Root Words

Welcome back to our fifth episode of a five-part miniseries exploring how a focus on local food builds relationships with people and the environment.  If you haven't followed this miniseries, you may want to go back and listen from episode 26, Localizing the Regional Food System. In this episode of Root Words, we'll explore how Vermont Farmers Food Center's reopening will help usher in, not only regenerative agriculture, but a regenerative way of life for the region.  And we'll wrap up the series by hearing how a vibrant and well supported community food web creates a more circular, localized economy where we all thrive together.  Let's start by checking back in with the Vermont Farmers Food Center.   In 2019 VFFC completed a USDA Funded feasibility study and business plan for the campus with the purpose of developing the additional buildings into infrastructure that supports small food business access and creates local jobs.  In 2021, VFFC received federal grants to renovate its buildings so it can fully implement its business plan. However, one of the initial requirements in this process was an environmental review, which revealed harmful contamination from the site's industrial past that would need to be addressed before any renovation could begin. Unfortunately, in January 2022, amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, VFFC had to close Farmers Hall, the central gathering space for the local food community.  While these dual challenges were a temporary setback, it has not deterred VFFC.   After two years, the doors will be reopening.  VFFC board member Phillip Ackerman-Leist says that two years of pandemic challenges, remediation, and expansion efforts have provided a wealth of lessons learned, and he is excited to see the organization continue to grow.  Relocalizing our economies creates a future of thriving communities.  A future full of potential and opportunity.  A future of community and civic engagement, and environmental and physical well-being.   It has taken generations for us to arrive at the unaccountable global system that we have.  It is not an easy road back and we'll all have to actively center local food and businesses to push back against the entrenched centralized power of global corporations.   It seems like a lot, and it is.  The good news is that there's a lot of ways to work for change, and everyone is needed and can find purpose in this work.   Do what you can to support your local farmers and organizations like Vermont Farmers Food Center.  If you're in Vermont consider joining your local hunger council.  We've compiled localization resources from this mini series on VFFC's website at vermontfarmersfoodcenter.org/local   This miniseries was produced by Stephen Abatiell and Julia Anderson. Special thanks to Philip Ackerman-Leist, Heidi Lynch, Greg Cox, Steve Gorelick, Shane Rogers, and Lyle Jepsen, as well as all of the folks who spoke with us throughout this series. Root Words is produced in the heart of Rutland County Vermont and is made possible by generous support from listeners like you.  You can support Root Words by visiting us Online

Welcome back to our fourth episode of a five-part miniseries exploring how a focus on local food builds relationships with people and the environment.  If you haven't followed this miniseries, you may want to go back and listen from episode 26, Localizing the Regional Food System. In our last episode we explored some relationships that people have with their foodways and some of the impacts that are felt when these relationships are damaged.  And we heard how some folks are restoring their communities' relationships with the land and with each other. If the community food web relationships are strong and vibrant, it may become possible to create a physical space that can be an active center to the web, providing enough general use attributes for the entire web to thrive.    In this episode, we'll explore Vermont Farmers Food Center's plans to rejuvenate the historic buildings at 251 West Street in downtown Rutland, Vermont and build an urban food center on the site of the former Lincoln Iron Works. Buildings aren't usually what comes to mind when we envision a vibrant local food system.  We may picture a densely cultivated field or perhaps a farmer chatting up customers at market, but like many background players, buildings- physical spaces to work, gather, warehouse, and create- play a vital role in our food system.    In a globalized food system, buildings like this are often faraway and out-of-sight, increasing energy demands for transportation while decreasing accountability to the community of consumers. Likewise, our own towns and cities often have “out-of-sight” spaces that fall into decay after their initial era of usefulness has waned, sometimes even becoming dangerous liabilities for the community if left inactive for too long.  251 West Street in Rutland, Vermont is just this sort of site.  The 2.9 acre industrial site hosted many forms of manufacturing over the past 170 years.  Notably, the Lincoln Iron Works centered a thriving community that anchored families and adjacent businesses to Rutland, but like many manufacturing centers in the U.S. the gears eventually ground to a halt when the globalizing economy shifted this work elsewhere.   Local historian, Jack Crowther, has researched this site's rise to prominence and subsequent fall into disuse.  Adaptation and reuse of aging infrastructure provides a path forward that revitalizes neglected, once-thriving areas, and protects open spaces from unnecessary sprawl.   Lyssa Papazian has been working for 30 years in historic preservation and is now based in Putney, Vermont. Vermont Farmers Food Center brought her in to assess the eligibility of the buildings at the 251 West St. site for listing on the national historic register. Lyssa says that historic preservation and adaptive reuse are starkly different.  Preservation is important in some instances, but its use is narrowly appropriate. Today in Rutland, a local food movement is reigniting the community and the people that fill the historic architecture with purpose will adapt it to further use, ultimately keeping the spaces relevant.   My grandfather Peter worked in the Lincoln Ironworks during its last great phase of output for the war effort.  My great grandfather Pasquale worked in the Lincoln ironworks even before that in the 20's.  During Pasquale's days at the Iron Works, the factory workers unionized and joined the American Steel Workers to push back against the power dynamics of that day's economy.   Farmer and Vermont Food Center founder, Greg Cox, has shown similar determination that those fellas would have respected by having the audacity to revive an aging factory through a driven community effort, ultimately pushing back against the centralized power of today's global food system. In 2012, when area farmers and food producers needed more space, Greg saw the potential of 251 West Street.   Farmer, author, and VFFC board member, Philip Ackerman-Leist, has learned that providing opportunity in the middle of the food system is a critical component to overall food system resiliency, and that a large former factory might be an ideal location for a community food web hub. In many ways 251 West Street is the ideal location.  Unfortunately, sometimes our past catches up to us, and we are faced with confronting it.  Before Vermont's farmers ever created organic food guidelines that pushed back against conventional chemical agriculture, that industrial chemical legacy was already entombed at 251 West Street from a long history of manufacturing and subsequent neglect. In 2021, as VFFC was furthering the reuse efforts of the site, an environmental assessment of the property revealed trichloroethylene or TCE contamination. TCE is a known carcinogen, and was likely left behind from industrial degreasers used in the mid 20th century.   After the contamination was discovered VFFC shut down the old Iron Works building, now called Farmers Hall, on the 251 West Street site.  This forced the winter farmers' market to relocate in the middle of the season and caused disruptions to the pandemic-era prepared meals program.   The plan to adapt this piece of the city's industrial past to create new local food opportunities, seemed to be in jeopardy.   The board and staff of Vermont Farmers Food Center had their work cut out for them.   The folks at VFFC are addressing more challenges left over from an outdated globalized economy than they initially set out to, utilizing state money and grant money to do so.  Lyle Jepsen, Executive Director at the Chamber and Economic Development for the Rutland Region is optimistic about the effect a food hub will bring to county wide redevelopment efforts. This time around the site's closure didn't stop all momentum and lead to further decay, this time there was a network built around the continual use of this space. Today's community food web was strong enough to overcome the weight of the site's history.   On the next Root Words we'll hear how Vermont Farmers Food Center's remediation and adaptive renovation efforts are set to support the community food web and create a more circular, localized economy where we all thrive together.   This episode was produced by Stephen Abatiell and Julia Anderson. Special thanks to Jack Crowther, Lyssa Papazian, Philip Ackerman-Leist, Greg Cox, Lyle Jepsen, and all of the people who have brought life to 251 West Street over the years.  If you would like to learn more about the history of the Lincoln Iron Works in Rutland you can find a link to Jack Crowther's Rutland Historical Society report on Vermont Farmers Food Center's website, under the “About” tab.  You can also see VFFC's building renovation plans, visit their website at www.vermontfarmersfoodcenter.org  Root Words is produced in the heart of Rutland County Vermont and is made possible by generous support from listeners like you.  You can support Root Words by visiting us Online

