retail inspections are actually looking at product offer for sale in the store to make sure they're meeting grade standards and labeling requirements. The inspections of the processors is a little bit different, and I'll get into that in future slides, but it's basically to make sure that they are meeting the food safety, the quality and some of the record keeping requirements that we have in statute and in regulation. So, next slide. So, and feel free to stop me at any point if you have questions. I'll start with the licensed dealer and processor inspections because this is somewhat new. We've always had this license that that hasn't changed. Right now, we have about 28 licensees under these licenses and they're very specific. And so the wording is right there on the slide if you're curious, but it's basically license for anyone who purchases over a thousand gallons or the higher level 2,500 gallons, for repacking, and reprocessing. So these are basically the 28 licensees under this category is basically our biggest maple packers. These are the the big names in the industry that are packing, you know, estimates of maybe 80% or more of all the syrup that gets produced would need one of these licenses. So next slide, please.

[Unidentified Committee Member]: Tucker?

[Tucker (Director, Food Safety & Consumer Protection Division, Vermont Agency of Agriculture, Food & Markets)]: Yep.

[Rep. David Durfee (Chair)]: The distinction between dealer and processor is partly the number of gallons, but also processing is is in the definition of processor?

[Tucker (Director, Food Safety & Consumer Protection Division, Vermont Agency of Agriculture, Food & Markets)]: Yes. The I'm not entirely sure why that wording is slightly different between the two, to be to be honest, but the the main difference is the the volume or or the quantity purchased. And these like I said, like, this licenses has existed for quite a while, and these thresholds of a thousand and 2,500 are maybe they don't quite match with what the scales that we see among the licensees. There are some that are really, really big and then some that are smaller. So I'm not really sure why these thresholds were chosen originally, but this is what we we have currently.

[Rep. David Durfee (Chair)]: So so might be a question at some point of examining whether those are reasonable or helpful numbers. It could

[Tucker (Director, Food Safety & Consumer Protection Division, Vermont Agency of Agriculture, Food & Markets)]: be it could be a consideration. Yeah. I think so. They're they also have different license fees. The lower one is 30, and the higher one is a 125.

[Rep. Richard Nelson (Ranking Member)]: So

[Rep. David Durfee (Chair)]: But thank you.

[Tucker (Director, Food Safety & Consumer Protection Division, Vermont Agency of Agriculture, Food & Markets)]: Yep. So, the the new aspect to this is the agency historically used to to visit and and inspect these licensees, but I started in 2016 at the agency and they for whatever reason, those those inspections hadn't really been happening for about past decade or so. And so we felt like it was important to stay connected with these packers that are processing potentially 80%. That that that's a very rough estimate, but some somewhere in that ballpark of all the syrup that's going through the state. And so in 2024, we did outreach to the industry, developed some informational actually did an informational session and recorded it on our website and refined the inspection criteria. Again, nothing is new in these criteria. They're all what's existing in the statute and the regulation, but we were trying to provide some additional education to those licensees and with the approach of beginning renewing those inspections in July 2025. And so if you go to the next slide. So those have begun. We've done about a third of those initial visits to those licensees. And it's been, at least for for me and and my staff, been really helpful and just just really beneficial to to reconnect with some of these really important industry leaders really. And we're also, it's kind of, we're getting educated as we're trying to help educate the industry as well in terms of the criteria. So, we're gonna continue to go through those and we'll we'll probably finish those initial ones by the end of FY twenty seven. And one of the yep. Actually, if you can just Alright. Stay on the for one second. I just wanted to one of the main emphasis of these visits is part of part about our records and traceability. So if a product says it's Vermont maple syrup, how do we know Vermont maple syrup is in that container? And by doing these inspections, this is our one of our best ways to verify that. So they have to have to keep records of the amount of syrup they purchased from Vermont, from Canada, from somewhere else. And part of these visits, we're actually doing some traceability to say, okay, show me a product, let's trace it back to actually the bulk syrup that was put in that package and labeled as Vermont or or not. So in a nutshell, that's kind of one of the key aspects of this inspection, and it really helps us be able to answer that question, which we do get a lot of, how do you know it's Vermont maple syrup? How do you know it it's meeting our standards? So, so that's the process for inspection. We can move forward.

[Rep. David Durfee (Chair)]: Representative O'Brien, question? Doctor, I just wondered.

[Rep. John O'Brien]: Is is does it have to be a 100% Vermont maple syrup?

[Tucker (Director, Food Safety & Consumer Protection Division, Vermont Agency of Agriculture, Food & Markets)]: Yes. To be to be labeled as a Vermont product. Yes.

[Unidentified Committee Member]: Yeah. Pretty good.

[Rep. Richard Nelson (Ranking Member)]: Yeah. Do you now are you doing just in state processing? Or I know there's guys running around from Ohio and different spots trying to buy

[Tucker (Director, Food Safety & Consumer Protection Division, Vermont Agency of Agriculture, Food & Markets)]: service Yes.

