[Congressional Record Volume 166, Number 184 (Sunday, October 25, 2020)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6591-S6592]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       TRIBUTE TO NANCY EVERHART

  Mr. LEAHY. Madam President, I would like to recognize Nancy Everhart 
on the occasion of her retirement from the Vermont Housing and 
Conservation Board. Nancy Everhart has been a true Vermont leader in 
agriculture and conservation, dedicating her decades-long career to the 
protection of farmland and the viability of the farmers who rely on it. 
She retires with an extensive list of accomplishments. The passion she 
applies to her work has had a tremendous impact on the Vermont 
landscape, as well as our Nation's agricultural future.
  Nancy was a farmer first. As a strong pioneer of Vermont's organic 
movement during the 1980s, she was among the first Vermonters to sell 
organic milk to her community. Her work and that of other like-minded 
farmers in Vermont were catalysts in the early organic movement that 
ultimately led me to introduce the Organic Food Production Act as 
chairman of the Senate Agriculture Committee. Enacted as part of the 
1990 farm bill, that bill created the first-ever standards and label 
for what is now a $50 billion industry. Even as she became a national 
leader in conservation, Nancy has still maintained a small, 
diversified, organic farm at her home in Marshfield, VT. Her personal 
experiences as a farmer have afforded her a unique perspective and 
credibility to bring to each phase of her career.
  As the conservation director for the Vermont Housing and Conservation 
Board, Nancy has led or contributed directly to the conservation of 
more than 77,000 acres across nearly 500 parcels of Vermont farmland. 
These projects have helped to keep Vermont farms viable by allowing 
farm owners to access substantial capital and benefit from their most 
valuable asset, their land. Those benefits, however, do not stop at the 
fence line. Nancy knows that investments in preserving working 
landscapes benefit the rural communities that surround them and 
contribute greatly to the tourist and outdoor economies of rural States 
like Vermont. They can be a bridge to the next generation, often 
providing young and beginning farmers the opportunity to overcome their 
biggest hurdle: accessing affordable farmland to start and grow their 
enterprise. When that succession of stewardship is broken and working 
lands fall out of production, it can exact an immeasurable price from 
the community.
  Nancy's decades of work have exemplified and brought home to Vermont 
exactly the outcomes that I envisioned when I worked to establish the 
Federal role for farmland protection in the 1990 and 1996 farm bills. 
Since that time, Nancy has drawn on her vast experience to provide 
counsel on how to expand that role and continually improve farmland 
conservation provisions, including most recently in the Agricultural 
Conservation Easement Program --ACEP--provisions of the 2018 farm

[[Page S6592]]

bill. Those provisions greatly enhance the delivery and flexibility of 
farmland conservation programs, not just for Vermont but across the 
entire United States.
  As a farmer herself, Nancy Everhart understands the challenges that 
farmers face, and she has dedicated a portion of her work to improving 
farm viability, increasing diversification, and providing opportunities 
for young Vermonters to realize their own farm dreams. As she retires, 
Nancy's enthusiasm and commitment to Vermont agriculture will continue 
to be reflected in our State's working landscape and resilient farmers.

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