Welcome back to our third episode of a five-part miniseries exploring how a focus on local food builds relationships with people and the environment.  If you haven't followed this miniseries, you may want to go back and listen from episode 26, Localizing the Regional Food System.   In our last episode we explored the community food web, a local alternative to the globalized food system that centers our relationships with our communities and with the land.    In this episode, we look at some relationships that people have with their foodways and some of the impacts that are felt when these relationships are damaged.  Then we'll hear how some folks are restoring their communities' relationships with the land and with each other. At the end, we'll hear what Vermont Farmers Food Center is doing to help build back those community relationships in Rutland.   Steve Gorelick, Managing and Programs Director for Local Futures, believes that the globalized accumulation economy has isolated us from true community.  Steve says that before globalization, our agriculturally based communities were inherently more interconnected, and that this isolation has many serious effects.   Farmer and Vermont Farmers Food Center founder, Greg Cox, believes that global agribusiness' goal is yield, and that individual and community health has suffered in the wake of this approach.     Shane Rogers of Food Solutions New England, believes that social inequities have been exacerbated by an unaccountable global food system, and that communities are their own best experts for rebalancing the power dynamic that a globalized system creates.   Many communities that have been marginalized by the global yield-based economy are rebuilding their relationships with their foodways and creating more just systems while doing so.  We have explored many of these stories on Root Words over the past few years.   In episode 4, Sugaring in Vermont, Vermont Abenaki chef Jessee Lawyer describes his experience practicing traditional indigenous maple sugaring.  In episodes 10, 11, 15, and 16, We explore the Vermont Abenaki's quest for food sovereignty and preservation of their cultural food traditions, and hear from some allies in these efforts.     In episode 18 Taking Space, Vermont RELEAF Collective, I spoke with Olivia Pena, founder of Vermont RELEAF Collective, a network by Black Indigenous, & People of Color advancing Racial Equity in Land, Environment, Agriculture, & Foodways.  This Vermont BIPOC network amplifies and lifts marginalized voices, while building community and sharing opportunities around foodways and land stewardship.     If you haven't listened to our older episodes, they show some real depth to our communities' cultural and social practices around food, and they are worth a listen.   Instead of replaying a segment from one of these earlier episodes, I'd like to play a piece from an unaired interview I did with Rich Holshuh in October of 2021.  Rich is a citizen of the Elnu Abenaki Tribe, and working on the Atowi project that hopes to create balance with communities and with place.  Forced removal separated indigenous people from their land and foodways abruptly.  This and the cultural genocide that followed makes it very difficult for indigenous people to maintain their relationship with place and with their food system.  Rich's Atowi project is doing some really amazing work in partnership with the Brattleboro Retreat Farm and SuSu ComUNITY farm to address this reality.  Stay tuned for more on this work in future episodes of Root Words.   Many BIPOC organizations and networks are leading the way to reestablish relationships between communities and with place.    To learn about the work of Atowi and of SuSu CommUNITY Farm, check out atowi.org, and susucommunityfarm.org.     Here in Rutland, farmer and VFFC board president, Greg Cox feels that most people no longer know where our food comes from and we've been detached from our connection to place and to seasonal change because of it, resulting in poor mental and physical health for us as individuals and for our communities as a whole.  Greg feels that communities can be saved by rebuilding economic viability, beginning with a local food economy.  This belief led Greg and others to create the Vermont Farmers Food Center in 2012.     By focusing on seasonal community gathering around food, VFFC creates the space for authentic community connections and empathetic relationships between people and sets the stage for healing and restoration while reconnecting people to their home's natural cycles and rhythms.  By using local food as common ground, VFFC facilitates a place-based culture that engages the community.   Heidi Lynch is the executive director for Vermont Farmers Food Center.  Under Heidi's guidance, VFFC leads a grassroots effort to become more connected to community and place by gathering around local food.    A built awareness around our connections to nature and community through a local food web creates space for dialog, understanding, and healing.  We are all connected to place by our food and to each other through our community food web.  When you become a supporter of VFFC, you establish a local relationship with farmers, food producers, and community members.  You establish a relationship with place.  For more information on becoming a member of the community at VFFC, visit VFFC's website at vermontfarmersfoodcenter.org.    Food is the heart of one of our most intimate relationships with nature. We have the opportunity to connect with the land, the farmers, and our community when we restore relationships through the foods we choose to eat. Through a shared sense of place we can build trust and start healing our relationships with each other.   Rebuilding trust and our relationships with each other and with the land we occupy creates a strong foundation for food web resilience, but in order to bring the food system home you need a physical place, and it needs to be big and accessible. On the next Root Words we'll hear how a grassroots community effort worked to rescue an aging piece of the community's industrial past.     This episode was produced by Stephen Abatiell and Julia Anderson.   Special thanks to Steve Gorelick, Shane Rogers, Rich Holshuh, Greg Cox, and Heidi Lynch.   To learn more, check out the Atowi project at atowi.org, and SuSu CommUNITY Farm at susucommunityfarm.org.     For more information on the community at VFFC, visit vermontfarmersfoodcenter.org.  This Root Words series has been underwritten by Windswept Farm and Rutland Fluoride Action.    Barry Cohen of Windswept Farm strongly supports VFFC and is very encouraged with the Food Hub plan. Barry says, “My farm as well as my partner, The Squier Family Farm, expect to use the food hub facilities with it benefiting our process and profit.”   The folks at Rutland Fluoride Action are dedicated to ending fluoridation of the Rutland City water supply, learn more at RutlandFluorideAction.org. Root Words is produced in the heart of Rutland County Vermont and is made possible by generous support from listeners like you.  You can support Root Words by visiting us Online

