Today’s Vermont: A Decade of Abundance
You’re reading the final edition of Today’s Vermont…
...at least for this decade. I’ll be back next month with a fresh new post for January 2020. For now, though, let’s reflect on some of the trends that shaped life in Vermont over the course of the last ten years. Plus, I’ll offer predictions about what Vermonters can look forward to in the 2020s.
Let’s start with the most Vermonty of enterprises: farming. In the past decade, many Vermont dairy farms have shuttered. There are only slightly fewer cows in today’s Vermont than there were in 2010, but many of these cows live on large farms, where they rarely see the outside of a milking barn and never graze on fresh pasture. These cows are isolated in an industrial system of milk production that also isolates dairy farmers, many of whom are migrants from Latin America who milk cows day and night under the shadow of La Migra.
Even as many Vermont dairies consolidate or close, a flowering of farms has proliferated throughout the Green Mountains. These days Vermont farmers are producing all manner of vegetables, fruits, maple syrup, nuts, eggs, grains, honey, berries, herbs, mushrooms, fiber, fish, meat, and other specialty crops. There’s even a shrimp farm up and running in Charlotte!
Not all of these farms are thriving, but the sheer diversity of agricultural enterprise is encouraging, and many Vermont farmers are embracing every opportunity to innovate. Last summer, it seemed as if there was more hemp than corn growing in Vermont farm fields, a sight (and smell) that would have been hard to imagine in the dark old days of cannabis prohibition.
What seems like a novelty crop today might become a staple in ten years. Anson Tebbets, Vermont’s sagacious Secretary of Agriculture, recently toured Boundbrook Farm, just down the road from State14’s editorial headquarters in Ferrisburgh. Boundbrook Farm is home to 5.5 acres of irrigated rice paddies and flocks of ducks that help keep the paddies free of pests and weeds. As a former resident of Hokkaido, the northernmost island of Japan, I’ve seen firsthand how rice can grow in a climate that’s even colder and snowier than Vermont’s, and I wouldn’t be surprised to see Vermont’s rice production grow by an order of magnitude in the years to come.
In reflecting on the past decade of agriculture in Vermont, it’s important to credit the work of the Vermont Farm to Plate Network. Farm to Plate was born out of the Vermont legislature in 2009, and since then has done much to strengthen Vermont’s food system. Building on this collaborative work will be even more important in the 2020s as the climate crisis intensifies and crop yields everywhere are threatened by extreme weather, soil loss, and chemical dependency.
Our food diet is important, and so is our diet of information. All things considered, the Vermont media landscape is in great shape as the decade comes to a close.
Vermont Digger is an amazing success story, having grown from scrappy non-profit online media startup to the largest news operation in Vermont in just ten years. Hopefully a decade from now the Digger will have finally filled in the gaps on the EB-5 scandal, a massive fraud centered in northern Orleans County that involved some of Vermont’s most powerful politicians. Were it not for the investigative reporting of Anne Galloway, Vermont Digger’s dogged founding editor, the EB-5 fraud may have spun on longer, and done even more damage to Vermont communities and to Vermont’s international reputation.
Elsewhere in the Vermont media world, Seven Days has solidified its reputation as one of the finest weekly papers in the country, and Vermont Public Radio broadcasts from a state of the art facility in Colchester that’s the envy of public radio stations in states ten times our size. I’m especially encouraged by examples of media collaboration, such as the nascent partnership between VPR and Vermont PBS. This Land: The Changing Story of Rural Vermont is a terrific example of the kind of storytelling that becomes possible when media organizations join forces for the greater good.
It’s not all sunshine and Daysies of course. The lamentable death of Vermont Life was a tough blow for those of us who cherished the venerable magazine for its dry humor, lovely photography, and earnest portrayals of Vermont communities. For followers of Vermont politics, the demise of the Fair Game column in Seven Days is a bummer only partially tempered by the continued output of The Vermont Political Observer, John Walters, who was the last writer to hold the Peter Freyne Memorial Chair. The Burlington Free Press, once the paper of record in Vermont, has steadily declined in quality and relevance over the past decade and is now a pale shadow of its former self, sucked dry by the imperatives of late-stage capitalism.
But many other Vermont papers are still going strong. The Hardwick Gazette survived an ownership change, as did The Barton Chronicle, whose founders, Chris and Ellen Braithwaite, managed to sell their paper to its highly capable employees. Erica Heilman, producer of the extraordinary podcast Rumble Strip Vermont, recently produced a story about the Barton Chronicle for VPR - like all of Erica’s work, it’s totally worth a listen.
(By the way, Erica Heilman will be talking about Making Rumble Strip in my Closet at a Vermont Humanities Council event in Norwich on December 4th. If you appreciate great storytelling, go.)
The Barton Chronicle isn’t the only mission-driven business that’s now owned by its employees. Employee ownership is a trend that seems to be picking up steam in Vermont. King Arthur Flour was an early adopter, transitioning to employee ownership in 2004. Gardener’s Supply followed, completing an ownership transition in 2009. Dozens of other Vermont companies have since become 100% employee owned, in many cases with technical assistance from the Vermont Employee Ownership Center. Chelsea Green, my favorite publishing house in the entire world, became 100% employee-owned earlier this year.