[Rep. Richard Nelson (Ranking Member)]: Some county. We regulated.

[Tucker (Director, Food Safety & Consumer Protection Division, Vermont Agency of Agriculture, Food & Markets)]: So we do have they do require a license with us if they're purchasing Vermont syrup. I think the example you shared of if it's the same individual, I've spoken to him several times and and we are working to get that that operation licensed. So, yes, it it can be challenging though to license an out of state organization if they don't have a footprint in Vermont. But but, yeah, short answer is yes. It does apply and we have some Canadian not so sorry. Not actually, we do have some Canadian and New Hampshire businesses as well that are licensed under that. We can't do a physical inspection of them, but what we can do is require those record keeping components.

[Rep. David Durfee (Chair)]: When you say it can be challenging if they don't have a footprint, I mean, I I can imagine that it can be challenging. But is it is it legally challenging or just logistically challenging?

[Tucker (Director, Food Safety & Consumer Protection Division, Vermont Agency of Agriculture, Food & Markets)]: I I would say I guess it's more logistically. Legally, I I couldn't really say it. It hasn't been an issue at this point, but perhaps it could. Mostly most of those that have been have have had that license that are out of state are still physically in the region, like New Hampshire, for example, it gets when it's when we're talking about someone in Ohio, for example, it's it's a little bit different. So but we're working through it and I yeah. I think we're we're getting those that need license license. So

[Rep. David Durfee (Chair)]: These are businesses that are so based somewhere out of state, they're buying syrup, finished syrup, transporting it to another state, and then packaging it as Vermont syrup or not, maybe? Yes. Yes.

[Tucker (Director, Food Safety & Consumer Protection Division, Vermont Agency of Agriculture, Food & Markets)]: So well, they can do both. Right?

[Rep. John O'Brien]: So they can

[Tucker (Director, Food Safety & Consumer Protection Division, Vermont Agency of Agriculture, Food & Markets)]: yeah. Yeah. If they if they label it as Vermont syrup, we need to seek copies of those labels and review the their records, the traceability element to that.

[Rep. David Durfee (Chair)]: Yep. Yep.

[Rep. Richard Nelson (Ranking Member)]: Do not have to bring it back to Vermont, though, to sell?

[Rep. David Durfee (Chair)]: No. Using the

[Rep. Richard Nelson (Ranking Member)]: they're using the Vermont name as a kind of a sales thing. So I can say it's hard to drive out there. Skip syrup from all over syrup countries, so we ended up gotta you gotta know about people in the stores. We're gonna give them the amount of syrup to place the top of that.

[Rep. David Durfee (Chair)]: While we're on the while we're on the subject, if some if we if it hasn't gotten disturbed yet, if it's SAP or concentrated SAP, are you are you also regulating that, and is that an issue at all?

[Tucker (Director, Food Safety & Consumer Protection Division, Vermont Agency of Agriculture, Food & Markets)]: This license wouldn't apply to SAP. It's only for the sale of the purchase of syrup. So that wouldn't be that wouldn't be licensed or regulated in the same way.

[Rep. John O'Brien]: John? I wondered if because Vermont maple syrup has a certain cachet whether almost no Vermont maple syrup gets blended into something that just says maple syrup? Is it pretty much all Vermont maple syrup, whether it goes to Bascome or butter or not or wherever, does it all end up as Vermont maple syrup pretty much?

[Tucker (Director, Food Safety & Consumer Protection Division, Vermont Agency of Agriculture, Food & Markets)]: I think that'd be a good question for the industry and maybe the association. I know anecdotally that I don't believe that's always the case. And but I think the producers could probably speak better to that. I know sometimes it can be tricky when especially when you're when it's like they've got a product that needs to be organic or conventional and they have a let's say a contract with a retailer and just maintaining that contract specifications sometimes can be tricky. And so, that might be part of a reason why a Vermont syrup would be packaged into something that's ultimately not labeled as just Vermont.

[Rep. John O'Brien]: Tucker, in general, those processors you just mentioned and dealers, they would be, for example, the ones who if they have a contract with Costco, the Vermont Maple Surf, they would actually do the bottling and provide the retailer with it?

[Tucker (Director, Food Safety & Consumer Protection Division, Vermont Agency of Agriculture, Food & Markets)]: Yes.

[Rep. John O'Brien]: Okay. Well, that's big keyless.

[Unidentified Committee Member]: And given really out of Maple Grove, but they don't call it maple syrup. But it is a Vermont well, theoretically, a Vermont maple product unless they get stuff in Canada, repackage it. Cracker Barrel.

[Abby Willard (Director, Agriculture Development, Vermont Agency of Agriculture, Food & Markets)]: Mhmm.

[Unidentified Committee Member]: You know, prior to 2009, they used to be pure maple syrup, of course, prices and pallets. Better than Aunt Jemima, but it's 55% maple and 45% cane syrup, but they don't claim it to be pure maple syrup.

