Day 5: "We educate versus sell, and that's expensive" - Andrew Meyer, VT Soy

Steer at Sterling Farm, where we did 6:30am farm chores.

Of everything we've learned so far (which is a LOT, for only 5 days), today's material was definitely the most different from my background, both in terms of my food studies education and living experiences. Before coming to Vermont, I spent much more time thinking and reading about the consumer side of food systems than the producer side, as well as more about fruits and vegetables than about dairy and livestock. I've certainly been pulled out of my comfort zone, but I've always known that a basic understanding of rural, agricultural communities and how food is produced (whether produce, milk, cheese, or meat) would be vital for a career in food policy.

Clothbound Cabot cheddar, which
ages in this cellar for 9-13 months.

This part of the course, in Sterling, has caused me to think more about where my food comes from than I have before. I have to admit I was slightly disconcerted by the idea of Cabot cheddar cheese wheels sitting in a basement cellar (that smelled so strongly of ammonia) for 9-13 months at Jasper Hill Cellars. There's also something inherently sad about seeing pigs, lambs and goats, cows, and rabbits at Sterling Farm that you know will be slaughtered soon for meat. Additionally, at Jasper Hill Cellars, the VT Food Venture Center, and Jasper Hill barn, we had to be very careful about washing our hands, cleaning our boots, and keeping our hair in hairnets because of food safety issues. This is another aspect of the food system I haven't thought much about, especially when I'm eating, but I am learning to see how challenging food safety can be from both a policy/administrative level and boots-on-the-ground (literally, boots) production level.

To expand on the title of this post, Andrew Meyer, the owner of Vermont Soy, discussed the challenges of selling organic, sustainably grown/raised food, and the need to educate consumers before they'll buy such products. When asked why he and other small VT producers sell their product to supposed "bad guys" like Walmart, he claimed that he's fine with selling his soy products to Walmart or Whole Foods, because that brings money back to his local community. Small companies like Vermont Soy, and the majority of VT food companies, need to sell outside VT's small co-ops to increase their volume, lower costs, increase profits, hire more employees, give more back to the local community, grow/produce more product, etc etc. This was an interesting perspective on small-town, rural economic development, and I'm sure opinions on selling to such huge corporations vary widely. This article in Civil Eats, for example, discusses Wal-Mart's greenwashing, misleading sustainability claims, and control over supply markets (Holt 2015). But as we start to see huge connections across food systems, that conversation becomes a whole different animal.