In our last episode we explored the challenges that a global food system can have for local communities.  On this episode of Root Words we'll talk with Ken Meter, president of Crossroads Resource Center and Philip Ackerman-Leist farmer, author, and Vermont Farmers Food Center board member, as we explore the concept of a community Food Web and the benefits of this local alternative. To start us off, let's go back to our conversation from the last episode with Ellen Kahler, Executive Director with Vermont Sustainable Jobs Fund, and member of the Governor's Commission on the Future of Vermont Agriculture, where she helped create Vermont Farm to Plate, the state's food systems development plan.   Ellen says that the Covid-19 pandemic caused major disruptions in the fragile global food system.  Creating an alternative supply chain will need to be a community effort played out region by region, but communities don't need to feel isolated while doing this work.  Food systems analysts like Ken Meter can help provide perspective.  In 2019, Ken conducted and wrote VFFC's Market Study which helped guide its strategic planning in 2020. Ken Meter is the president of Crossroads Resource Center, a non-profit organization that works with communities to foster democracy and local self-determination. His local economic analyses have promoted local food networks in 140 regions, 40 states, two provinces, and three tribal nations.  His recent book, Building Community Food Webs, is an inspiring collection of stories about how communities transformed their food systems and local economies.    A community food web builds health, wealth, connection, and capacity within the local community.   Ken believes that a community food web is largely a relational network, and that the strength of these relationships relies on trust.  Philip Ackerman-Leist is a farmer, former food systems professor, VFFC board member, and author of Rebuilding the Foodshed: How to Create Local, Sustainable, and Secure Food Systems. While working with partners in the food web, Philip puts his faith in trust. Tension between available resources and the vision for recreating a relational food web can create slow, stable, and resilient change, but tension between communities of people in a food web can increase inequity and erode trust.   Ken Meter feels that the food system we have now creates wealth for some at the expense of others, but a relocalized community food web can be a vehicle for restoring trust and addressing injustice.    On the next episode of Root Words we'll take a closer look at the filaments that bind a community food web as we explore Restoring Relationships.  This episode was produced by Stephen Abatiell and Julia Anderson.  Special thanks to Ellen Kahler, Ken Meter, and Philip Ackerman-Leist. To learn more about Ken Meter's work check out Crossroads Resource Center at www.crcworks.org  Root Words is produced in the heart of Rutland County Vermont and is made possible by generous support from listeners like you.  You can support Root Words by visiting us Online

