Sen. Peter Welch meets Vermont farmers at Honey Field Farm to discuss land access, USDA delays, and farm incomes

Sen. Peter Welch met with six Vermont farmers at Honey Field Farm in Norwich in a roundtable organized by the Northeast Organic Farming Association of Vermont. The conversation focused on three linked problems: land access and ownership, access to federal support administered by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and the gap between consumer prices and what producers receive.

Several farmers described working without ownership. Eli and Valerie Hersh operate Honey Field Farm under a lease-to-own arrangement with a private investment firm that bought the property when the couple lacked funds. They expect to complete a purchase next summer, but said the case illustrates how many transfer tools are needed to keep farms in production.

Federal program design and staffing problems

Farmers reported that USDA program rules and staffing shortages are making help unreliable. Many USDA grants and conservation contracts operate on reimbursement: farmers must pay contractors or suppliers first and wait for federal payment. When government shutdowns or agency restructuring delay reimbursements, farmers that cannot front costs must postpone projects or absorb deposits.

The administrative burden of competitive applications also consumes labor and time. Farmers said grant writing is becoming a core skill, and that the paperwork itself can crowd out farm work.

Prices, consolidation, and farm margins

Speakers connected access issues to pricing across food systems. USDA Economic Research Service numbers were cited showing farmers captured 11.8 cents of every dollar spent on domestically produced food in 2024. An American Farm Bureau Federation analysis was referenced showing that after production expenses, farmers and ranchers kept roughly 5.8 cents of every retail dollar.

The meeting gathered concrete examples rather than new legislation. Farmers described on-the-ground transfer arrangements and the practical failures of program timing and staffing. Welch acknowledged USDA capacity issues and said he would visit the state office to thank remaining staff. The roundtable highlighted the combination of land tenure barriers, cash-flow problems tied to federal reimbursement models, and thin farm shares of retail food spending as immediate issues Vermont farmers face.

If you follow rural policy or local food systems, watch for proposals that address: alternative land-transfer models, grant and contract payment structures that reduce up-front costs for small farms, and USDA staffing levels in state offices. Those are the operational fixes farmers described as most urgent.