I’m excited about employee ownership as a model for Vermont businesses because I believe that employee-owned companies are more likely to stay rooted in place, and contribute to the civic, cultural, and economic vitality of their communities in lasting ways.
On a similar note, I’m excited about the trend of local impact investing in Vermont. Lots of work is being done to empower Vermonters to invest directly in Vermont businesses as an alternative to turning over their hard-earned savings to Wall Street. The Vermont Community Loan Fund, for example, now offers a platform for individuals to invest in Vermont, including a Food, Farms, & Forests fund.
If you want to learn more about the power of ordinary citizens to improve our economic system, invest in shared prosperity, and fund people with good business plans who might not fit the (white, male) profile of a well-connected entrepreneur, check out the forthcoming book Moving Mountains: The Power of Main Street Americans to Change Our Economy by Jericho businesswoman and author Janice Shade. I had the opportunity to read an early edition of this book and can testify that Janice knows her topic, writes with clarity and passion, and presents a compelling vision for how we can cultivate community prosperity in the years to come.
So, what will the next decade bring for the Vermont economy?
The big picture, as I see it, is that the longest economic expansion in U.S. history will end. Although no one can predict exactly when economic growth will falter, odds are good that a Recession or Depression will happen in the next decade. Pie in the sky expectations for State pension fund returns aside, I think Vermont is well-positioned to weather a future storm because of our reserves of civic, natural and, yes, monetary resources.
Some may even welcome a financial breakdown, especially if it creates the space and fosters the urgency for reimagining and reengineering unsustainable elements of our fast-paced lifestyles. For thoughtful reflections on this theme, I recommend listening to Embracing Apocalypse, a podcast by Burlington resident Eric Garza that’s set for launch on the Winter Solstice, December 21st.
My prediction --- regardless of how the economy is doing, we won’t be worrying about Vermont’s declining population ten years from now. The intensifying climate crisis and Vermont’s relatively robust stores of the necessary ingredients for climate resilience will mean that more and more people will be moving to Vermont. You can find excellent reporting about the emerging trend of Climigration by Elizabeth Gribkoff in Vermont Digger.
Whether Climigration comes to Vermont like a flood or like a steady, soaking rain, the ingredients of community resilience will be all the more valuable ten years from now. These include libraries, farms, schools, and public transit infrastructure, as well as intangible qualities that many would describe as traditional Vermont values: generosity of spirit, practical knowhow, thrift, humor, and neighborly consideration.
Vermont’s hospitality industry will continue its rapid evolution in the 2020s. The rise of Airbnb and other platforms that facilitate the sharing economy was a major trend of the past decade. I’m now an Airbnb host in Craftsbury but honestly preferred hosting and traveling with CouchSurfing.com, a hospitality sharing network that didn’t involve money and predated Airbnb by several years. No matter the platform, I think all Vermont hosts and landlords - myself included - would do well to remember the words of the classic Bread & Puppet poster: Resistance of the Mind Against the Supremacy of Money. Money is important, of course, but when it comes to building community and welcoming friends and strangers into our homes, money is not the most important thing.
I foresee a decrease in short term luxury travel in the next decade, an increase in medium / long term tenancies, and a need for Vermont lodging places that blur the line between tourist accommodation and affordable housing. A decade from now, the market for hospitality in Vermont will support fewer $300/night vacation packages, and more hostel beds and work/trade situations, such as those facilitated by World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms.
I also expect a rejuvenation of collectively organized communal housing in Vermont such as HOWL, a women’s land trust in Huntington. HOWL was recently the subject of HOWLing at the Moon, a terrific Seven Days cover story by Chelsea Edgar. I think Chelsea has the sharpest eye and keenest wit of anyone currently writing about today’s Vermont
Maybe affordable housing would be a good use of the campuses that are left behind when small colleges close down. In the beautiful town of Poultney, the former campus of Green Mountain College is still up for grabs, while in the mountains of Windham County, Marlboro College will leave behind a lovely hilltop campus with comfortable residences and a dining hall if its merger with Emerson College is finalized. Could these campuses become something akin to Centers for Climate Refugee Resettlement in ten years? I wouldn’t rule out the possibility.
We’ll see how my predictions for the next decade hold up ten years from now. In the meantime, let’s remember how lucky we are to live in Vermont, and find ways to celebrate each and every day.
When it comes to conviviality and hale companionship, there’s nothing like a good old-fashioned pub. My new favorite place to raise a glass in Vermont is Blackbird Bistro, a gathering place in Craftsbury that’s owned and operated by the inimitable Lee Kinsey, who tended bar at my wedding a few years ago. Lee is a salt of the earth Vermonter and an ace carpenter as well as a talented mixologist. I have plenty of friends and relatives who can testify to her ability to pour a sturdy cocktail. After a season of soft openings and private events, Blackbird’s grand opening to the public is scheduled for December 5th. See you there!
Even those who don’t live in Vermont can find ways to celebrate with a taste of the Green Mountains - our friends at Shacksbury are offering a Cider Club membership that delivers small-batch Vermont cider to your door. Sweet gift idea, no? If you sign up for Cider Club, tell ‘em you heard about it here at State14.
Do you have any predictions about what the next decade has in store for Vermont? How about a favorite local farm, or a bed and breakfast to recommend? Join the conversation on social media using the hashtag #todaysvermont, and thanks, as always, for reading.
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