[Tucker (Director, Food Safety & Consumer Protection Division, Vermont Agency of Agriculture, Food & Markets)]: And on that topic, we we also review labels. So when they're when they have come up with a new product like like something like that would be a blended product, we can give them feedback on what specifically they need on that label. And in that case, it needs to have that percentage of maple syrup. Okay. The next category of inspections is the retail inspection. So, is actually looking at any maple product off for sale at point of sale. And we've been doing this for about five years now and every year we post a summary on the website, on our agency website. And it just so happens that last year was not a great year for first compliance. We've seen this is probably our lowest year of a pass rate of 50%. I think it's typically in the 60s, maybe low 70s but that's what it was this year. If you next slide.

[Rep. Michelle Bos-Lun]: Can I ask a What question would make you not pass inspection? Like what would be the problems because that's a lot of problems.

[Tucker (Director, Food Safety & Consumer Protection Division, Vermont Agency of Agriculture, Food & Markets)]: It is. So if we go to the next slide, I've got a Okay. A chart for

[Rep. Michelle Bos-Lun]: Oh, there we go. Okay.

[Tucker (Director, Food Safety & Consumer Protection Division, Vermont Agency of Agriculture, Food & Markets)]: Yeah. And so this is the breakdown of what would have caused something to to not pass an inspection. The inspection is looking at the quality standards for grade a maple and that includes color, flavor, clarity, density and labeling. And as you can see here, by and far the biggest issue is color. And this is a well known issue across the industry and there aren't many good ways to avoid having syrup darken, particularly in plastic containers over time. It will naturally do that in a plastic container and if it darkens beyond the color limit for that grade, it will technically be out of grade. Now, it would technically fail an inspection. It is not a very critical issue, I would say. It's more of a technical grade violation. The syrup is perfectly fine. It could simply be regraded with the darker grade if it's too dark and to be sold. So, it does account for most of the issues, but I would say it's more of a technical issue. The ones that we tend to focus more on or would be more critical are, I would say, this chart would be low density and off flavor. Low density

[Unidentified Committee Member]: Tucker, could you explain to us you you have really I believe we have pretty strict standards on density. And what would be the issue with too high a density?

[Tucker (Director, Food Safety & Consumer Protection Division, Vermont Agency of Agriculture, Food & Markets)]: Yeah. So to there there is a technical maximum of density for grade a syrup. So that's what we're looking for. If it if it if a syrup is too dense, it can crystallize. The sugar crystals can crystallize and be visible there. Again, high densities, I would I would say it's more of a technical violation because there is a range in in the in the in the rules. But the low density is really what's more critical. At low density, that's where we see we're concerned about mold forming and the quality of the syrup really, deteriorating. And and also the it's also not meeting our Vermont standard, which is slightly higher than other states. And so, if I were to put emphasis on any of these, I would probably put it on low density and the off flavors. And together they were about 26% from last year.

[Rep. David Durfee (Chair)]: I have a question about the color. You said that it will darken in plastic over time but I thought the color also related to flavor. So as it darkens over time, does the flavor change? Is that the whole issue when we did the regrading was color standard and relating it to flavor. Yeah. Does it actually change flavor as it gets darker over time?

[Tucker (Director, Food Safety & Consumer Protection Division, Vermont Agency of Agriculture, Food & Markets)]: Yeah, I think this is It's also a good question for for Marcus Ehlhard, think. He he would have like a pretty good perspective on this. I don't think it has that that big of an effect on the flavor having done creating for for quite a while now. Could there be an effect? Yes. I'd be interested to hear if Mark feels strongly one way or the other. But we are we are looking for flavor, and they the flavor should be within the grade that it's labeled as. But our emphasis when we're checking for flavor is primarily to pick up off flavors. And those are things that could be some of the natural off flavors, body metabolism, for example, or other off flavors that could indicate something went wrong in production and there might be something in that syrup that's not safe or that shouldn't be there. So, any type of chemical or metallic off flavor and ferment sour syrup are big ones too. And so, those are those are certainly one of the emphasis that we have when we're doing these inspections at retail. And you can keep your own RV.

[Rep. Richard Nelson (Ranking Member)]: Since everyone's gone to tubing also, you don't get the, the mouse in the sap bucket. That always added Oh, flavors.

[Tucker (Director, Food Safety & Consumer Protection Division, Vermont Agency of Agriculture, Food & Markets)]: Never say never.

[Rep. David Durfee (Chair)]: Tucker? I just wondered on flavor, is there a way to scientifically test for flavor?

[Rep. John O'Brien]: I mean, we all like buddy syrup or metallic syrup, but it seems like a lot of that would be more in the tasters taste buds.

[Tucker (Director, Food Safety & Consumer Protection Division, Vermont Agency of Agriculture, Food & Markets)]: Yeah, that is a really good question and I would suggest sharing that with Marcus Hart as well. Myself and my other maple inspector were lucky enough to join a sensory panel, sensory panel training with Mark and some other experts at UVM Extension to basically practice doing exactly that is practice evaluating flavor specifically maple syrup in a more scientific way. And this is through the sensory training. I would the reason I'm deferring to Mark is because he has done a lot more of that training than I have and can speak to some of the really the specifics of how that training is designed. But it is designed to give more of an objective analysis of what we're tasting when we're talking about flavor.

