VERMONT

• Lake Champlain is so contaminated with phosphorus, emanating mostly from Vermont's farms, that three sizable areas of this great lake are considered virtually dead.
  
  
• Although the state has had authority to grant permits to factory farms for two years, it has exercised its authority for only two out of the twenty-five animal factories in Vermont. This leaves 23 animal factories that do not have to account for the pollution they might produce.
  
  
• Vermont law specifically excludes the public from commenting on permits for animal factories.

Agriculture in Vermont is dominated by the dairy industry, which accounts for 80 percent of gross farm income in the state.¹ Chronically low milk prices are putting droves of dairy farmers out of business or forcing many of those that remain to get on the expansion treadmill.² Vermont still has only a handful of dairy operations above the 1,000-cow threshold, but their number is increasing rapidly.³

Family-size dairy farms still dominate Vermont's postcard-perfect scenery. The average Vermont dairy farm has only 88 cows.⁴ But many farms deeply in debt are under growing economic pressure to expand their herds. While Vermont lags behind the rest of the country in the trend toward giant livestock feedlots, environmentalists and family farmers in the state fear that mega-sized dairy farms and encroaching animal factories could have a devastating effect on the environment and their way of life.

Pollution Problems

Every year 496 tons of phosphorus are dumped into Lake Champlain fueling excessive algae growth and threatening the health of the lake.⁵

According to the Vermont Agency of Natural Resources, "agricultural activities impair 549 miles of stream, 1,819 acres of lakes plus more than half of the area of Lake Champlain (171,643 acres).⁶

By designating these waterways "impaired," the state has declared them so polluted that they no longer meet the uses -- such as boating, fishing or swimming -- for which the state has designated them. (See glossary for background.)

One manifestation of farming's pollution impact is the contamination of Lake Champlain with an oversupply of phosphorus, which is found in animal manure and fertilizers. Agricultural activities are the main source of phosphorus pollution in the lake. "[A]gricultural sources of phosphorus in order of importance are: manure and commercial fertilizer runoff from fields, soil erosion from fields, barnyard runoff, milkhouse effluent, runoff from stacked manure, livestock access to streams and induced streambank erosion."⁷

The Champlain Basin watershed is suffering from severe phosphorus contamination.⁸ In growing portions of scenic Lake Champlain, phosphorus-fueled algae are choking off the oxygen supply upon which fish depend for survival. Algae scum in the lake's most polluted sections is so thick that about half the year boaters have trouble pushing their boats into the water and swimmers and fishermen are forced away. According to the Lake Champlain Basin Clean Up Plan, phosphorus pollution is so intense in three sizable sections of Lake Champlain -- Missisquoi Bay, Saint Albans Bay and South Lake -- that those areas are virtually dead.⁹ "[I]n some areas levels are comparable to those found in the most polluted parts of the Great Lakes (Saginaw Bay and the western end of Lake Erie) during the 1970s," a 1996 report by the Plan concluded.¹⁰

In 1996, Vermont, New York and Quebec signed an accord, the Lake Champlain Basin Clean Up Plan, committing to a major clean-up of Lake Champlain.¹¹ The cooperative plan was the result of six years of discussion among officials from the two states, the Canadian province and the United States Environmental Protection Agency.¹² One of the main targets of the plan is reducing phosphorous pollution by changing agricultural practices on the more than 3,000 farms that operate within the 8,234 square mile basin.¹³

Under the Lake Champlain Basin accord, the parties have agreed to reduce the phosphorous seeping into Lake Champlain by 57 metric tons per year. Vermont, considered the leading source of phosphorus pollution among the three geographic areas involved, has been given the lion's share of responsibility toward that reduction goal with the majority of its reduction to come from curtailing phosphorus-rich farm runoff.¹⁴

Over the last few years, the state has begun to allocate funding, totaling just over $1 million, to assist farmers with manure management.¹⁵ But in light of agriculture's role as the dominant contributor to phosphorus pollution, the funding is minimal. By contrast, substantial state resources have been devoted to improving wastewater treatment facilities, which contribute a smaller slice of the phosphorus pollution pie.¹⁶ More than $100 million has been allocated to improving sewage treatment since the mid-1950s.¹⁷

Besides water quality problems, another environmental problem has been flies. The source of many citizen complaints has been the 100,000-hen facility, Vermont Egg Farms, Inc. (VEF), owned by a Canadian agribusiness that has also attempted to open hog operations in Maine.¹⁸ Virtually every farm within a one-mile radius of VEF has reported unprecedented problems with flies, according to a July 1998 survey by the family farm group, Rural Vermont. Farmers report that the flies are spreading mastitis, an udder infection, among their cows as well as increasing stress for the animals, leading to reduced milk production and economic losses.¹⁹

