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Greg Cox owns Boardman Hill Farms, West Rutland, Vermont and is
President of the Board of Rutland Area Farm and Food Links (RAFFL)
 After many months of trying to connect with Greg Cox of Boardman
Hill Farms and the Rutland
Area Farm and Food Link (RAFFL), I was finally able to sit down with
him on an icy December day and learn how he and a small group of citizens
in South Central Vermont are re-making their community through their
locally-owned and operated food co-op, featuring locally-grown produce,
and a year-round farmer's market.
Greg dropped out of an education
major in the second semester of his senior year in college because he
realized that he would be able to make much more of a difference in the
world as a farmer than as a teacher. "My maternal grandmother raised me",
he says, "and she grew everything. When I grew up on Long Island it was
principally an agricultural community-great soil, minerals off the ocean,
lots of fresh water, perfect temperature, lots of rain. There were
year-round truck farms, and I grew up in the midst of this agricultural
environment, and I watched the transition from all of that to suburban
sprawl. I also watched innocent, naïve farmers sell their land for almost
nothing to exploitative real estate agents."
I dialoged with Greg about the
success of relocalization
efforts in Rutland, specifically around agriculture and food, and asked
him to give me a history of the journey that the community has taken in
the past two years.
According to Greg, it all started in
the office of the Rutland Regional Planning Commission with India
Burnett Farmer and Tara
Kelly. India was an intern with the Regional Planning Commission where
she met Tara, one of the planners, and in their work at the commission,
they noticed that every town in Vermont pays lip service to agriculture,
but there's rarely an action plan. As regional surveys have been taken
over the years regarding the benefits of living in Vermont, citizens
report overwhelmingly that they love living in an agricultural community.
As India and Tara observed this, they became committed to making
agriculture in Rutland County not only vibrant, but a mainstay of the
local economy. As a result of his longstanding reputation as an organic
farmer in Vermont, India and Tara contacted Greg and began strategizing
with him.
One model for their venture was Intervale, a large tract of prime
agricultural land in Burlington, Vermont, originally Abenaki Indian land,
which exists for the purpose of incubating farmers and providing a strong
local food supply. The group sought a similar model for Rutland in order
to seed the county with the next generation of farmers. "Agriculture for
the most part in America," says Cox, "has become all about producing
commodities and less about producing local food." They believed that if
they could create an incubator farm with an infrastructure that included
education and have the viability of enough farmers to create a community,
they could attract young folks with new ideas from all over the nation and
the world. RAFFL, they realized, could help tremendously with consumer
education and providing a market for local foods. Their intention
according to Cox, "was to create an economic engine with an agriculture
base." The beauty of this strategy, of course, is that the money remains
in Rutland County, as does the food.
Cox, Farmer, Kelly, and members of
RAFFL quickly realized that in the event of economic or energy disruption,
Rutland County would be incredibly vulnerable and have nothing to feed
itself with.
At this point, I wanted to know more
about Cox's perception of food security.
CB: So what's your sense of what's happening
with food security in the United States and locally?
GC: I grew up on Long Island with my grandmother
who was like a contemporary of Robert Rodale, the
founder of the organic movement in the United States. We grew and raised
virtually everything that we ate, and I never ate anything out of the box.
Today, we have a profit-driven food system that has nothing to do with
quality. It takes more calories and energy to transport organic carrots
from California than you get from eating them, and that's a system that
runs on a deficit, and when you consider what may be in them and on them,
it's even worse.
When you
consider the transport of food from other places, it makes no sense. For
example, Vermont is a dairy state, but we don't consume our own dairy
products which is ludicrous.
 CB: Many
indicators point to a global recession and possible worldwide food
shortages dead-ahead. We now have food banks telling
us not to look to them for emergency food supply because they are
having difficulties obtaining food. So it's extremely important that
communities have plenty of local food in order to feed themselves.
PHOTO: Rutland Winter
Market
GC: Yes, we've been conditioned to believe that
we can eat bananas in January, but there's a cost, a huge cost, that is
never part of the story. It's absolutely not sustainable. We need to go
back to communities with agriculture as the base to produce
most of
what we eat. And it's not necessary to import food from afar because you
can extend the window of growing season virtually twelve months a
year.
CB: OK, so tell me more about this because at
the winter farmers market you have many beautiful fruits and vegetables
for sale. It takes a lot of energy to grow fruits and vegetables in the
winter. How does one do this with the least amount of energy?
GC: Well, in Vermont you can't grow food from
November 21 to January 21. The days are just too short and cold, but if
you can get the crop to 70% maturity by that time, for example, with a
crop like lettuce or spinach, you can do a field tunnel and cover the crop
with plastic. Inside that field tunnel are row covers that are made of
spun polypropylene which look like cotton. You double-cover the plants
which gives 12 degrees of frost protection. At a given time you go out and
pull back the cover and cut your lettuce then cover up the remaining
plants.
So the
key to producing winter greens without using a huge amount of energy is
growing the crop to 70-75% of maturity, then cutting it when you need it.
Then you begin to re-seed as the days grow longer and more light returns.
Once the light returns, it's as if the plants are on steroids-they really
flourish. You can harvest many things year-round. Some crops, like
spinach, require at least 14 hours of daylight before they could even
begin going to seed, so when you have much less light than that, you don't
have to worry about them going to seed.
CB: How did the co-op and the winter
farmers market come about? Tell me about the community's future plans
for both.
