Farm to Plate Goals

The statewide Vermont Farm to Plate Initiative identified 33 goals the state hopes to achieve by the year 2020.

• Goal 1: Consumption of Vermont-produced food by Vermonters and regional consumers will measurably increase.
• Goal 2: Students, administrators, and faculty of Vermont K-12 schools, colleges, and universities will consume more locally produced food.
• Goal 3: Vermonters will exhibit fewer food-related health problems (e.g., obesity and diabetes).
• Goal 4: Farmers will have increased options to reduce their costs of production.
• Goal 5: Agriculture will be advanced as the highest and best use of prime agricultural land and soils.
• Goal 6: Productive, fertile agricultural soil and land will be available and affordable for farming into the future.
• Goal 7: Food system operations will maintain healthy water supplies and build soil, reduce their carbon footprint, and improve their overall environmental stewardship to deliver a net environmental benefit to the state.
• Goal 8: Locally produced food for all types of local markets will have increased.
• Goal 9: Locally produced food for all types of regional markets will have increased.
• Goal 10: Vermont’s dairy industry will support supply management policies, instate processing infrastructure, and diversification opportunities.
• Goal 11: The majority of farms and food processing facilities will be profitable with a stable cash flow and increased returns to producers.
• Goal 12: Self-sufficiency and access to fresh food will increase through small-scale domestic production.
• Goal 13: Value-added food processors will be profitable, retain and/or add quality jobs, and strengthen and benefit from the quality of the Vermont brand.
• Goal 14: Food processing facilities of all kinds will enable producers to access a wider range of market outlets and enable greater year-round consumption of local food.
• Goal 15: There will be a sufficient supply of all forms of on-farm and commercial infrastructure to meet increasing year-round consumer demand (i.e. storage, aggregation, telecommunications, and distribution services).
• Goal 16: Food system businesses’ stages of development and scales of production will be matched with appropriate market outlets.
• Goal 17: Farm waste will be collected and food wastes will be diverted from landfills and used to produce compost and/or feedstock for anaerobic digesters.
• Goal 18: All Vermonters will have access to fresh, nutritionally balanced food that they can afford.
• Goal 19: Local, fresh food will be more available to people who are food insecure.
• Goal 20: All Vermonters will have a greater understanding of how to obtain, grow, store, and prepare nutritional food.
• Goal 21: Vermont K-12 students will have increased exposure to and the opportunity to pursue careers within the food system.
• Goal 22: Educational, institutional, and applied research resources at the University of Vermont will be explicitly integrated to advance the state’s food system.
• Goal 23: Institutions of higher education will offer a wide range of courses and degree programs aimed at meeting the growing needs of Vermont’s food system enterprises.
• Goal 24: Vermont farms and food processors will provide safe and welcoming working conditions and livable wages and have access to a skilled, reliable workforce, with flexibility to respond to seasonal needs.
• Goal 25: New farmers and other food entrepreneurs and workers will be available to produce a growing supply of food for local and regional markets.
• Goal 26: Technical assistance and business planning services will be highly coordinated, strategic, and accessible to food system businesses.
• Goal 27: Food system entrepreneurs and farmers will have greater access to the right match of capital (grants, loans, mezzanine debt, equity, loan guarantees, leases, and incentives) to meet their financing needs at their stage of growth and for their scale of business.
• Goal 28: Private foundations, federal funding sources, the Vermont Legislature, the governor’s administration, and food system investors will leverage each other’s available resources to maximize the implementation of this plan.
• Goal 29: Food system enterprises will minimize their use of fossil fuels and maximize their renewable energy, efficiency and conservation opportunities.
• Goal 30: Regulations and enforcement capacity will ensure food safety, be scale appropriate, and allow Vermont food enterprises to increase production and expand their market outlets.
• Goal 31: Vermont’s governor, legislature and state agencies will continue to celebrate the farm and food sector and will champion it as an economic development driver for the state.
• Goal 32: Food sector stakeholders will be well-represented on all local, regional, and state economic development boards.
• Goal 33: Food system market development needs will be strategically coordinated.