By Margaret Laggis
The Vermont legislature continues to meet via Zoom meeting. They are trying to focus mostly on what they can do to help Vermonters during the pandemic. Vermont is one of the very few States whose legislatures didn’t adjourn or at least take several months off.
The Agriculture committees in both the House and Senate have focused their energy over the last several weeks on two main issues. Opening up Farmers’ Markets as soon and as safely as possible, and dealing with a growing concern over the spreading of sludge on farm fields. Farmers’ Markets have been cleared to open on May 1st with social distancing guidelines in place. It is likely that the State may decide to stop the practice of spreading sludge on farm fields following the detection of PFAS in some water samples.
Both committees are very concerned about how agriculture will look in the near and long term with dairies dumping milk, grocery stores not keeping shelves stocked, and vegetable and cheese producers losing huge volumes of business due to restaurant closures.
The VT Farm Bureau spoke to the committee about fairs and field days and the issue of trying to make contingency plans since many of them have very high fixed costs and have paid for entertainment that they may now not be able to host.
Those that normally work in the legislature are struggling to find better ways to effectively communicate with legislators than using traditional methods. Members are being swamped with the needs of their constituents and are overwhelmed. It is certainly interesting to be a part of these unprecedented times.