[Congressional Record Volume 154, Number 177 (Thursday, November 20, 2008)]
[Senate]
[Pages S10727-S10728]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




              ENTREPRENEURIAL ACHIEVEMENTS OF HARDWICK, VT

  Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, I rise today to highlight an emerging rural 
economic model that some say serves as the perfect example of how rural 
America can survive and thrive in today's global markets.
  My good friend Marian Burros recently wrote an article in the New 
York Times highlighting the sustainable agricultural economy of 
Hardwick, VT, and Hardwick's surrounding communities. These Northeast 
Kingdom communities have begun attracting the attention of local, 
regional and national media after the area began attracting some unique 
characters with great ideas. From a community-owned restaurant to 
renowned cheese makers, Hardwick and its surrounding towns are at the 
center of an experiment in social agricultural entrepreneurship.
  I ask unanuimous consent that the text of Marian Burros October 8, 
2008, New York Times article entitled ``Uniting Around Food to Save an 
Ailing Town'' be printed in the Record to allow my colleagues an 
opportunity to hear about the future of Vermont.
  There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in 
the Record, as follows:

               Uniting Around Food To Save an Ailing Town

       Hardwick, VT--This town's granite companies shut down years 
     ago and even the rowdy bars and porno theater that once 
     inspired the nickname ``Little Chicago'' have gone.
       Facing a Main Street dotted with vacant stores, residents 
     of this hardscrabble community of 3,000 are reaching into its 
     past to secure its future, betting on farming to make 
     Hardwick the town that was saved by food.
       With the fervor of Internet pioneers, young artisans and 
     agricultural entrepreneurs are expanding aggressively, 
     reaching out to investors and working together to create a 
     collective strength never before seen in this seedbed of 
     Yankee individualism.
       Rob Lewis, the town manager, said these enterprises have 
     added 75 to 100 jobs to the area in the past few years.
       Rian Fried, an owner of Clean Yield Asset Management in 
     nearby Greensboro, which has invested with local agricultural 
     entrepreneurs, said he's never seen such cooperative effort.
       ``Across the country a lot of people are doing it 
     individually but it's rare when you see the kind of 
     collective they are pursuing,'' said Mr. Fried, whose firm 
     considers social and environmental issues when investing. 
     ``The bottom line is they are providing jobs and making it 
     possible for others to have their own business.''
       In January, Andrew Meyer's company, Vermont Soy, was 
     selling tofu from locally grown beans to five customers; 
     today he has 350. Jasper Hill Farm has built a $3.2-million 
     aging cave to finish not only its own cheeses but also those 
     from other cheesemakers.
       Pete Johnson, owner of Pete's Greens, is working with 30 
     local farmers to market their goods in an evolving community 
     supported agriculture program.
       ``We have something unique here: a strong sense of 
     community, connections to the working landscape and a great 
     work ethic,'' said Mr. Meyer, who was instrumental in moving 
     many of these efforts forward.
       He helped start the Center for an Agricultural Economy, a 
     nonprofit operation that is planning an industrial park for 
     agricultural businesses.
       Next year the Vermont Food Venture Center, where producers 
     can rent kitchen space and get business advice for adding 
     value to raw ingredients, is moving to Hardwick from Fairfax, 
     40 miles west, because, Mr. Meyer said, ``it sees the benefit 
     of being part of the healthy food system.'' He expects it to 
     assist 15 to 20 entrepreneurs next year.
       ``All of us have realized that by working together we will 
     be more successful as businesses,'' said Tom Stearns, owner 
     of High Mowing Organic Seeds. ``At the same time we will 
     advance our mission to help rebuild the food system, conserve 
     farmland and make it economically viable to farm in a 
     sustainable way.''
       Cooperation takes many forms. Vermont Soy stores and cleans 
     its beans at High Mowing, which also lends tractors to High 
     Fields, a local compositing company. Byproducts of High 
     Mowing's operation--pumpkins and squash that have been 
     smashed to extract seeds--are now being purchased by Pete's

[[Page S10728]]