GC: The Saturday winter farmers market developed
from a conversation with people from the Rutland Area Food
Co-Op and Rutland's new Creative
Economy movement. In the past there has been a separation in our minds
between agriculture and economics, but agriculture is an amazing economic
engine. (Somehow it's not considered a "real" business-as if the farmer is
an artist or something.) People can understand how a new Borders or box
store coming into Rutland would stimulate the economy, but it requires a
lot of explanation to help them understand how agriculture can drive the
economy.
Farmers
markets bring one thing wherever they go: foot traffic. That's what
downtown areas are-and what they need. Cities used to be alive-people
lived and worked there. We need to re-establish that. We need to make
downtowns vital. Not only do we need new businesses, but we need to have
residents in the downtown area.
People
understand outsourcing and don't like it, but they don't understand that
when they spend dollars outside of their town, they're outsourcing their
dollars. Jobs follow the money. Every dollar that stays in the community
enriches it. So in the discussion of revitalizing communities, agriculture
may be the introductory sentence, but it goes way beyond that.
The
winter farmers market now occurs every Saturday in what used to be an old
theater, adjacent to the co-op. In order to enter the market, one must
walk through the co-op which generates a creative competition enhancing
both businesses.
City
officials and downtown business could have resisted the co-op/ farmers
market venture, but they didn't. As forward-thinking folks, they were
willing to take the risk, and no one, including the co-op board and the
farmers market vendors had any idea how successful the project would
be.
CB: So how do you explain the explosion of
success both the co-op and the farmers market have had?
GC: Well, in general, humans are animals, and
animals follow. And if you have a really good message, then the community
follows. But specifically, we laid the foundation for the farmers market
more than a year in advance. A year ago, we didn't know where it was going
to happen, but we took the stand that it was going to happen. We
sent emails and letters to every person in Rutland County telling them
that we were going to have a winter farmers market. As it got closer, we
kept approaching the growers telling them that we had a location. The
Rutland Herald gave us great press, and we started asking for
stories specifically on the farmers market. The co-op had a wonderful
mailing list to help us, but so much of the effort was laying the
foundation.
"Local"
is not a high priority in a lot of places, but it is in Vermont. The
people really wanted it to happen, and because it was so wanted, it has
become a beautiful place. It creates an energy that builds off
itself.
There are
many farmers markets throughout the state in the summertime, but in the
winter, there are only four, and many vendors were thrilled to have yet
another venue. The market features not only produce but cheeses, meats,
breads, chocolate, wine, and other products.
Rutland is often referred to by other Vermonters as
"Rutvegas" because it is traditional, conservative, and the assumption has
been that this kind of thing would happen in other places in Vermont, but
not in Rutland. But in Rutland, if you can put forth a great idea with
passion and energy, you can make it happen. Rutland is facing economic
hard times as so many communities are as they pick up the slack of what's
been cut off by the federal government.
The
co-op's growth curve is unbelievable, and the farmers market now has
almost 50 vendors waiting to participate.
Both the
co-op and farmers market have outgrown their spaces, and both want to keep
their spaces downtown. Because of the synergy of both entities, it's
really important that we make a move together.
We're
also currently looking at 130 acres of prime agricultural land on which
food could be grown in a manner similar to Intervale. Intervale, by the
way, produces 10% of Burlington, Vermont's food. On this land we can not
only raise food for Rutland but also incubate farmers. On the edge of this
plot of land is a large grocery store owned by a giant food chain that
could possibly be the new home of the co-op, but many people, on the other
hand would like to keep the co-op in the downtown area.
PHOTO: Scene From Winter
Market
We'd also
like to approach local institutions like high schools and colleges and get
them on board with using locally-grown food. In addition, RAFFL has been
trying to brand locally-grown products as coming from "Rutland, the heart
of Vermont agriculture." We can create a year-round source of vegetables,
and we can create markets for farmers all over the state. Through
partnerships with funders, we can acquire the resources to make this
project succeed. We dare not miss these opportunities.
CB: One thing I haven't asked you about is the
role of youth. On the one hand, you want to incubate farmers, but young
people are often completely unconcerned with these kinds of things-often
fascinated with technology and without interest in anything remotely
resembling farming. In fact, they usually want to leave rural areas and
head for the city. How are young people in this area responding to the
efforts of your groups to educate the community about local food?
GC:
Most young people, even in a
rural area like Vermont, have a complete and total disconnect with their
food system. Although Vermont is rural, it's really not agricultural-there
are very few farms. My son and daughter are the only kids in their classes
who live on a farm. Most parents in this area are service workers. We used
to have a thriving General Electric plant here with a strong middle class
where people made good salaries, had healthcare, and retired in great
financial shape. Not
anymore.
You know,
there's somebody inside of each one of us; some of them are farmers. The
Northeast Organic Farmers Association (NOFA) has an apprenticeship program
where many young people intern on farms, and when a young person is drawn
to farming, it's amazing to see them blossom in the process of discovering
their love for it. Green Mountain College in nearby Poultney is a gemstone
of teaching sustainability and environmental science. They've also just
added an organic agricultural department, and the college has a farm
nearby. The Putney School is another college focused on sustainability,
and the University of Vermont also has a good program.
I
generally don't feel optimistic about the world we live in today, but I
want my efforts locally to make a difference in my community and hopefully
create opportunities for my kids and other young people. When I see what
we've accomplished here in Rutland in just the past two years, I feel
encouraged and excited.
I came away from my conversation
with Greg Cox with two profound realizations: 1) All the stereotypes of
Rutland, Vermont as "backward" and "too conservative" to relocalize its
economy through local agriculture were fading into the dustbin of history,
and 2) Any region in America can affect the transformation that the
forward-thinking folks in Rutland are making happen with their passion,
commitment, and incredibly hard work as they engineer local economic
solutions and give new meaning to the word
"commu | 