[Rep. John O'Brien]: Great. Thank you.

[Tucker (Director, Food Safety & Consumer Protection Division, Vermont Agency of Agriculture, Food & Markets)]: I I know Abby has several slides too. So, I'll try and just breeze through these ones. These are some of the characteristics that we are looking at when we're doing grading and whenever we're doing this, we're also giving feedback to the producer to help them identify what the problem could have been. And so, when it's color, are a bunch of different instruments that a producer might use to look at color and they they all have pros and cons. So, a lot of them are using the temporary grading kit provided by the association, which is great. It's cheap. It's easy to use, but it doesn't last forever. And there are some more durable, equipment they can use. Some of them are more expensive than others. But, it's an issue of color, we'll talk about some of the instruments and their pros and cons. And you can go to the next slide. Again, for density, Vermont has a slightly higher density standard than USDA and most other states. Our hydrometers are all must be inspected by our Weights and Measures lab down in Randolph. And, you know, we're using hydrometers when we're doing our field inspections to check for density. And they're a great piece of equipment, but they don't last forever and sometimes the best solution is replace the old hydrometers that might have done a great job for many years, but having some newer ones and some ones to test against each other can be really helpful to know when one hydrometer might be no longer reading accurately. So

[Rep. David Durfee (Chair)]: Tucker, is the difference between Vermont standard for density and others other jurisdictions perceptible to a a consumer?

[Tucker (Director, Food Safety & Consumer Protection Division, Vermont Agency of Agriculture, Food & Markets)]: I I think that's that's part of the goal. The higher density will base it's basically means there's more sugar in Vermont maple syrup than, than someone else's syrup. And the, the viscosity, the, the mouth feel might be slightly different. I would say that's what a trained flavored grater might say. Your average customer, they might might tell the difference. They might not. I I don't know.

[Unidentified Committee Member]: But but they're pancakes. They what? The stickability of pancakes. You know?

[Rep. David Durfee (Chair)]: Representative Brigham.

[Rep. Richard Nelson (Ranking Member)]: So something we're doing different this year, The packer we sell to in Johnson there, he's we're putting a thermometer when we fill the barrel, and we're having to record the temperature along with the reading on the hydrometer. We've been testing two ways. We have one of those cups with the thermometer on the side. You know, try to do it two different ways. So the real bummer is when the paper slides down in your hydrometer, and you don't know that's happened.

[Rep. Brigham]: Right. So we can't do Yeah.

[Rep. David Durfee (Chair)]: Everyday, breath, all the music. On this slide, they're allowable range. I don't know those words. What are what are those mean? Bricks and what's the other one? It's called.

[Tucker (Director, Food Safety & Consumer Protection Division, Vermont Agency of Agriculture, Food & Markets)]: Bumming. Bombay. Yeah. So those are the two ways to measure density for maple. They're two different blanking on the word. Yeah. It's it's like Fahrenheit and Celsius but but for density. And Vermont's statute and regulations were written as being the formal standard for density. And that's why we still use it. But the industry predominantly uses bricks. Listed there on this slide. This is the same slide I share with producers at their annual conference. I share it there because those those numbers are all equivalent. They're just using different different scales, the BAMA scale and the BRIC scale, and then converting at different temperatures, temperature conversions. So, they're all the same range, just a a different, using different scales.

[Rep. David Durfee (Chair)]: They're at room essentially, room temperature, so not when it's hot, not when it's boiling.

[Tucker (Director, Food Safety & Consumer Protection Division, Vermont Agency of Agriculture, Food & Markets)]: Correct. I that's that's what So we can look we could look at the hot range, but I this is the one that I we use most frequently because we're inspecting product that's that's on a store shelf and room temperature. But when you're taking it off the evaporator, it's going to be much hotter and you're looking at a different reference for that. That's why you can see on the hydrometer in the picture there's two different red marks there and there's actually different scales on that hydrometer to be able to check hot versus cold. I've got a few more and then I'll wrap up. We didn't see much mold in the past year, but that is something we're looking for. And like I said, these are some of the slides I use for educating producers. Just a reminder that ensuring a hot pack, a good seal, keeping containers and packaging supplies clean and in a clean space is really important. And in terms of packing temperature that is something that we're looking at when we're doing those licensee inspections. It's typically 180 degrees Fahrenheit for a minimum packing temperature. We want to ensure we stay above that. And next slide. And then labeling. So, these are this is a picture of mason jars on a store shelf and they have a grade sticker on the top, but they have nothing else. So we are looking for some basic labeling requirements and and, you know, we're in Vermont, so we assume that's maple syrup, but maybe someone out of state might not know that that is a mason jar of syrup. And so so these are the basic requirements for labeling and one thing that not everyone is aware of but every package container needs a batch code and that can be a simple number code handwritten on the bottom or somewhere that's visible but that allows for traceability in case there was an issue with that container. And that concludes my portion.