Root Words returns with a special five-part series to take a closer look at the growing effort to localize our food system. Localized food systems are gaining regional and national attention for the benefits that go beyond food production and consumption. Rural and urban communities across the United States and the world are building local food networks for greater resilience, stronger local economies, better health, and social well being. Vermont Farmers Food Center is a food hub that's creating an alternative to the existing food system by rooting food production and access in a particular place. In this series we're going to explore how a focus on local food builds relationships with people and the environment, and we'll discuss how a local food center can contribute to the regional and global impact that localization may have on our economic and environmental sustainability.  Localizing the regional food system is the Vermont Farmers Food Center's stated mission. In our first episode in this special series, we are taking a deeper dive into why localizing the food system is important and why it's so important now. The Cambridge English Dictionary defines localization as, “the process of organizing a business or industry so that its main activities happen in local areas rather than nationally or internationally.” Today's guests will help us understand why localization is needed now and how it creates change to the existing nationalized food system.  A localized food system, built at the community level that balances the strengths and needs of the community creates more economic autonomy, empowered civic participation, and community well-being.  On the next episode of Root Words we'll explore a local alternative to global consolidation, the community food web.  This episode was produced by Stephen Abatiell and Julia Anderson.  Special thanks to Steve Gorelick, Shane Rogers, and Ellen Kahler.  To learn more, check out Steve Gorelick's films and books at Local Futures, www.localfutures.org/  Root Words is produced in the heart of Rutland County Vermont and is made possible by generous support from listeners like you.  You can support Root Words by visiting us Online

Root Words is coming back with a special 4 part mini series this October.  We'll talk with some folks that have dedicated themselves to rejuvenating the food system and community infrastructure as we dig a little deeper into why local food hubs, like Vermont Farmers Food Center in Rutland, Vermont, are so important to the future of our communities. Rural and urban communities across the United States and the world are building local food webs for greater resilience, stronger local economies, better health, and social well being. We hope you enjoy this upcoming mini series from Root Words. Root Words is produced in the heart of Rutland County Vermont and is made possible by generous support from listeners like you.  You can support Root Words by visiting us Online

The green mountains are a forested landscape and many folks interact with forests for work and recreation.  While about 6.5% of Vemont's land area is human development, around 78% of the state is forested.  Human activities and forests play different roles in the natural cycling of carbon.  During photosynthesis Vermont forests take in about 45% of the state's annual carbon emissions.   As atmospheric carbon builds up and creates uncertain conditions for Vermont's future landscape, some folks are working to elevate the forest's role in the carbon cycle, with the hope that more Vermonters will not just see our forests as peaceful sanctuaries, wildlife habitat, and timber resource, but as a key element in mitigating some of the worst effects of climate change.   For this episode I visited Tim Stout on his family land on a rainy summer morning in Shrewsbury.  Tim's family has owned this mountainside property for generations, and he's managed the forest with intention for decades.   Vermont's Use Value Appraisal program (widely known as current use) provides a tax benefit by enabling eligible private landowners who practice long-term forestry or agriculture to have their land appraised based on the property's value of production of wood or food rather than its residential or commercial development value. As of January 2021, there were nearly 16,000 forestland parcels enrolled, more than half of Vermont's total privately-owned forestland. Carbon credit markets are an emerging resource for private landowners.  In these markets a carbon credit is equal to the equivalent of one metric ton of CO2.  Tim is enrolled in the Family Forest Carbon Program.  Developed by the American Forest Foundation and The Nature Conservancy, the Family Forest Carbon Program enables family forest owners to access carbon markets and earn income from their land.   The American Forest Foundation sells verified carbon credits to companies and pays landowners to implement new carbon-minded management practices.  Tim's passion to create a more resilient forest and a better future for his grandchildren has connected him to his neighbors, academic experts, and to the land he stewards.   This episode was produced by Stephen Abatiell. Special thanks to Tim Stout and Northam Forest Carbon.  To learn more about Tim's work to connect landowners with climate conscious management resources visit northamforestcarbon.com  To find your county forester or learn more about Vermont's Use Value Appraisal program visit fpr.vermont.gov.  Root Words is produced in the heart of Rutland County Vermont and is made possible by generous support from listeners like you.  You can support Root Words by visiting us Online

At the start of this year's legislative session in Vermont we took a closer look at the campaign to make school meals universal.  It's one of the really important food access issues that the state house took on this year and with the legislative session coming to a close we've decided to check back in with Teddy Waszazak, Hunger Free Vermont's Universal School Meals campaign manager, for an update on what's coming out of the legislature this session.   We spoke with Teddy and school nutrition director Harley Sterling at length on this topic in Episode 19: Universal School Meals, and if you haven't heard that episode it's worth going back and giving it a listen before listening to this episode.   This episode was produced by Stephen Abatiell. Special thanks to Teddy Waszazak and Hunger Free Vermont.  To learn more about Hunger Free Vermont's work to support equitable access to nutrition visit www.hungerfreevt.org.  Root Words is produced in the heart of Rutland County Vermont and is made possible by generous support from listeners like you.  You can support Root Words by visiting us Online

