Vermont Legislature SmartTranscripts:

[Senator Russ Ingalls (Chair)]: All good? Okay. Yeah. We can shut that door, That's good. Thank you very much. Good morning. It is Tuesday, 01/06/2026, the first day back in the State House. I know that we're all excited about that, eager to get work moving forward. This is Southern Agriculture. I will go around and have everybody introduce themselves, starting on the side over here.

[Senator Brian Collamore (Member)]: Brian Collamore representing the Rutland District.

[Senator Robert Plunkett (Member)]: And Robert Plunkett representing

[Senator Robert Plunkett (Member)]: the Bennington District. Steven Heffernan representing the Addison County District.

[Senator Joseph "Joe" Major (Vice Chair)]: Joe Major representing Windsor.

[Senator Russ Ingalls (Chair)]: But also Vice Chair. Senator Russ Ingalls, Chair of the Committee, and we have over here Linda. Linda. Hi. I wanted to start out by saying that I was very proud of the work that we did last year. Did it, We got a lot of things done. We tackled a lot of controversy and I think we handled it with grace and dignity worked well with other committees, specifically committees that haven't historically worked well in the past with. I really don't expect that anything of that will change moving forward. They're going to have a packed year full of a lot of things that are impacting farming or ag, any way you want to say it. It's a $9,200,000,000 industry, and there's a lot of moving parts that are going on. I'm going to just kind of read down some of the priorities that we're probably going to be looking at at some point in time, whether it's immediately or not. We have a very big, have a decision by the Supreme Court impacted about how farming is regulated. I think we're probably see some legislation on that before it's all said and done. Just trying to get some clarity about what is allowed and what communities, what can't, what goes on. And I might cross reference some things as we go down through this list, so bear with me on that. But we still have some unfinished business that Senator Major had with some farm accessory dwelling buildings that I want to lean into. We have some unfinished business as far as some permitting for Vermont State Fair, some issues as far as with that. And so I think a lot of that work will continue going forward, mainly because it is impacting Vermonters in a way that I just think that we need to put some clarity to. We have modernization of retail unit dynamic pricing. That is just some stuff as far as to figure out on how we can bring product to market. I don't know much about that other than it was of added on our list as far as coming from the state agriculture folks. Addressing the neonicotids, we're going to be into some of that discussion, mainly not looking so much as far as to overturn it as it is to how it is going to move forward and how it's going to affect farmers, and what the Agency of Agriculture's role is going to be, and how they can ensure that farmers, as this law progresses in 2029, how farmers can plan on being able to plant a corn seed that will survive not only the climate of Vermont, but also the pests of Vermont. We're going to be touching on a lot of different stuff on that. We spent some time on that last year. We took some testimony on that, and I think we'll probably be taking some more testimony on a lot of that. Just to read a little bit more into that, we're looking to explain who has the authority to grant exemptions as necessary if farms cannot purchase the untreated seed that they need and that they meet the related statutory requirements, essentially completing integrated pest management. There's just a lot of things that we're going to be looking forward to bring clarity as far as how a world, with or without treated seeds for farming will play out. We'll be taking some testimony on that and I'm sure there'll be some language coming from the Agency of Agriculture. Some housekeeping items. We have VIDA that's looking to consolidate some of their funding sources. Vermont Economic Development Association, they do a lot of farm loans and stuff. They're looking to of pare down and to make it just one small organization. I don't want to mess up any of the conversation about might we be going on that, but I've met with those folks that they'll come in and they'll talk about it so that you guys will all have a very good understanding of what they're trying to do at first glance as far as what they spoke about. It looked like it was just really just getting down to a simpler business model moving forward and how they would