[Rep. Michelle Bos-Lun]: Any other questions for Tucker?

[Rep. David Durfee (Chair)]: Thank you very much. Always informative. Okay, well, we'll turn it over to you then.

[Abby Willard (Director, Agriculture Development, Vermont Agency of Agriculture, Food & Markets)]: Okay, for the record, Abby Willard from Agency of Agriculture, Food and Markets. I'm director of the agriculture development division. I love listening to Tucker talk. Learned what makes Vermont, at least one reason, what makes Vermont maple syrup a little bit better than our competitors. Good to know that having a little bit more sugar and higher density makes the difference. So again, I think we'll share a little bit about the maple marketing investments that we make in the industry, talk about some of the grant investments, and then some of the needs and kind of challenges that we're seeing from the industry. In the last five years or so, I would say we've made about $2,000,000 of economic development investment in the maple sector, both in direct grants to producers, supporting research and development within the maple industry, and then a variety of different marketing and support efforts that our staff provide and our partnership with the Vermont Maple Sugar Makers Association offers. So we'll just touch on some of those investments that we've made. I will note that historically, our agency has lots of images of spouts and buckets, and we've really focused on trying to capture imagery that shows the modernization and the technological advancement that the sugaring industry has made in the past few decades. So a lot of the kind of images really show the complexity of what's happening in the woods and then what can be happening in

[Rep. David Durfee (Chair)]: the sugar house as well. President Nelson. Yeah.

[Unidentified Committee Member]: This modernization in Maple has been great and for efficiencies and we know, you know, we heard yesterday how our production has ramped up incredible since 2005, think it was. And the price of maple really hasn't kept up with inflation at all. So it's been through efficiencies that have allowed our producers still strive and to thrive. Is there any concern from the environmental world out there, what we're doing in the forest, is that any concern to the agency and the maple industry that deflect that type of comment or aspect?

[Abby Willard (Director, Agriculture Development, Vermont Agency of Agriculture, Food & Markets)]: Yeah, mean, think this is also a good question for Mark Islehart. You'll have a long list when he comes in at 11:00, but I think it depends. I think having a vibrant working landscape in Vermont is really important to our agency and to many Vermonters. So to see an industry continue to thrive and expand and grow, carrying on traditions that are multigenerational is really a valuable use of our lands. Similar to agriculture, sugar makers need healthy sugar maples. So they're making good management decisions in the woods about how to foster a healthy stand of sugar maples. Sometimes that means going in and doing some selective cutting. Sometimes that means changing what trees they're tapping so that they get the best production possible from that sugar bush. There have been, and we've talked a little bit about this, I'm expert on this, of like some of the water quality implications of having larger operations. And there's now some kind of guidance and resources available through our agency and on our website, as well as with ANR about sugar makers that have reverse osmosis machines and are reintroducing water onto the landscape and at what temperature and what mineral load. There are some environmental considerations around the sugaring operation at the sugar house. Those are the thoughts that I'm having. I think generally it's about stewardship, and I think sugar makers want to see healthy forests so that they can continue to make maple syrup. It's gonna be the Vermont brand.

[Rep. David Durfee (Chair)]: Does the agency regulate, or is there another agency at the state that, or somewhere, that is doing anything other than offering guidance?

[Abby Willard (Director, Agriculture Development, Vermont Agency of Agriculture, Food & Markets)]: I believe that the Agency of Natural Resources does provide some regulatory authority over water entering a surface water from a sugar house. But again, that's sort of like and I think that our agency has helped provide some guidance and some materials and maybe even some cost share assistance to support businesses. And as they're expanding or ramping up and they're seeing that they have more water related issues or they're close to a surface water, what practices they can put in place to be compliant.

[Rep. Richard Nelson (Ranking Member)]: Just to follow-up on that, are

[Rep. John O'Brien]: those going to be embedded in the wraps then?