In this episode we go shopping, and explore some of the differences between shopping at the farmer's market and the supermarket, and of course we meet some farmers along the way.  This episode was produced by Stephen Abatiell. Special thanks to Greg Cox, Katie Stickney, NOFA-VT, Dr. David Conner, WEXP, and the Saltash Serenaders. Root Words is produced in the heart of Rutland County Vermont and is made possible by generous support from listeners like you.  You can support Root Words by visiting us Online  

Before there was home delivery, before there were supermarkets, before there was refrigeration, even before people cooked their food, people fed themselves and their families by foraging their landscape.  Collecting food, medicine, or provisions from our environment is perhaps the closest we can get to our food-source, and the places we live.  Much of the world continues a healthy relationship to their home though foraging, and even here in the US, foraging is having a re-emergence spurred by revivals of tradition and quests for self-sufficiency and connection to one's landscape, even in urban environments.   On this episode I head into the woods with my brother Pete, and connect with a few inspired foraging folks: Walter Collins and Tina Picz.  This episode was produced by Stephen Abatiell Special thanks to Walter Collins, Tina Picz, and the VT Foragers community for ID support and inspiration.   To learn more, check out Vermont Foragers on Facebook and Tina Picz on Instagram at VermontFoodPhoto.  You can learn more about Vermont Releaf Collective at www.vtreleafcollective.org.  For a real treat, and this is highly recommended, check out Alexis Nikole Nelson Instagram or Facebook @blackforager.  Root Words is produced in the heart of Rutland County Vermont and is made possible by generous support from listeners like you.  You can support Root Words by visiting us Online  Note: I find a lot of rejuvenation, and food, from foraging, and would like to see the practice available to more people.  If you are a landowner, please consider allowing people to access the land for hunting, fishing, foraging, and recreation.  If someone comes to your door to ask permission please be open to the conversation.  There are some important things in life that cannot be found in a grocery store or pharmacy. And if you don't have a necessary reason, consider not posting your land. 

As we come out of winter, the energy of spring starts flowing in our forests again.  Cold nights and warm days don't just mean muddy roads, they mean the sap's flowing again, and it's sugar season.  All over the state folks are boiling in outdoor kettles, homemade evaporators, and sugar houses. In celebration of the season, we're putting out this Sugaring in Vermont episode from our archive.  The episode features a lot of folks from a story gathering we hosted in 2019, including Grace Korzun.  Grace passed away this past October, and we'd like to dedicate this episode re-release in her memory.  Hope you enjoy, and thanks for listening. In this episode we explore the the tree that connects so many of us to place and community, the sugar maple. This episode was produced by Stephen Abatiell, Kara Fitzbeauchamp, and special guest Jessee Lawyer of The Dawnland Kitchen. Special thanks to Greg Cox, Grace Brigham, WEXP, and the Saltash Serenaders. Root Words is produced in the heart of Rutland County Vermont and is made possible by generous support from listeners like you.  You can support Root Words by visiting us Online   

About a quarter of children in Vermont have faced food insecurity over the course of the pandemic, but it's estimated that one in ten Vermonters were already dealing with food insecurity before the pandemic.   A patchwork of agencies and organizations work to blunt the most severe outcomes of inequity in the food system, disproportionately felt by BIPOC Vermonters and women and children.  On this episode of Root Words we'll connect with Joleen Durfee, director of the food access & education program at the Parent-Child Center of Rutland County, and we'll hear how she works to bring joy and empowerment into the community. But first, we check in with Keely Agan of Hunger Free Vermont.   Passionate folks like Joleen and Keely are working around the state to balance some of the inequities in the food system, while honoring folks' innate dignity.  There's a lot of work to do to create a more just food system, and we'll continue to share stories of the folks reimagining the food system here on Root Words.    This episode was produced by Stephen Abatiell. Special thanks to Keely Agan, Joleen Durfee, and Rutland's Parent-Child Center.  To learn more about the Parent-Child Center of Rutland County's programs or what you can do to get involved, visit www.rcpcc.org. If you're interested in joining your county's hunger council visit www.hungerfreevt.org.   Root Words is produced in the heart of Rutland County Vermont and is made possible by generous support from listeners like you.  You can support Root Words by visiting us Online 

About 79,000 students go in and out of classrooms each school day in Vermont's public schools.  Some may be learning to add and multiply, some to speak a new language, and some to fix a small engine, but all of them will get hungry, and need to refuel their bodies to help their minds grow.   Feeding all of these growing students is no small task and it connects parents and care-givers, all levels of government, farmers near and all-too-often far, and a web of federal programs. In Vermont, it's estimated that nearly a quarter of children are facing hunger.     On this episode of Root Words we'll hear how the pandemic has changed school meals and how some hope some of the changes stick while we explore universal school meals.  We'll hear from Teddy Waszazak, universal school meals campaign manager of Hunger Free Vermont later in the episode, but first let's reconnect with Harley Sterling, school nutrition director of Windham Northeast Supervisory Union.   Hunger Free Vermont is working to level the playing field in public education, making sure student needs are met.  Teddy Waszazak remembers what it was like to be a kid facing food insecurity growing up, and that empathy feeds his work as universal school meals campaign manager for Hunger Free Vermont.   Teddy and the folks at Hunger Free Vermont are working to ensure that students continue to receive a nutritious breakfast and lunch everyday.  Bill S.100 is in the house education committee, and has been paired back to only include universal breakfast at this time.  Hunger Free Vermont has begun briefing legislators, and continues to fight for universal lunch.   This episode was produced by Stephen Abatiell Special thanks to Teddy Waszazak, Harley Sterling, and Hunger Free Vermont.  To learn more about Hunger Free Vermont's Universal Meals campaign visit www.universalschoolmealsvt.org.   Root Words is produced in the heart of Rutland County Vermont and is made possible by generous support from listeners like you.  You can support Root Words by visiting us Online 

