Read Seven Days article here.
Questions:
Josh: What do you believe explains why the farm industry is not profitable?
Andy: If people are content with buying cheap low grade products, how do we grab their attention?
Rachel: What sparked your interest in organic farming?
Katelyn: How do you think the organic industry (dairying and beyond) will change in the future?
Morgan: If most of our milk stays in Vermont, how would things be different?
Jack: Why does 95% of Vermont's milk go out of state currently?
Paige: If you could give one piece of advice to the world re: the environment, what would it be?
Eric: In what ways do you think American farming can shift back to the US, instead of trying to feed the world?
Vince: What is the balance needed to support population and local farmers?
Mitch: Why are we so concerned with the issue of world hunger, esp. when the percentage America produces is just a fraction of the whole number?
Madelyn: What is the best option to actively clean Lake Champlain?
Brandon: How much food is a realistic goal to produce within state?
Sarah: What are the dangers of small farms disappearing and leaving our food production in the hands of giant corporations?
Sophia: What will happen to the state of Vermont if farming continues to decline?
Nicole: What would you suggest to keep the food growing in Vermont to stay here?
Megan: Since people are resistant to living locally, do you think promoting organic food is a proper alternative?
Drew: Why can't we drop prices of organic food, if everyone needs it?
Chris: Which state is the "greenest" state? Was Vermont ever the "greenest" state?
Corey: What do you suggest a poor college kid like myself do to afford to eating organic?
Holly: What are the differences between Right-leaning and Left-leaning farmers?
Jamie: How can we non-farming consumers best help our local farmers?
Anthony: Could the interdisciplinary education of ecology and economy connect and support and move forward this agenda?
Revelations:
Josh: Since the 1940s, Vermont dairy farms have decreased from 11,000 to under 900.
Andy: 95% of Vermont's milk goes out of state.
Paige: Vermonters spend 95% of their food dollars on imported food.
Eric: We are adjusting the Earth to our agriculture, not adjusting our agriculture to the Earth.
Vince: Despite the best efforts of the law, the Vermont government had done nothing to enforce regulations on farmers.
Rachel: Farming and agriculture is the single biggest source of "nonpoint source" pollution in Vermont.
Katelyn: Maroney argues that Vermonters should focus on feeding ourselves more locally, rather than feeding the world's soon-to-be 9 billion people (because, he implied, its not our responsibility.)
Morgan: Only 3 Vermont dairies that bottle and sell their own milk locally.
Sarah: Organic farming pays farmers double and it cuts amount of pollution in half.
Sophia: 100% of milk made in Vermont leaves Vermont, and only 5% of the milk comes back.
Nicole: If all the farming in Vermont stops, the rest of the world won't be affected.
Mitch: Petroleum is a key ingredient in fertilizers.
Madelyn: $140 million spent annually on cleaning Lake Champlain and watershed.
Brandon/Drew: Laws are strict re: water quality, but enforcement is underfunded and passive.
Megan: 80% of Vermont agriculture is dairy.
Chris: Shocked - Vermont isn't as "green" as we perceive it to be.
Corey: Agriculture is exempt from environmental laws, and is often forgotten about with re: to global warming.
Holly: Only 2% of Americans are farmers.
Jamie: Often times, the problems of Vermont are about making the Earth benefit us.
Anthony: Economic system focuses on concerns of producer and consumer, instead of ecological responsibility.
Jack: 25% of all purchased food goes in the trash.
Questions:
