Dairy and vegetable farms are still dealing with saturated fields
in the aftermath of severe spring flooding, and the delayed planting of crops will have
ripple effects throughout the growing season.
Vermont’s wettest spring on record is making it difficult for farmers to harvest their first round of crops, and agriculture officials say the ground is so saturated that it may not recover this season.
To report damage, call 211
It’s the
start of the farmers’ market season in Vermont. Many markets
opened the first week of May with others opening throughout the month, offering
seedlings for gardens, preserved foods, and last winter’s storage
crops.
The wet, cold spring has left many farmers playing catch up when it comes to planting spring crops. For the state’s dairy farmers, that means they’re waiting to plant corn to feed their cows.
The Farm To Plate Strategic Plan was released this week, and sets
concrete goals for the future of the state’s agricultural industry. Chief among them: doubling the
amount of local food purchased in Vermont and adding 1,500 jobs in the food sector by 2020.
In his inaugural address last
week, Peter Shumlin laid out some of his priorities for the next two years. Now, five local advocacy organizations discuss their priorities for this
legislative session, under the new administration.
We tend to think of
farm fields as bucolic, natural landscapes. But farms increasingly rely on
plastic to store hay and silage, to build temporary greenhouses and to pot
plants.