VEF's closest neighbor, a dairy farmer a half mile away, has filed a nuisance suit for economic losses and put his farm up for sale.²⁰ The state Agriculture Department has measured as many as 3,000 flies in a single calf hutch on that farm, reports Ellen Taggart, Executive Director of Rural Vermont, who has visited the farm. Upon entering the cow barn, Taggart says, the flies were so thick that they looked "like a cloud of dust moving up from your feet. Cows were constantly stomping their feet and moving around trying to get rid of the flies." The cows, whose tails have been removed, were "shooting their feed onto their backs to shoo the flies," Taggart recalls. "This farmer said he was losing thousands of dollars each week in feed."²¹

Regulatory Climate

In 1995, Vermont adopted into law a set of standards for manure management on farms aimed at protecting water quality. These so-called Accepted Agricultural Practices are mandatory, but the assumption is that all producers are in compliance unless complaints are registered. Because of this system, the level of farm compliance with the standards is unknown.²² There are no routine inspections.²³ One pioneering aspect of the standards, however, is its ban on the winter spreading of manure, a practice that contributes to pollution once snow and frozen ground melt.²⁴

In 1996, the legislature enacted a weak law to require individual permits for "large farm operations."²⁵ The law was passed in response to citizens' complaints about Vermont's first factory-scale chicken farm, Vermont Egg Farms.²⁶ Under this permit program, factory farms had to submit a manure management plan and have it approved prior to permit issuance.²⁷ The standards were identical to the state's existing manure management standards aimed at protecting water quality.²⁸ The required plans ignored several other environmental threats posed by the factory chicken farm, including air pollution and the transmission of disease from flies. The legislature with support from the state Agriculture Department expressly chose to bar public input in the granting of permits.²⁹

In 1998, the legislature again took a small step to strengthen regulation on factory farms. In response to severe fly problems surrounding VEF, criteria for permitting "large farm operations" was expanded to include odor, noise, traffic, insects and pests -- along with manure management.³⁰ Following passage of this law, farmers and environmentalists successfully fought the granting of a permit in the summer of 1998 to expand the VEF facility from 100,000 laying hens to 400,000. The state Agriculture Department denied VEF's permit for expansion amidst a storm of negative media publicity over VEF's unsanitary conditions and its impact on local farmers.³¹ (The state has no formal role for citizen participation in its permitting process.) VEF has appealed the permit decision³² and has plans to expand to 700,000 laying hens before the year 2,000.³³ Many policymakers have also made a commitment to continuing work on this issue in recognition of the need for more comprehensive legislation that allows for adequate public input.

Although the VEF facility was issued an initial permit, it is the exception rather than the rule. In two years, the Agriculture Department has granted permits to only two of the 25 facilities the Department estimates meet the state definition of factory farms.³⁴ The two were issued to VEF in response to the public outcry and to one other facility that requested a permit. The Agriculture Department has issued no rules for a permit program and has made little use of its authority under the law to require permits. As a result, the 23 remaining factory farms in Vermont do not have to account for any pollution they might produce.

Lack of Citizen Input

As noted above, the permit program allows for no required public hearing or public comment period prior to the permitting of factory farms.³⁵ In addition, the right to appeal a permit decision is limited to the applicant and excludes even the farmers and rural residents who must live next door to factory farms.³⁶

Local Control

Unfortunately, all farms, no matter what their size, are exempt from the state's land use control law, Act 250,³⁷ and from local zoning laws.³⁸

Primary interviewee for this chapter:

Ellen Taggart
Rural Vermont
15 Barre Street
Montpelier, VT 05602
Phone: 802-223-7222
Fax: 802-223-0269
e-mail: ruralvt@sover.net

Notes

1. University of Vermont College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Vermont...Dairy: Agriculture, Food, and Community in Vermont (July 1996).

2. University of Vermont College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Vermont...Dairy: Agriculture, Food, and Community in Vermont (July 1996).

3. University of Vermont College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Vermont...Dairy: Agriculture, Food, and Community in Vermont (July 1996).

4. Vermont State Department of Agricultural Statistics (Winter 1998).

5. Nancy Bazilchuk, "Grant to Help Prevent Pollution: Farm Runoff Will Be Studied," Burlington Free Press (April 20, 1998).

6. Lake Champlain Basin Management Conference, "Opportunity for Action: An Evolving Plan for the Future of Lake Champlain Basin (October 1996).

