‘We can all be fed’ — Upper Valley farmers gather to protest Trump administration’s food policies

WHITE RIVER JUNCTION — Many of the nearly 40 farmers, consumers and organizers who attended a potluck and rally outside the Upper Valley Food Co-op on Thursday evening brought an usual prop with them: a long-handled spoon.

The Northeast Organic Farming Association of Vermont, or NOFA-VT, hosted the event to discuss the effects the Trump administration’s policies and looming budget cuts could have on Vermont’s food system.

“A lot of folk traditions have a version of the parable of the long-handled spoon,” Emily Landenberger, the marketing and communications coordinator for NOFA-VT, said while holding a spoon longer than her arm.

In the parable, there are two banquets. One where everyone tries to feed themselves with their own spoon and cannot, and another where they feed each other successfully.

“If we focus on meeting each other’s needs, we can all be fed,” Landenberger said.

As the crowd snacked on cheese, soup and fresh produce provided by the farmers on hand, Stephen Leslie, who owns Cedar Mountain Farm and Cobb Hill Cheese in Hartland with his wife, Kerry Gawalt, shared his experience with the Trump administration’s actions thus far.

In September, Leslie and Gawalt received a $45,000 Climate Smart Commodities grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, or USDA, to plant hundreds of fruit and nut trees to mitigate the effects of climate change, increase soil health and add biodiversity to the farm.

“It’s not benefiting the farm’s bottom line, but it’s a way to plan long term, which is really hard to do in farming,” Leslie said while wearing a wooden spoon tied to a string around his neck. “These programs don’t only benefit the farm, but also the wider community and wildlife in so many ways.”

But shortly after Donald Trump returned to office in January, Leslie and Gawalt received notification that their grant had been canceled.

“Since it had the word ‘climate’ in the name, it was one of the first things chopped by DOGE,” Leslie said referring to the Trump administration’s Department of Government Efficiency.

Leslie and Gawalt still plan to plant the trees and are looking for alternative funding sources, but are uncertain if they’ll be able to secure that large of a grant again, Leslie said.

“This is all in the wrong direction,” Leslie said. “Pulling these grants is really agriculturally and ecologically illiterate behavior.”

Margaret Loftus, co-owner of Crossmolina Farm in West Corinth, spoke to the crowd about Trump’s plan to cut billions from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP.

Crossmolina Farm began accepting SNAP 10 years ago. Customers can use their SNAP benefits to buy farm shares and shop for groceries at Crossmolina’s farm stand.

“We wanted to to take those benefits because we wanted more people to be able to buy food from our farm and because we believe that local food, that nutrient dense food, that good food should be something that everybody can have,” Loftus said.

Included in the tax and spending cuts bill passed by the House is a proposal to shift tens of billions of dollars in food stamps costs from the federal government to states. However, the Senate parliamentarian has advised that the proposal would violate the chamber’s rules. While the parliamentarian’s rulings are advisory, they are rarely, if ever, ignored, The Associated Press reports.

The parliamentarian let stand for now a provision that would impose new work requirements for older Americans, up to age 65, to receive food stamp aid.

In fiscal year 2024, 66,500 Vermonters participated in SNAP, according to the federal Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.

“If less people in our community have SNAP benefits and less people are coming through the door using those benefits at our store, it’s going to be harder and harder for us to be able to afford the money that it costs to be able to accept it, to pay the processing fees,” Loftus said. “Cutting this money is going to leave Vermont hungry, and it’s also going to cut an important income stream for farmers who accept SNAP and for farmers markets that are now able to accept SNAP.”

The Trump administration’s crackdown on immigrant communities also came up.

“We know that the current government of this country is ramping up racist detentions and deportations of immigrants in our communities, often unlawfully and without due process,” Rachel Kent, a Lebanon resident and organizer with local immigrant solidarity networks, told the crowd.

Several migrant Vermont farm workers have been detained and in some cases deported over the past few months.

Kent mentioned the recent detention of Jose Ignacio “Nacho” De La Cruz, a former dairy worker, and his 18-year-old stepdaughter Heidi Perez, who recently graduated from Milton (Vt.) High School and also has been an active voice in the migrant farm worker community.

Both are now at risk of deportation.

“Migrant farm workers are of this place,” Kent said. “They work the land in our valleys, their sweat is mixed into our soils, their labor is materialized in the food we eat. Now more than ever, when their rights and livelihoods are under attack, we must stand side by side with them and welcome them to our home with open arms.”

Eli Hersh, co-owner of Honey Field Farm in Norwich, told the story of his friend Yousef Abu Rabee, a 24-year-old Palestinian strawberry farmer who continued to salvage and plant seeds in northern Gaza even after Israel bombed his family’s farm multiple times.

“At times, this was the only source of food that thousands of people in northern Gaza had access to, and because of that, they were better able to resist the efforts of the occupation to starve them out of their homeland,” Hersh said.

In October, Abu Rabee was killed in an Israeli airstrike.

Honey Field Farms has been donating starter vegetable and herb plants to community gardens, food justice projects, and community aid agencies in Abu Rabee’s name.

Food insecurity in Vermont, the detention and deportation of undocumented immigrants throughout the country and starvation in Gaza are all connected, Hersh said.

“…When we’re well-fed, we can offer support to each other and develop mutual aid networks,” Hersh said. “And we know that if we take care of each other, we help build a strong sovereign community. And we know that this is a direct existential threat to an authoritarian government.”

On July 14, The Northeast Organic Farming Association of New Hampshire is planning to hold a New Hampshire Farmer Day of Action at the Statehouse in Concord.

Emma Roth-Wells can be reached at erothwells@vnews.com or 603-727-3242.