distract money, but we'll take testimony on that and make sure that everybody's up to speed as far as on that. We're going to be looking at some wastewater reform for small food producers and kitchens. As we're knowing that as we see a lot of new farmers are starting out in a small way, whether they're baking 12 loaves of bread a day or whatever, it is starting to drive the industry as far as how we feed Vermonters and we're going to try to keep their, as best we can, keep the environment safe but also keep their permitting at a minimum. Again, whether that happens or not will be based on what we'll see in testimony and as we move forward with that. We're going spend a lot of time this year on hemp and even cannabis trying to figure out what the roles are. I went on some tours. We went on some tours early in the year and I kind of put it out there as far as my thoughts on it, working with James Pepper on the Cannabis Control Board about what the definitions of hemp and cannabis are. To be fair, when I look at cannabis and I look at hemp, I see one that's a non intoxicant and one's an intoxicant. We have folks that are in both of those roles trying to or looking to change the rules on a lot of that stuff. And it's going to be a lot of discussions that we're going to have where you guys are going to weigh in as far as what your thoughts are on discussions that we have. We have the federal pressures that we're always dealing with. We have some proclamations or some executive orders coming from the White House that are putting cannabis in a different classification to make these growers being able to be more like farmers versus having federal regulations on that. We're going to spend some time with that stuff until we clearly understand where that goes. So we'll spend a lot of time on that. And why are we doing that? It's because we have people who are sincerely looking, that are in both businesses, looking for guidance. They want to see how they can grow, how they can plan. It is my wish, only my wish, and your wishes might be different, that anybody that's in that business, whether you agree with any other, that they be treated as farmers and that they can apply for the same types of grants, loans, even take advantages of tax deductions and all of that. A lot of that they can't right now. We'll spend some time trying to figure out how we can have these folks be treated as farmers and be able to get the benefits of what farmers do. My belief is that if you are growing a carrot or you are growing hemp or cannabis, you are contributing to the agriculture climate of the state of Vermont and we should be able to try to equal out the playing fields. But again, you guys will have your own decisions to be made as we move forward with that, but we will spend a lot of time on that. I've had a lot of conversations again with James Pepper and the Cannabis Control Board, and they are looking for us to help them get some guidance put out as far as with that. Looking at kind of understanding about how we can play a role and where they're signing solar fields and wind towers. Again, prime ag land is a bonus. We have lost a lot of farmers in this state since the 40s and 50s, and a lot of the land that used to be heifer pasture and what have you that was not any good for farm fields, primag lands, are still there, but it's easier for these developers to come into and take these nice flat fields that can grow crops. I think that we're gonna spend some time looking at that, maybe even put some, my wish would be to put restrictions on taking the easy road and taking these nice fields out of farming forever when we all have a lot of land. Yes, I understand that a lot of these heifer pastures are harder to build on. It costs more to build on, but that's why they're not primag land. And so I really don't see why we would want to take all this prime ag land and put these structures on when we have other lands available to them. Sometimes it's just one fence over, and so we'll spend some time as far as all that this year. We're going to spend some time on the, we have the S-sixty, the Farm Relief Bill. It never got funded last year so Kent died in the house of appropriation. He did. A couple of committees over there kind of died over there, but we didn't have flooding this year. Well, we did have some flooding up in The Kingdom in a couple of counts, but really the top of the year was drought this year. So we are going to spend some time talking about that. Originally, and I were at a meeting maybe six weeks ago, two months ago, where the focus of the Pro Tem was going to be for the first six weeks of the