7. Lake Champlain Basin Management Conference, Opportunity for Action: An Evolving Plan for the Future of Lake Champlain Basin (October 1996); Vermont Natural Resources Council Draft Report, Kim Kendall, p. 3.

8. Leon Graves, "Farmers Do Their Part for Water Quality," Burlington Free Press (December 31, 1997).

9. Nancy Bazilchuk, "Grant to Help Prevent Pollution: Farm Runoff Will Be Studied," Burlington Free Press (April 20, 1998).

10. Lake Champlain Management Conference, Opportunities for Action: An Evolving Plan for the Future of Lake Champlain Basin (October 1996), p. 8.

11. Nancy Bazilchuk, "Lake Cleanup Shows Progress," Burlington Free Press (March 13, 1998).

12. Nancy Bazilchuk, "Grant to Help Prevent Pollution: Farm Runoff Will Be Studied," Burlington Free Press (April 20, 1998).

13. Nancy Bazilchuk, "Lake Cleanup Shows Progress," Burlington Free Press (March 13, 1998).

14. Nancy Bazilchuk, "Grant to Help Prevent Pollution: Farm Runoff Will Be Studied," Burlington Free Press (April 20, 1998).

15. Leon Graves, "Farmers Do Their Part for Water Quality," Burlington Free Press (December 31, 1997).

16. Leon Graves, "Farmers Do Their Part for Water Quality," Burlington Free Press (December 31, 1997).

17. Leon Graves, "Farmers Do Their Part for Water Quality," Burlington Free Press (December 31, 1997).

18. "The Egg Man Cometh," Rural Vermont Report, Vol. 7, No. 2 (Summer 1996).

19. Leon Graves, Commissioner Vermont Department of Agriculture, Food and Markets, Large Farm Operation Permit Application #98-LFO-01 Decision dated July 28, 1998 and Large Farm Operation Permit Application #98-LFO-02 Decision dated July 28, 1998; Vermont Egg Farms, Inc., "Impact Survey for Households and Farmers," Rural Vermont (July 1998).

20. Richard Cowperthwait, "Egg Farm Brings in New Flock," Burlington Free Press (October 1, 1998).

21. Vermont Egg Farms, Inc., "Impact Survey for Households and Farmers," Rural Vermont (July 1998).

22. Lake Champlain Management Conference, Opportunities for Action: An Evolving Plan for the Future of Lake Champlain Basin (October 1996), p. 7.

23. Vermont Agricultural Non-Point Sources Pollution Reduction Program Law and Regulations, Accepted Agricultural Practice Regulations, pp.11-24, Vermont Department of Agriculture Food and Markets.

24. Vermont Agricultural Non-Point Sources Pollution Reduction Program Law and Regulations, Accepted Agricultural Practice Regulations, pp.11-24, Vermont Department of Agriculture Food and Markets.

25. Title 5, Chapter 215, Subchapter 3, Regulation of Large Farm Operations.

26. "The Egg Man Cometh," Rural Vermont Report, Vol. 7, No. 2 (Summer 1996).

27. "The Egg Man Cometh," Rural Vermont Report, Vol. 7, No. 2 (Summer 1996).

28. "The Egg Man Cometh," Rural Vermont Report, Vol. 7, No. 2 (Summer 1996).

29. "The Egg Man Cometh," Rural Vermont Report, Vol. 7, No. 2 (Summer 1996).

30. Title 6, Chapter 215, Subchapter 3, Regulation of Large Farm Operations.

31. Leon Graves, Commissioner Vermont Department of Agriculture, Food and Markets, Large Farm Operation Permit Application #98-LFO-01 Decision dated July 28, 1998 and Large Farm Operation Permit Application #98-LFO-02 Decision dated July 28, 1998; Vermont Egg Farms, Inc., "Impact Survey for Households and Farmers," Rural Vermont (July 1998).

32. Nancy Remsen, "Rejection Angers Egg Farm," Burlington Free Press (July 30, 1998).

33. "The Egg Man Cometh," Rural Vermont Report, Vol. 7, No. 2 (Summer 1996).

34. Testimony by Vermont State Agriculture Department to House Agricultural Committee (Winter 1998).

35. Title 6, Chapter 215, Subchapter 3, Regulation of Large Farm Operations.

36. Title 6, Chapter 215, Subchapter 3, Regulation of Large Farm Operations.

37. Act 250, Vermont's Land Use and Development Law, Title 10, Chapter 151 and the agricultural exemption from local zoning (Law 24 VSA section 4495).

38. "The Egg Man Cometh," Rural Vermont Report, Vol. 7, No. 2 (Summer 1996).