Tina Picz, a forager, food photographer and food stylist in the Mad River Valley addresses equity and justice in food systems through conversations she facilitates on her social media channels. These conversations center and uplift the voices of food sovereignty workers, and create space for BIPOC leaders in food systems, land use, and health.    On this episode of Root Words we'll explore the importance of affinity spaces for BIPOC Vermonters while experiencing their foodways. We'll hear from Olivia Pena, founder of Vermont RELEAF Collective, a network by and for Black, Indigenous, & People of Color advancing Racial Equity in Land, Environment, Agriculture, & Foodways and we'll reconnect with Tina Picz.   RELEAF practices 3 main initiatives: Building Community, Sharing Opportunities, and Amplifying voices.  This past November I got a chance to connect with Olivia Pena, Vermont RELEAF's founder and community organizer, to learn about why she was inspired to launch the RELEAF Collective in Vermont.   Our connections with the Land, our Environment, Agriculture, and our Foodways are deep in Vermont and deeply tied to quality of life for all Vermonters, though many of the decisions regarding our connections with these things happen in white spaces, and the stories that are shared of leaders in these fields have been pretty whitewashed for a long time.  But, all that is shifting and networks of BIPOC farmers, environmentalists, and food sovereignty advocates, like the folks of Vermont RELEAF Collective, are amplifying the voices of folks that have a lot to contribute to the future of Vermont's foodways and land use, while also creating space for folks that break the mould of who a farmer can be in Vermont.  This episode was produced by Stephen Abatiell Special thanks to Tina Picz, Olivia Pena, and Vermont RELEAF Collective.  To learn more, check out Vermont RELEAF Collective at www.vtreleafcollective.org. You can find Tina Picz on Instagram at VermontFoodPhoto. Root Words is produced in the heart of Rutland County Vermont and is made possible by generous support from listeners like you.  You can support Root Words by visiting us Online  

This past week during an interview for root words I started getting a storm of messages coming in over my phone and it turns out that my brother Pete got a deer late one afternoon just before the snow storm came in. My father and I loaded up the car and a plastic sled and headed out To help drag. The whole ordeal took us three hours left is all good and tired. This weekend the family convened to do at home butchering of this harvested deer and I thought it would be nice to present a short snapshot of our amateur process, With a little professional context from my conversation at farmers market with Hunter Hubbard of Mountainview Bison in North Clarendon, Vermont. Today, most folks probably haven't had the experience of processing their own meat from an animal they've raised or harvested, even if they've been a meat eater their entire lives.  In many ways it can be like taking on a large gardening project, it can be a bit daunting to get into, a lot of hard work, and very rewarding and educational.   As I mentioned in episode 13: Hunting, A Family Tradition, my father and uncle learned to process deer from their father, and from Uncle Lindy the family butcher.  Pete and I have stirred up this tried and true family tradition and knowledge a bit by incorporating some stuff we learned on the internet.  There are YouTube how-to's on everything, and we can't resist cosplaying our Italian heritage with the search for a delectable Osso Buco cut.    We may have fallen short of the perfect Osso Buco, but we did make some more family memories, and we will make some great family dinners.   This episode was produced by Stephen Abatiell. Special thanks to Hunter Hubbard from Mountain View Bison, my father Peter, my brother Pete, uncle Mike, and farmer Scott for letting us use his barn to process Pete's deer.   To learn more about Mountain View Bison, look them up on FaceBook.   Root Words is produced in the heart of Rutland County Vermont and is made possible by generous support from listeners like you.  You can support Root Words by visiting us Online  

A lot of Abenaki folks as well as community partners are rebuilding Abenaki Foodways- growing, processing, and distributing Abenaki crops. On this episode we hear from a few Abenaki gardeners, Chief Shirly Hook of the Koas Abenaki and Michael Descoteaux.  And later we hear what it takes to get from garden to plate, while we connect with Roland Bluto and Joe Bossen.   The Abenaki Land Link project addresses the overlapping challenges of how to develop contemporary Abenaki foodways inside a western colonized food system while creating food security for a people historically removed from land access.  The project also opens opportunities for Abenaki and non- Abenaki folks to partner on solutions to these complex challenges.   If you would like to support the Abenaki in their journey towards food sovereignty, you can connect with Zea Luce at NOFA-VT about becoming a Land Link grower, and by keeping an eye out for Abenaki branded products.   This episode was produced by Stephen Abatiell Special thanks to Chief Shirly Hook, Michael Descoteaux, Roland Bluto, and Joe Bossen. To learn more about the Abenaki Land Link program or to sign up as a grower visit nofavt.org.  Learn more about Chief Don Stevens' food sovereignty work at abenakitribe.org, and to learn more about what Joe Bossen is up to in the kitchen, check out vermontbeancrafters.com.  Root Words is produced in the heart of Rutland County Vermont and is made possible by generous support from listeners like you.  You can support Root Words by visiting us Online

