The land trust and a local 'steering' committee set about finding an
appropriate person or persons or organization to farm the land. The
process was thorough and properly executed. In the end, the Vermont Land
Trust was selected as the appropriate organization to take over the
farm.
It made sense; a local farm could produce food for locally hungry
people. Logical. The food bank interviewed farmers and selected a
Waitsfield couple, from a field of 12 applicants, to lease the 22-acre
parcel.
The farmers lease the land for payment of 40,000 pounds of food which
they provide for the food shelf. Concurrently, the farmers, Aaron Locker
and Suzanne Slomin are growing food that they are selling to
restaurants and at a farmstand on the property.
The fact that they are selling produce as well as providing food for the
food shelf has some people up in arms and alleging that the food shelf
changed its plan by allowing the farmers to profit from their
endeavors.
The fact that the foodbank used grant money to make the property
farmable has other people up in arms, claiming it creates an unfair
competitive advantage.
The truth lies somewhere, and it is time for a public dialog where
grievances, misunderstandings, resentments and explanations can be
aired. If the project as it exists today is different from the project
that was envisioned when the land trust and local steering committee
handed it off to the food bank then that difference needs to be aired
and explained.
If the food bank changed its policy and the intent of the land trust and
the steering committee regarding competition with local farmers, that
information and the reasoning behind it needs to be made public in the
same forum where grievances are aired and information is shared.
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