     Greens and turned into soup. Along with 40,000 pounds of 
     squash and pumpkin, Pete's bought 2,000 pounds of High 
     Mowing's cucumbers this year and turned them into pickles.
       For the past two years, many of these farmers and 
     businessmen have met informally once a month to share 
     experiences for business planning and marketing or pass on 
     information about, say, a graphic designer who did good work 
     on promotional materials or government officials who've been 
     particularly helpful. They promote one another's products at 
     trade fairs and buy equipment at auctions that they know 
     their colleagues need.
       More important, they share capital. They've lent each other 
     about $300,000 in short-term loans. When investors visited 
     Mr. Stearns over the summer, he took them on a tour of his 
     neighbors' farms and businesses.
       To expand these enterprises further, the Center for an 
     Agricultural Economy recently bought a 15-acre property to 
     start a center for agricultural education. There will also be 
     a year-round farmers' market (from what began about 20 years 
     ago as one farmer selling from the trunk of his car on Main 
     Street) and a community garden, which started with one plot 
     and now has 22, with a greenhouse and a paid gardening 
     specialist.
       Last month the center signed an agreement with the 
     University of Vermont for faculty and students to work with 
     farmers and food producers on marketing, research, even 
     transportation problems. Already, Mr. Meyer has licensed a 
     university patent to make his Vermont Natural Coatings, an 
     environmentally friendly wood finish, from whey, a byproduct 
     of cheesemaking.
       These entrepreneurs, mostly well educated children of baby 
     boomers who have added business acumen to the idealism of the 
     area's long established hippies and homesteaders, are in the 
     right place at the right time. The growing local-food 
     movement, with its concerns about energy usage, food safety 
     and support for neighbors, was already strong in Vermont, a 
     state that the National Organic Farmers' Association said had 
     more certified organic acreage per capita than any other.
       Mr. Meyer grew up on a dairy farm in Hardwick and worked in 
     Washington as an agricultural aide to former Senator Jim 
     Jeffords of Vermont. ``From my time in Washington,'' Mr. 
     Meyer said, ``I recognize that if Vermont is going to have a 
     future in agriculture we need to look at what works in 
     Vermont, and that is not commodity agriculture.''
       The brothers Mateo and Andy Kehler have found something 
     that works quite well at their Jasper Hill Farm in nearby 
     Greensboro. At first they aged their award-winning cheeses in 
     a basement. Then they began aging for other cheesemakers. 
     Earlier this month they opened their new caves, with space 
     for 2 million pounds of cheese, which they buy young from 
     other producers.
       The Vermont Institute for Artisan Cheese at the University 
     of Vermont is helping producers develop safety and quality 
     programs, with costs split by Jasper Hill and the producers. 
     ``Suddenly being a cheesemaker in Vermont becomes viable,'' 
     Mateo Kehler said.
       Pete Johnson began a garden when he was a boy on his 
     family's land. Now his company, Pete's Greens, grows organic 
     crops on 50 acres in Craftsbury, about 10 miles north of 
     here. He has four moveable greenhouses, extending the growing 
     season to nine months, and he has installed a commercial 
     kitchen that can make everything from frozen prepared foods 
     and soup stocks to baked goods and sausages. In addition he 
     has enlarged the concept of the C.S.A. by including 30 
     farmers and food producers rather than just a single farm.
       ``We have 200 C.S.A. participants so we've become a fairly 
     substantial customer of some of these businesses,'' he said. 
     ``The local beef supplier got an order for $700 this week; 
     that's pretty significant around here. We've encouraged the 
     apple producer who makes apple pies to use local flour, local 
     butter, local eggs, maple sugar as well as the apples so now 
     we have a locavore apple pie.''
       ``Twelve years ago the market for local food was 
     lukewarm,'' Mr. Johnson added. ``Now this state is primed for 
     anything that is local. It's a way to preserve our villages 
     and rebuild them.''
       Like Mr. Johnson, Mr. Stearns of High Mowing Organic Seeds 
     in Wolcott, who is president of the Center, knew he wanted to 
     get into agriculture when he was a boy. His company, which 
     grew from his hobby of collecting seeds, began in 2000 with a 
     two-page catalog that generated $36,000 in sales. Today he 
     has a million-dollar business, selling seeds all over the 
     United States.
       Woody Tasch, chairman of Investors Circle, a nonprofit 
     network of investors and foundations dedicated to 
     sustainability, said: ``What the Hardwick guys are doing is 
     the first wave of what could be a major social 
     transformation, the swinging back of the pendulum from 
     industrialization and globalization.''
       Mr. Tasch is having a meeting in nearby Grafton next month 
     with investors, entrepreneurs, nonprofit groups, 
     philanthropists and officials to discuss investing in Vermont 
     agriculture.
       Here in Hardwick, Claire's restaurant, sort of a clubhouse 
     for farmers, began with investments from its neighbors. It is 
     a Community Supported Restaurant. Fifty investors who put in 
     $1,000 each will have the money repaid through discounted 
     meals at the restaurant over four years.
       ``Local ingredients, open to the world,'' is the motto on 
     restaurant's floor-to-ceiling windows. ``There's Charlie who 
     made the bread tonight,'' Kristina Michelsen, one of four 
     partners, said in a running commentary one night, identifying 
     farmers and producers at various tables. ``That's Pete from 
     Pete's Greens. You're eating his tomatoes.''
       Rosy as it all seems, some worry that as businesses grow 
     larger the owners will be tempted to sell out to companies 
     that would not have Hardwick's best interests at heart.
       But the participants have reason to be optimistic: Mr. 
     Stearns said that within one week six businesses wanted to 
     meet with him to talk about moving to the Hardwick area.
       ``Things that seemed totally impossible not so long ago are 
     now going to happen,'' said Mr. Kehler. ``In the next few 
     years a new wave of businesses will come in behind us. So 
     many things are possible with collaboration.''

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