[Abby Willard (Director, Agriculture Development, Vermont Agency of Agriculture, Food & Markets)]: That's a question that I don't know. They probably are, and I don't know the specifics of that, but maybe you do. But it's a great question, I'm sorry I can't answer it any more comprehensively than that. Good query, Mark. Yeah, see what he has to say. He's got lots of good answers and lots of good knowledge. So on the Maple marketing front, so I thought I would just start here. So the agency has, as Tucker and I mentioned, probably one and a quarter full time equivalent staff spread across four different people that are focusing on Maple. And some of that work is on the maple marketing side in addition to the regulatory and compliance and inspection work that Tucker mentioned that his division is focused on. So our division applies for federal grants. So US Department of Agriculture has an ACER grant program that we've been a recipient of grants in the past. And the last award that we received was in 2021. We're hoping to see one for 2026 be released by USDA. It hasn't been announced yet. So we're sort of like we're ready to apply once we see an application released. But in 2021, we had a project that was focused on expanding consumer engagement and awareness of Vermont Maple and US Maple both. So there was a variety of projects that that brand focused on, which was creating a lot of maple imagery that could be available through the Vermont Maple Sugar Makers Association, revamping their website to be even more educational resource that they could provide both to producers and to interested consumers. It was really important that we think about maple beyond just kind of its stickiness to pancakes and breakfast material, but also as a use in sauces. So we started a project of Maple Meats Texas barbecue, which was really trying to promote Vermont maple, where they have a lot of barbecue sauces and hot sauces and other condiments that are used in other parts of the country. You may recall the Maple one hundred event, which was sort of a campaign of sort of just celebrating a variety of different maple events that were happening across Vermont, not just during the sugaring season and not just during Maple Open House weekend, but all sorts of consumer friendly events to celebrate maple. And so through some of this increased consumer engagement work that we did, it raised the number of businesses that were promoting activities on that Maple one hundred site to over two twenty five businesses. There was a collection of over 10,000 attendees at each of those different events, and then a lot of social media messaging. So over 2,000,000 different posts or what they call impressions of celebrating and showcasing maple syrup operations or maple products or maple events and engagements with the consumer. So we're looking forward to seeing USDA release the next ACER round of competitive application requests, and we're ready to work to submit another proposal for something similar. Trade show assistance, those are small grants that we provide to all ag producers to help them exhibit their products at domestic or international business to business trade shows. And between fiscal year twenty and this current year, there was almost 40 3,000 in trade show assistance grant support that went to maple producers. And then the last sort of, but really most exciting and important piece to our marketing effort, in addition to what the Food Safety Consumer Protection Division's efforts are, has been this pricing project where, and I'll show a couple of slides here, where our staff beginning in July 2025 started collecting pricing data on both sap and syrup. And so I have two different slides here to show what we produce each month. So this is a maple syrup report. I picked one from October, but they're produced every month. Some months have more activity in sales than others. We provide producers a small kind of like stipend to encourage them to participate in sharing their data. And so then they'll share with us the sales and price data across all the different color grades, as well as across three different market channels. So retail, wholesale, and then bulk, which is just off the screen here that I couldn't screenshot for you to see. And then all that data is aggregated and shared on our website in this interactive, what we call dashboard each month. And so this is where you can see kind of the price per pound across the three different market channels over time. So starting in July 2025, we were collecting June 2025 data through to present where we've collected February 26 data. And again, the industry has really responded well to being able to reference this interactive information on a monthly basis of sort of like, how is the price fluctuating? What are sales looking like? Where's syrup being sold in which different market channel? We capture certified organic sales and prices as well if we wanted to differentiate by organic. And then we're capturing both processed grade syrup prices and sales, as well as unprocessed sap prices. So this has been a really valuable kind of like new information tool that we've been able to provide the industry. We currently have funding to continue to do this through September, through the end of this federal fiscal year. And that's been supported again by funding through US Department of Agriculture Ag Marketing Service. And we're in the process of pursuing some additional resources to be able to continue this price reporting ongoing. So I hope that it looks like that's going to be successful. So in addition to those marketing investments that we've made, then there's the actual cash investments that we make towards actual maple producers or the maple industry more generally. So there's three different programs that we wanted to highlight, both the Working Lands Enterprise Initiative grants, the one ag development grants that we'll talk about that this committee was instrumental in seeing happen in fiscal year 'twenty four, and then another federal source of funding through U. S. Department of Agriculture called the Specialty Crop Block Grant Program. And collectively, that's been about $1,300,000 invested in the last five plus years. So working lands data, you've heard a lot about this program, heard from a lot of different grantees. And the program tracks the grant funds that are invested by business sector from the beginning of when the program was initiated, so in fiscal year 'thirteen through the current round of grants that were awarded in fiscal year 'twenty five. So just about a half $1,000,000 invested in maple production and maple products, maple producers since the start of that program. So that's out of $19,500,000 of grant investments, half 1,000,000 has gone to the maple sector. So still a relatively small amount of investment, I think overall, when you consider the scale of the maple industry's growth over the past fifteen years. And these, again, would be grants to producers to help them make modernization improvements or efficiency in production or workforce adjustments to be able to have their business model be more effective. One grant testimony just to share with you is from Carmen Brook Farm, which was a fiscal year twenty five awardee. So they received $50,000 there in Swanton. And they shared that their project was to install, I'm gonna have to read this because there are pieces of equipment that I'm not all that familiar with, a heat exchanger system, a four head semiautomatic bottling line, an electric steam kettle, candy dipping reservoir, and a candy syrup vacuum sealing system. All of those processing infrastructure was able to reduce their bottling production times by about 50%, which allowed them to increase labor efficiency. It improved their product consistency and increased the shelf life of their candy from four to six weeks to up to nine months. So what was most exciting about this project, and I think is very emblematic of working lands investments, is that this grantee was able to say through this relatively small $50,000 grant, they were really able to make a shift from being able to focus in their business to be able to spend time on their business. And so they shared, they're able to work on marketing, they're able to work on more communication with buyers, they're able to think more about their labeling and the way that they showcase their product as opposed to all their effort being focused on production. So that's an example of kind of a working lands grant investment on a sugaring operation. In fiscal year 'twenty four, this body and this committee more specifically supported the Ag Development Grant Program. So this was a specific granting program to invest in meat, maple and produce operations. There was $2,300,000 that the Vermont legislature appropriated for this purpose, and a quarter of that needed to be dedicated to the maple industry. And so this was the first ever granting program at the Agency of Agriculture specifically focused on maple producers and processors. So in fiscal year twenty four, there were 12 awards that we were able to make to maple producers and processors across eight counties and just over $540,000 in grants. Again, were relatively small grants, somewhere in the $20,000 range up to $100,000 I think it's important we haven't talked about these ag development grants in a while in this committee, but just for reference, there were just on the maple side. So then there were also produce applications and meat producer and meat processor applications. There were over three thirty applications from maple producers requesting over $18,000,000 I'm sorry, Representative Brigham, your award didn't