Food Sovereignty is basically when a person or a people have agency over their foodways.  Many people today do not have this agency, including Vermont's indigenous communities.  We heard from Chief Don Stevens of the Nulhegan band of the Abenaki in episode 10, Indigenous Food Sovereignty in Vermont, about his three pronged approach to creating more food security for Abenaki citizens.     For Abenaki people today, growing and distributing culturally relevant and healthy food is challenging because of the limited access to tribal lands.  Chief Don Stevens and others have addressed this difficulty by cultivating partnerships with generous land stewards and organizations like NOFA-VT, the Northeast Organic Farming Association of Vermont.    In episode 11 we heard about the work of Seeds of Renewal and Alnobaiwi, Abenaki led programs that bridge traditional and contemporary foodways.  Many seeds from Seeds of Renewal make it into tribal gardens and Abenaki Land Link gardens across the state, gardens and growers that are coordinated by NOFA-VT.    On this episode we get out to the field and hear about growing Abenaki foods in Vermont, while we connect again with Chief Don Stevens and with Zea Luce of NOFA-VT. This episode was produced by Stephen Abatiell. Special thanks to Chief Don Stevens, Zea Luce, and all of the Abenaki Land Link growers across the state. To learn more, check out NOFA-VT's Agricultural Literacy Week YouTube video on the Abenaki Land Link Project or at NOFAVT.org.   Root Words is produced in the heart of Rutland County Vermont and is made possible by generous support from listeners like you.  You can support Root Words by visiting us Online

Before there was home delivery, before there were supermarkets, before there was refrigeration, even before people cooked their food, people fed themselves and their families by foraging their landscape.  Collecting food, medicine, or provisions from our environment is perhaps the closest we can get to our food-source, and the places we live.  Much of the world continues a healthy relationship to their home though foraging, and even here in the US, foraging is having a re-emergence spurred by revivals of tradition and quests for self-sufficiency and connection to one's landscape, even in urban environments.   On this episode I head into the woods with my brother Pete, and connect with a few inspired foraging folks: Walter Collins and Tina Picz.  This episode was produced by Stephen Abatiell Special thanks to Walter Collins, Tina Picz, and the VT Foragers community for ID support and inspiration.   To learn more, check out Vermont Foragers on Facebook and Tina Picz on Instagram at VermontFoodPhoto.  You can learn more about Vermont Releaf Collective at www.vtreleafcollective.org.  For a real treat, and this is highly recommended, check out Alexis Nikole on Instagram or Facebook @blackforager.  Root Words is produced in the heart of Rutland County Vermont and is made possible by generous support from listeners like you.  You can support Root Words by visiting us Online

On this episode of Root Words We'll hear about Vermont's deer hunting tradition.  Hunting is important in Vermont, it's even protected under the state constitution. It's one of the oldest ways that people have connected with their food source and their extended family, And on this episode, we're going to hear from my family.  My father Peter, and cousin Joe's daughter Valentina.   Vermont has over 800,000 acres of federal and state land open to hunting and 65,000 resident hunters, most of whom hunt white-tailed deer. Many youth first experience Vermont's forested landscape following a parent or guardian through the woods during hunting season and, if the hunt is successful, will have local venison to share with their family and friends. This episode of Root Words was produced by Stephen Abatiell. Special thanks to Peter Abatiell Jr., Valentina Duval, Allen Mills, and the rest of my family. Very deep thanks to the deer I harvested during the making of this episode and to the forest that raised it.   You can learn more about hunting in Vermont, including hunter safety courses, seasons, and regulations by visiting Vermont's Fish and Wildlife website at- www.vtfishandwildlife.com Root Words is produced in the heart of Rutland County Vermont and is made possible by generous support from listeners like you.  You can support Root Words by visiting us Online

Peacemaking was the original intent of Veteran's Day.  In 1926 congress passed the resolution to set aside the 11th of November honoring the Armistice of World War I with these words… “Whereas it is fitting that the recurring anniversary of this date should be commemorated with thanksgiving and prayer and exercises designed to perpetuate peace through good will and mutual understanding between nations…” For this episode I spoke with Richard Gallo, who practices goodwill, feeding and sheltering the Veteran community. It's a wonderful example of active peace making. This episode was produced by Stephen Abatiell Special thanks to Richard Gallo, our Veteran community, and those who support them.   To learn more about resources available to eligible veterans and their families, please visit The Vermont Veterans and Family Outreach Program online.  The 24 Hour Resource Line for Crisis Situations can be reached at (888) 607-8773   Root Words is produced in the heart of Rutland County Vermont and is made possible by generous support from listeners like you.  You can support Root Words by visiting us Online

Saving seeds from this year's crop for next year is one of the oldest ways that communities have planned for and preserved their future. Seeds of renewal is adding a modern research component to plan for the future we face today, to build food system resiliency in the changing climate. On this episode of Root Words, We talk Chief Don Stevens and Morgan Lamphere of Alnobaiwi. And we'll hear little about the Abenaki agricultural calendar's new life. This episode was produced by Stephen Abatiell. Special thanks to Chief Don Stevens, Morgan Lamphere, and the folks at Seeds of Renewal and Alnobaiwi.   Root Words is produced in the heart of Rutland County Vermont and is made possible by generous support from listeners like you.  You can support Root Words by visiting us Online

