Throughout the summer, Vermont farmers have dealt firsthand with this season of unpredictable weather, facing crop loss, destroyed equipment and increasing debt. As extreme weather events become more common with the growing threat of climate change, some say state and federal support needs to change to assist Vermont’s agricultural producers in the future.
The town of Johnson faced the wrath of the raging Lamoille River in early July as floodwaters swept through the state. Houses, stores and fields became destroyed by the floods, including Foote Brook Farm, an organic vegetable farm on Route 15.
Joie Lehouillier is the owner of Foote Brook Farm, along with her husband, Tony. They’ve owned the farm for 25 years and grow 145 different varieties of vegetables.
The day the floodwaters crested the Lamoille, Lehouillier said she woke up around 4:30 a.m.
“I didn't hear any traffic. So that made me a little nervous,” she said. “When we came outside, I didn't even believe what I was seeing. We looked out our front door and it just looked like glass, like a lake. It was calm water and we were just shocked and overwhelmed.”
The water devastated their low-lying fields, their equipment shed and their barn. Lehouillier estimates they lost 80-85% of their crop. And she says these losses are worse than what they faced in Tropical Storm Irene.
“You know, we’ve had vegetable losses before, and we can sort of get through those. But the equipment shed and the barn, it’s a major problem to lose that much infrastructure,” said Lehouillier.
She said the farm has benefited from a GoFundMe the community started and many grants she’s applied for that pay for everyday expenses. But they won’t be enough to help them through this storm.
“We're taking any help that we can possibly get and it has been extremely helpful,” she said. “But it is not going to get us back where we were.”
In Vermont alone, over 200 farms and 17,000 acres of farmland were affected by the floods, totaling over $12 million. And, over 70 fruit producers are still working to recover from a devastating frost that hit the state in late May.
More from New Hampshire Public Radio: Northeastern states, including NH, look for relief after deep freeze damaged crops
In the early morning hours of May 18, temperatures dropped around Vermont, as low as 19 degrees in some areas. Fruit trees, like apples, can only handle temperatures down to 28 degrees before they are damaged, and with warm temperatures in the beginning of May, trees had already started to bud.
It’s a phenomenon known as a “backwards spring,” said State Climatologist Lesley-Ann Dupigny-Giroux. It’s when temperatures warm earlier, signaling plants to start blooming, but when temperatures fall, the fragile buds are damaged and ultimately die. Plants like apples and stone fruit are highly susceptible to this type of damage.
In Putney, Casey Darrows, the owner of Green Mountain Orchards, says he lost 85% of his apples this year. He says even the morning after the freeze, he knew his crop was in trouble.
“Within about an hour or so, right in front of your eyes, you could see them change from white to this sort of brown, dead looking color,” Darrows said. “And so we knew there was pretty significant damage just by that alone.”
Fruit that comes from buds that do survive are often misshapen. And for orchards, their profit can depend on who they sell to. For Darrows, who mostly sells to commercial buyers, it’s unlikely the buyers will purchase his misshapen fruit.
“Selling to the grocery store, the fruit's got to be absolutely perfect. So we're thinking we have nothing to harvest for that market this year,” he said.
But Darrows hopes his customers will still purchase apples come fall through pick-your-own operations, even if they don’t look quite ‘normal.’
“We've been impressed in the past when we've had a hailstorm that's damaged fruit, looking into people's bags being like, ‘Wow I can't believe they picked that and are willing to pay full price,’ but nobody even said anything. We were worried about it and no one seemed to mind at all,” Darrows said.
As Vermont farmers try to recover from the season, governmental help will be crucial. On July 21, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack approved Gov. Phil Scott’s request for a disaster designation for those affected by the freeze. On Aug. 7, Scott’s disaster designation was approved for farmers with flood damages.
These designations make a number of programs from the USDA available to Vermont farmers, like silt or debris clean up. Though, some of this assistance is in the form of low-interest loans, which worries Darrows.
“We already have debt,” he said. “We don’t need more debt.”
Lehouillier echoed these concerns. She said, like many farmers, she borrows money at the beginning of every season and uses profits from that year’s crop to pay it back.
“Now I don't have those vegetables to pay back that line of credit. So I cannot even consider taking out another loan until I can figure out a way to pay off those ones that I already incurred to just get the season going,” she said.
Vermont Secretary of Agriculture Anson Tebbetts hopes to work with the U.S. Department of Agriculture and Vermont’s congressional delegation to find other ways to support farmers, like direct payments.
“Hopefully we can get together and find a vehicle to maybe get a program together,” Tebbetts said. “But it's going to take an act of Congress to get direct payments.”
Now I don't have those vegetables to pay back that line of credit. So I cannot even consider taking out another loan until I can figure out a way to pay off those ones that I already incurred to just get the season going.
Source: vermontpublic.org
Photo Credit: gettyimages-livingimages
Categories: New York, Crops, Fruits and Vegetables, Equipment & Machinery, Weather