[Rep. Richard Nelson (Ranking Member)]: Oh, it's done.

[Rep. David Durfee (Chair)]: Yeah. And I hope there

[Abby Willard (Director, Agriculture Development, Vermont Agency of Agriculture, Food & Markets)]: is a next time, because I think this was a really successful program that really targeted three diversified, expanding industries in Vermont. And the projects were really exciting. And we funded as many as we could knowing that there were many great projects that we had to turn down.

[Rep. David Durfee (Chair)]: And nothing.

[Unidentified Committee Member]: With these grants, and we had this discussion earlier with our committee with the working lands, are there requirements for matching funds from the grant receivers?

[Abby Willard (Director, Agriculture Development, Vermont Agency of Agriculture, Food & Markets)]: I don't think there were match requirements in this program.

[Rep. Richard Nelson (Ranking Member)]: Not this one, some of the work in land.

[Abby Willard (Director, Agriculture Development, Vermont Agency of Agriculture, Food & Markets)]: So historically, and I know we can talk about this kind of match topic at another time or at any time, match had historically been a requirement of working lands enterprise applications. There had been a desire to experiment with what if we removed the match requirement? Would we see smaller businesses be more successful at receiving a grant? Because they may not have the capital or the cash or the labor capacity to be able to provide in kind support on a project. So starting in fiscal year 'twenty four, we removed that match, what was perceived as a match barrier for small businesses to be able to receive grants. As has been the case with working lands, similarly with the Ag Development Grant, many producers imagined a far larger project than they were receiving grants for grant funds for. So many were contributing match, irregardless of it being a requirement of the project.

[Rep. David Durfee (Chair)]: I mean, before I run that, I

[Rep. John O'Brien]: just wonder how the agency is navigating the whole sort of hemp move because there's a lot of crossover between people and I'm just looking here THC and hemp derived CBD type things. So is that all gonna move out of the agency?

[Abby Willard (Director, Agriculture Development, Vermont Agency of Agriculture, Food & Markets)]: Potentially, yep. That seems to be the direction that it may be moving in, yeah. Let me just try to go through these quickly. If you have questions around the ag development grants, these were the kind of projects that primarily were funded, which is around production and processing efficiency, storage capacity, monitoring efficiency in the woods, and some food safety and quality improvement. So all really critical industry investments. The last granting program to share with you is the Specialty Crop Block Grant program. So this is a federal program that we receive block grant funding from USDA. These are not grants that go to producers. So the Specialty Crop Block Grant program is designed to enhance the competitiveness of specialty crops, of which the maple industry is one of them. And so most of the grants go towards research and development, they go towards supporting the Vermont Maple Sugar Makers Association or other organizations that are working on behalf of expanding the competitiveness of maple in the economy. So not to individual grants or to individual producers. Acer was the first project that was the marketing that I was mentioning. This specialty crop block grants we've hosted for many years at the agency, but it's really more we focus on funding UVM extensions or Procter and Maple Research or doing a Maple branding campaign, looking at agritourism opportunities to bring people to Vermont to engage in authentic Maple events. So it's really more supporting the support organizations that help the Maple economy.

[Rep. David Durfee (Chair)]: Just to follow-up, Amy, to

[Rep. John O'Brien]: give us some context, are there other things in ag that you've used the specialty crop block grants for?

[Abby Willard (Director, Agriculture Development, Vermont Agency of Agriculture, Food & Markets)]: Yeah, a lot of produce industry engagement, Christmas trees could be a focus. Oh gosh, like herb production.

[Rep. Richard Nelson (Ranking Member)]: Vegetable washing stuff.