Season 2 of Root Words is coming!  This season we're going deeper into the ways that folks are experiencing their food system.  Join us! Root Words is produced in the heart of Rutland County Vermont and is made possible by generous support from the National Endowment for the Humanities.  You can support Root Words by visiting us Online

Vermont officially recognizes 4 Abenaki tribes today.  The Nulhegan Band of the Coosuk-Abenaki, the Elnu Abenaki Tribe, the Abenaki Nation at Missisquoi, and the Koasek Traditional Band of the Koas Abenaki Nation. Up until industrialization, and throughout much of the world today, a community's access to food is tightly woven in with that community's access to land. On this episode of Root Words, We talk with Chef Jessee Lawyer, Professor Fred Wiseman, and Chief Don Stevens. And we'll hear little about the Abenaki community's connection to this land, game animals, and traditional food ways, and we'll hear how these living traditions have continued to evolve and grow through contemporary times.   This episode was produced by Stephen Abatiell. Special thanks to Jessee Lawyer, Professor Fred Wiseman, and Chief Don Stevens. Root Words is produced in the heart of Rutland County Vermont and is made possible by generous support from the National Endowment for the Humanities.  You can support Root Words by visiting us Online

In this episode we look at how we got to the global food system we have today, and the lessons that our past holds for a new, more local future. This episode was produced by Stephen Abatiell. Special thanks to Greg Cox, Jack Crowther, The Rutland Historical Society, The Vermont Historical Society, Bob Hauslien, Harley Sterling, WEXP, and the Saltash Serenaders. Additional music in this episode by the Victor Herbert Orchestra. Root Words is produced in the heart of Rutland County Vermont and is made possible by generous support from the National Endowment for the Humanities.  You can support Root Words by visiting us Online.

We hear from some farmers that have been inspired to pass on the knowledge of their mentors, and we hear about some innovative programs coming from Vermont's BIPOC farming community.  This episode was produced by Stephen Abatiell and Scott Courcelle. Special thanks to Greg Cox, Katie Stickney, WEXP, and the Saltash Serenaders. Root Words is produced in the heart of Rutland County Vermont and is made possible by generous support from the National Endowment for the Humanities.  You can support Root Words by visiting us Online.

In this episode we look at the greying of Vermont, learn a bit about support for new and aspiring farmers, and hear a few stories of farmers remembering the support and advice they received from their mentors.  This episode was produced by Stephen Abatiell and Scott Courcelle. Special thanks to Greg Cox, WEXP, and the Saltash Serenaders. This episode is produced in memory of Wilson "Bill" Clark, 1931-2021. Root Words is produced in the heart of Rutland County Vermont and is made possible by generous support from the National Endowment for the Humanities.  You can support Root Words by visiting us Online.

In this episode, a conversation with the folks behind the Root Words music, The Saltash Serenaders, and one of their farmers markets performances from November 1, 1986. This episode was produced by Stephen Abatiell. Special thanks to Paul Sgalia, Vicky Arthur, WEXP, and the Saltash Serenaders. Root Words is produced in the heart of Rutland County Vermont and is made possible by generous support from the National Endowment for the Humanities.  You can support Root Words by visiting us Online.

In this episode we go shopping, and explore some of the differences between shopping at the farmer's market and the supermarket, and of course we meet some farmers along the way. This episode was produced by Stephen Abatiell. Special thanks to Greg Cox, Katie Stickney, NOFA-VT, Dr. David Conner, WEXP, and the Saltash Serenaders. Root Words is produced in the heart of Rutland County Vermont and is made possible by generous support from the National Endowment for the Humanities.  You can support Root Words by visiting us Online.

In this episode we explore the the tree that connects so many of us to place and community, the sugar maple. This episode was produced by Stephen Abatiell, Kara Fitzbeauchamp and special guest Jessee Lawyer of The Dawnland Kitchen. Special thanks to Greg Cox, Grace Brigham, WEXP, and the Saltash Serenaders. Root Words is produced in the heart of Rutland County Vermont and is made possible by generous support from the National Endowment for the Humanities.  You can support Root Words by visiting us Online.

In this episode we explore the traditional draft horse powered family farm through the memories of Allen Mills. This episode was produced by Stephen Abatiell and Scott Courcelle. Special thanks to Allen Mills, WEXP, and the Saltash Serenaders. Root Words is produced in the heart of Rutland County Vermont and is made possible by generous support from the National Endowment for the Humanities.  You can support Root Words by visiting us Online.

In this episode we explore the role 4-H plays in expanding agricultural opportunities for youth through the eyes of a pair of veteran 4-H sisters.   This episode was produced by Stephen Abatiell and Kara Fitzbeauchamp. Special thanks to Kimberly Griffin, Evelyn and Lorryn Trujillo, WEXP, and the Saltash Serenaders. Root Words is produced in the heart of Rutland County Vermont and is made possible by generous support from the National Endowment for the Humanities.  You can support Root Words by visiting us Online.

In this episode we explore the confluence of community and agriculture, the community garden.   This episode was produced by Stephen Abatiell and Scott Courcelle. Special thanks to April Cioffi, Anna White, WEXP, and the Saltash Serenaders. Root Words is produced in the heart of Rutland County Vermont and is made possible by generous support from the National Endowment for the Humanities.  You can support Root Words by visiting us Online.