April 18, 2025
On the evening of April 16th, dozens of farmers, farmworkers, and community members gathered outside the USDA offices at 68 Catamount Park in Middlebury as part of a regional Farmer Day of Action. Organized by the Northeast Organic Farming Association of Vermont (NOFA-VT), the event highlighted the urgent need for federal policy that supports small and organic farms, values farmworkers, and invests in just, sustainable agriculture—and a more just and thriving future for all.
Farmers in Vermont have been contending with flip-flopping tariffs that affect the price of everything from maple processing equipment to greenhouse scaffolding, layoffs of local USDA service providers, and cancellations of federal food system investments like the Partnership for Climate Smart Commodities and the Local Food Purchase Assistance Cooperative Agreement Program (LFPA). Tinmouth farmer Meadow Squier, reflecting on the loss of the LFPA program—which purchased food from local farms for food banks—shared: “These programs were instrumental to us when we were a beginning farm. What I see is this funding cut is a way to continue to push small family farms into extinction and make agriculture a corporate system.”
The action brought together a broad coalition of local farmers and allies, who connected with each other and shared how recent federal funding cuts, immigration crackdowns, USDA layoffs, and trade policy shifts are impacting their livelihoods and communities. A few speakers also addressed the crowd, including Jacob Powsner, a maple syrup producer from Chittenden.
“As we’ve all witnessed, the current swamp administration down in D.C. is gutting the support systems for our food system. And this isn’t just radical existential dread for the policy wonks or bureaucrats. We’re talking about real harm to real people. This is a systematic gutting of food security in favor of harmful, racist immigration policy and of ‘border security,’” said Powsner. “We’re done with waiting and seeing. We’re here to say, 'No more.'”
Farmers showed up with signs, holding up messages such as “Cut hay, not USDA,”
“Farmworkers Are Essential,” and “Farmers Feed Us All.” Many attendees also brought larger-than-life long-handled spoons—carved from wood or cut from cardboard—in tribute to the parable of the long spoons, a folktale that reminds us we already have the tools for food security; we just need to use them to reach across the table and feed one another.
Attendees also brought food to share to model that when we work together, we can keep each other fed. A pile of bread baked with local grains, local organic chocolate milk, and a steaming pot of shared soup added warmth and joy to the evening, even as speakers addressed serious challenges. The gathering closed with a collective call for federal leaders to prioritize people over profit and to reinvest in the future of small-scale, regenerative farming.
“You know things are bad when you have vegetable farmers coming out on April 16. I have a to-do list that can stretch from here to Bar Harbor and back,” said Stoni Tomson, a lettuce vegetable, fruit, and nut farmer in Huntington. “I think the on-again, off-again tariffs—all the chaos—it’s really part of a larger full frontal assault on our community food systems…I want to see all our farmers flourish.”
As these threats to our community unfortunately continue, we will be pulling together in many ways, with many people, to build a world where everyone is safe and fed.
There are many ways to move this work forward! Choose a couple of ways you're going to engage next:
- Our member meetings are a place for us to envision what we can do together that we can’t do alone. We have two upcoming meetings: April 29 in Stowe, and May 1 in Rutland (this one is specifically for VOF-certified producers & processors).
- If you're already a NOFA member, THANK YOU! If you're not, consider joining us.
- Would you like to be part of shaping an action with NOFA, possibly based on the story of the long-handled spoons? We're planning more soon, and there will be a range of ways to stay involved. Let us know! Contact Maddie Kempner, NOFA-VT Director of Policy and Organizing at [email protected].
- Print the Long-Handled Spoon zine, fold it (check out this video tutorial), and distribute the zines everywhere you can -- we want to get this circulating in the community!
Make your own long-handled spoon, or invite your neighbors over to make them, and tell them the story of the long spoons! We had folks with cardboard spoons, wooden spoons, and paper mache spoons on Wednesday. Make any spoon - and make a party about it!