session was going to be all about flooding and drought relief. But I think since the education, I think that's kind of taken over again, that probably we'll deal with that as it comes and it's not going to be the prime focus of what But we we'll be spending a lot of time on that as far as hopefully looking at some relief as far as with that. Again, back to Senator Major, that kind of set off camera. We have accessory dwelling buildings in ag. We have farmers trying to diversify, trying to find different ways that they can make dollars and make use of their properties and what they do, growing food. A lot of their ancillary business is to invite the public in and show them what they do, but also as a stream of revenue. So I really think that we had some unfinished business last year that we couldn't get to that we'll be spending some time on for that. Be spending back into the world of paper permits. We have some tile drainage that has been excluded from CAFOs, but there's a lawsuit that's going on now in Addison County with some of that, and so we're going to spend some more time back in the cable world and permitting and stuff like that. I expect that we'll be seeing some bills that come across with that. Let me get to an email here. There's going be some other sparse things that come from the Agency of Ag, and I asked them. They weren't really ready to talk about any of that, so I just got an email just barely about some more priorities that might be coming from the Agency of Agriculture. I'm just gonna read it to you so it doesn't make sense to me because I haven't been briefed on it, but we and we'll we'll be briefed on it. But please find this game from Steve Collier, this is out to Chair Murphy and myself, coming from the Agency of Agriculture. Please find below a quick synopsis of our additional proposals. Correct an error in the Farmer Milk Buyer Statutory Termination Language in six BSA Chapter two fifty two. Currently, the language mistakenly says contract terminations when a purchaser requests a hearing to challenge the the decision decision that that has a mistake and the cancellation should be stayed when a producer requests a hearing. Again, don't know much about that. It's pretty foreign to me, but I'm sure we'll be learning about that. And I think a lot of these proposals are going be kind of foreign to us until we get some backstory with it. Number two was amend language in six BSA Chapter four seventy two to incorporate contracts into the Farm to School grant program. Contracts work better than grants for some of the objectives. Amend farmer water quality training requirements. Six, VSA Chapter 4,981. Current requirements are outdated and burdensome. Number four, repeal the interstate pest control compact. The IPCC stopped operating in 2013, and the existing language has no function. Five, amend pesticide exam requirements. We want to clarify and simplify testing requirements as we start offering online examinations. Six, conform the seed language to six VSA, chapter six forty one-six 48 to model uniform seed law. Our seed law is outdated, we would like to modernize it to better conform to standards and uniform requirements. So again, probably a lot of that's going to be back to the neonicotoid things as far as broad discussions as far as that. Seven, we would like the authority to regulate harmful substances deposited on farm fields as our current authority is limited to materials placed in manure pits or digesters. Organic material with contaminants including flaunting and heavy malaise is currently unregulated when dumped on farm fields. These contaminants can have harmful impacts and we would like authority to prevent contamination. I'm sure we're going to probably see some language about that with some of these town people that are spreading the waste of sewers and contaminants. Again, that was something that was going on in Maine. I'm only kind of guessing on that. But I'm sure that those discussions will be up and just things that we should probably ask about. I know that Roland had an issue some years ago where they had some of the sludge that was being produced from the sewers contaminated some fields. We will ask about that. That will be important to you to understand why that is coming. There'll be other things that come. We don't see any bills that were passed to us. There's one? One? Okay, yeah. I'll open it up to you guys also tell you what your priorities might want to be, and we'll just go around the room, or if anybody's got it, or I'll start with You covered it pretty well. We can do half of what you're talking about. Yep. Yep. So yeah.