[Abby Willard (Director, Agriculture Development, Vermont Agency of Agriculture, Food & Markets)]: Yeah, anything that's on a produce farm, any fruit and vegetable are kind of like some of the primary projects. So then lastly, I just wanted to share some of the needs and concerns that we're hearing from industry. So back in 2025, the agency started hosting maple stakeholder meetings on a quarterly basis. So bringing together both the regulatory and the development side at the agency with UBM, with the Vermont Maple Sugar Makers Association, Proctor, to talk about what are you seeing in the industry, what are you hearing about, what are some of the outreach opportunities, some of the development potential. And those meetings happen quarterly. And it's a really great opportunity for kind of like a collective Maple community to get together and talk about what they're doing, what they're hearing, and what they're seeing. The issues that I just want you to hear from me and maybe Mark and others will reiterate that there was the discussion and concern around tariffs, well, maybe not on the maple product itself, but on equipment that's oftentimes being imported from Canada, and then on the materials. So aluminum, steel, glass, which are really critical to the infrastructure and to the packaging for many of our maple products. Then And really thinking about food safety and recognizing that there's a wide array, maybe that showed up in the retail inspections that Tucker and his team did, in kind of maple food safety practices happening at the Sugar House across Vermont. So those are just some pieces for the committee to be aware of and know that the industry is engaging in these conversations every couple of months.

[Rep. David Durfee (Chair)]: President Reagan.

[Rep. Richard Nelson (Ranking Member)]: Could you touch, I don't know if this is part of that, Don't doesn't Vermont have the lowest lead level for maple syrup? Any other food?

[Abby Willard (Director, Agriculture Development, Vermont Agency of Agriculture, Food & Markets)]: Know, I don't know representative Brigham about that exactly. Think, Tucker, is there anything that you wanna offer on the lead in maple conversation?

[Tucker (Director, Food Safety & Consumer Protection Division, Vermont Agency of Agriculture, Food & Markets)]: Yes. Just to say that we did work with our health department to review that in the past few years I think starting in 2023 and we did we do have a revised recommended action level that we're now using Basically, I mean it's really nothing new that we don't want to see lead in really any food products but that is something that we worked on with the health department. They're the experts in terms of health risks there. Short answer is yes.

[Abby Willard (Director, Agriculture Development, Vermont Agency of Agriculture, Food & Markets)]: Really quickly, last comments I'll just share. So, like sugaring season is still upon us. When we did the ag drought loss and damage survey, it was between October and December. It closed before the sugar and season started, but we did still receive results from eight sugar makers across six counties, seven towns. You can see the distribution of the responses on this map from maple operations that we heard from, they outlined a disproportionate amount of anticipated estimated loss due to the drought conditions. There was a lot of anxiety and worry that the very dry summer and fall would affect sap production and then resultant syrup production this spring. So it's been a funky spring anyway for sugaring. I think we're still in it, hopefully, for certain parts of the state. But again, hearing that when we start to see buds form, that usually is the indication of the end of the sugaring season in certain parts of Vermont. So the last slide, this is also from the ag survey on just the maple specific data. I just want to note that the maple industry identified a higher than average estimated loss. So they were saying that the 1,500,000.0 in losses out of the 15,400,000.0 was estimated by the maple industry. The average loss across all applicants, or not applicants, guess, survey respondents was in the $77,000 range and the average estimated loss from the sugar makers was three times that. They were over $190,000 of what they estimated as losses. And still feeling very vulnerable to future weather events, worried about the financial implications of the drought and the difference that they have on their industry. So recognizing that many of the drought impacts on maple are still unrealized, there's an opportunity for us to continue to engage with the industry as we move towards the end of the season and see what they want to share and what their April well experience was. That's it, just in time. Mark here? Oh, great.

[Rep. Michelle Bos-Lun]: Good, I think that is your last slide.

[Rep. David Durfee (Chair)]: Difficult, I imagine, the season starts wind up and it's April, I think we should be celebrating that there's still some sap running in April.

[Rep. Richard Nelson (Ranking Member)]: Yeah. Definitely.

[Rep. David Durfee (Chair)]: That's always the case these days. The the impact that the drought might have had would be difficult to measure, I would think, at the end of the day compared to those other factors that might be contributing. Yeah, and

[Abby Willard (Director, Agriculture Development, Vermont Agency of Agriculture, Food & Markets)]: I think that it's different than a flood where it's likely one episodic moment where crops are ruined or something happens in the field or infrastructure is damaged. Yeah, I think the drought season was many consecutive days of harsher weather. And that, combined with what kind of a winter we had and what kind of a season it is, are all factors that could influence what kind of a sugaring season overall we have for 2026. So yeah, I think, though the industry, they know their operation, they generally know their trees, they know their woods, they know when things are not what they expect, and usually have some good indications of why that might be. Lot of historical knowledge and experience helps them give us a sense of where they think the cause may be. But often, it's complex. It's not a single source.

[Rep. David Durfee (Chair)]: Before we let you go, and I think we'll take a short break just for the committee. Some of us have been sitting Sitting

[Unidentified Committee Member]: in a car. Okay, yeah. You've been sitting My third trip

[Rep. Richard Nelson (Ranking Member)]: back.