[Senator Joseph "Joe" Major (Vice Chair)]: I I just that the drought has devastated agriculture this year. I we can, in any way, shape, or form, get some money through S-sixty, I'd like to do it. I know it died last session, but there's something, you know, I just saw in my district, you know, and it's not just vegetable farmers, mean, I saw cattle farmers, I saw dairy farmers just having to pay extra for water and hay, things that they should pay, just all across the board. If you can just get some relief. It was funny because it went from 20,000,000 when it was tracked to seven to one, to another. So we can just something as a token to help, to let farmers know that we care, we want to, we understand that they're paying them. Keep them in business, for God's sake.

[Senator Steven Heffernan (Clerk)]: Okay. Steven? Echo some of what Senator Major is saying. I realize that Vermont is only a state of 640,000. We look over to New York farmers and they get a lot of help from their state, but they have 19,000,000 people. Vermont really has to look at trying to do the best for what we have. There's a couple others I was told to speak to you later about that, just to see if the ag community has any interest in it. Other than that,

[Senator Russ Ingalls (Chair)]: you've got to, like

[Senator Steven Heffernan (Clerk)]: I said, a little bit less. It's like some good stuff that I've been talking about.

[Senator Russ Ingalls (Chair)]: I think we're gonna see a fairly extensive, there's gonna be some tax stuff going on with that as well. I don't know if you remember last year or not, but Tisha had brought a bill, Senator Rahman had brought a bill over, and trying to figure out how we can get these farms conveyed, either to family members or to a tenured worker that's been there, had been there at some point in time, and trying to find some relief as far as the tax burden that they might face just to buy the property. We will spend a little time on that. But I think what you're going to see a lot of what we're talking about is going to be in our miscellaneous bill, gonna be a fairly substantial miscellaneous bill. I'm very proud of this committee, and I'll tell you why. Because you're truth seekers, and that's what I liked the best last time. Don't want Some of the legislation that's gotten passed in this building has only been one-sided, where they had an agenda to do it and they wanted to pass it. And I'm not talking about just an ag, I'm talking about in general. I really want us to dig deep and get both sides of the story, even if we're not comfortable with it, even if we whatever. Let's just hear it all. Let's try to get it. And I think that we did that very well last year. So as Linda knows, as you guys know with Linda, she will get anybody on there. So let's work really, really, really hard. And if you have anybody, especially a constituent that wants to be heard, let's get them in here and let's have them have the chance to tell what they want to say. One of the things that you guys will see if you're ever with me or anywhere that I go, the last words that I'll say to anyone that's invited us into the area or whatever they want to talk about is that have you had a chance to tell us what you want us to go? And so let's do that. Let's make sure that whoever comes in this room has had the chance to tell us what they came here to tell us. And so let's dig deep and get good witnesses in here that's going to cover all sides of it so we're not making a decision based on one story. So I want to make sure that we do that. We did it. We did it. I know we'll do it, but it's important.

[Senator Joseph "Joe" Major (Vice Chair)]: Rob, anything? Now the first thing that you mentioned was what was on my mind. I that was joking with Mike that we're getting to do a bill on the last day of session to fix that Supreme Court decision. Yeah. That I

[Senator Russ Ingalls (Chair)]: we're working, we, we're all in agriculture, I can't say that I'm directly involved with it, but think across cities, leagues, and towns are really I don't think that they were very upset about the ruling that came out, but I think that even they could see that there was an unjust. I'm speaking for other people. The intention of that ruling wasn't for farming in the state of Vermont, but I think the way the ruling came out, it looks like it's going to. I think we will spend some time on that. Certainly glad to have you in your capacity to be able to explain what they just said. But Justice. We

[Senator Joseph "Joe" Major (Vice Chair)]: sooner rather than later, we'll have secretary Timmins.

[Senator Russ Ingalls (Chair)]: Yep. Yep. Yeah. Think I think May I get this? Yeah. Yeah. I I think that we could I wanna go over those seven things that we that we had talked about and and why they're written there as well. Give us their thought process. Think it'd be very, very great.

[Senator Joseph "Joe" Major (Vice Chair)]: Well, he did meet our he he's not taking over from.

[Senator Steven Heffernan (Clerk)]: I've been with Edge Counsel. Yeah.

[Senator Joseph "Joe" Major (Vice Chair)]: There's another one that's on Yes.

[Senator Russ Ingalls (Chair)]: I've had some great discussions with those guys through the summer. We will have attorney O'Grady from time to time, but, yeah, we do certainly have a new new council. I can't remember his name. Yep. Yes. So yeah. So what did Michael do? I did just move him around a little bit. Doing more He's still doing ag. He's doing some ag, but he's doing some more water quality stuff and some of that stuff. So but yeah. I can't really think of all much more. I you guys I didn't put a single bill in for ag. I don't know if anybody else did, but I think we're going to have a lot to think we're gonna have, as I you guys have said, it's a pretty expansive list of what we have going on, but I think a lot of that, I don't know that there's a lot that's new that we've added to that list. I just think it's a simulation of, I suppose that will be forever, right? You just kind of continue where you went off last year and where it is. It should be a fun year. We should be hearing a lot of different stuff. Again, we have the perfect committee for that, for sure. Anybody in the room have anything they want to say, add anything? Everybody good? Anybody on the screen, Linda? Nope. Everybody all good?