Dear Senators and Representatives,

On behalf of the undersigned homesteaders, farmers, conservation districts, community members and advocacy organizations committed to Vermont’s working landscape, we write to urge you to act swiftly to restore the long-standing municipal exemption for farming and to codify a strong Right to Grow Food - including plants, fungi, poultry, and the right to sell food. Codifying a Right to Grow Food for the first time in Vermont law would be an important step towards securing stronger legal protection for Vermonters’ Right to Food. The proposal below represents a suitable compromise between farming organizations, the Vermont Agency of Agriculture, Food and Markets, and the Vermont League of Cities and Towns, and as such is a win for all Vermonters. It would protect towns' existing rights to pass ordinances regarding livestock for now and require a study committee to develop a model zoning ordinance that could regulate but not functionally prohibit livestock, with a goal of relieving towns of unintended regulatory burdens, and ensuring fairness across Vermont. 

This compromise is endorsed by Rural Vermont, the Vermont Farm Bureau, NOFA-VT, the Connecticut River Farmer Watershed Alliance, the Vermont Sustainable Jobs Fund/Farm to Plate Network, the Land Access and Opportunity Board, and American Farmland Trust.

The May 30, 2025 Vermont Supreme Court decision In re 8 Taft Street DRB & NOV Appeals, 2025 VT 27 removed the historic exemption that shielded farming from municipal zoning. As a result, towns now have much broader responsibility to regulate in what areas of the town food can be grown, what animals may be raised, and under what conditions farming activities may occur. This shift creates uncertainty and exposes farmers, especially small-scale and homestead operations, to a patchwork of local regulations that could functionally prohibit food production by increasing regulatory restrictions.

Before this decision, towns could already zone food cultivation practices not regulated under the Required Agricultural Practices and many towns regulate the raising of livestock, limit animal numbers, or prohibit certain livestock types from being raised in specific areas of the town. Through this decision, under current law farms of all sizes and income levels may be exposed to deep and abrupt restrictions of their practices.  Based on the legislative proposals from the League of Cities and Towns and the Agency of Agriculture, Food, and Markets, those most vulnerable include:

• Farmers and homesteaders with livestock on fewer than four acres who sell products.
• Producers operating near downtowns, villages, or designated growth areas (Tier 1A or 1B under Act 181).
• Small-scale farms earning less than $5,000 annually or qualifying as a farm under the Required Agricultural Practices (RAPs) through Schedule F filing.

These are not industrial operations. They are the backbone of Vermont’s local food resilience: families raising laying hens, rabbits, dairy goats, sheep, beef cattle, pigs, and other livestock that provide essential protein in a northern climate where plant production is limited for much of the year. Successful farming operations often begin at this small scale, growing gradually as skills, markets, and infrastructure develop. Regulations that restrict livestock or small-scale sales could have the unintended consequence of preventing many farms from ever getting off the ground.

A Right to Grow Food that excludes livestock is incomplete, but language to ensure food production cannot be functionally prohibited through zoning is more than the current law provides. While municipalities have long held authority over non-farm plant and animal production, farm-based agricultural production, including livestock, has historically fallen under the authority of the Vermont Agency of Agriculture, Food, and Markets. 

The approach proposed below is a compromise effort that recognizes legitimate municipal interests in public safety, traffic, and fire safety. In addition to fully restoring the longstanding protection for designated farms of all types outside of Tier 1A areas, all farms and homesteads will be protected from zoning requirements that could functionally prohibit their existence. 

This compromise also suggests that the Vermont Agency of Agriculture, Food, and Markets retains the ability to exercise enforcement discretion, even on parcels not subject to RAPs, regarding appropriate land base, nutrient management, and stocking density of livestock. In this way, enforcement and oversight can be grounded in technical expertise rather than local variability and potentially, personal bias.

This issue intersects directly with Vermont’s broader land use and housing policies. As Act 181 implementation advances and Tier 1A and 1B growth areas will expand over time, we must ensure that food production is not unintentionally pushed out of village and town centers where historically it has coexisted with settlement. Protecting farmland and prime soils is not in conflict with housing goals: it is part of a balanced public interest that includes food security, environmental stewardship, and economic vitality.

Vermont has long been a national leader in agricultural policy and land conservation. Now is the time to reaffirm that commitment by:

• Fully restoring the municipal zoning exemption for farming outside of Tier 1A areas.
• Allow for some reasonable zoning requirements that do not functionally prohibit the existence of farms and their operation within Tier 1A. These should be limited to the safe ingress and egress of vehicular traffic, pedestrian safety, including the functional enclosure of livestock adjacent to roads, sufficient parking, and siting and setbacks of newly created farm structures, in a manner that does not create public safety concerns. 
• Codifying a strong Right to Grow Food including the raising of plants, fungi, and poultry, that cannot be functionally prohibited through municipal zoning. The Right to Grow Food must also protect the rights of homesteaders, who are not protected by the municipal exemption for farming, to sell the food they produce.
• Protecting towns' existing right to pass ordinances regarding livestock not regulated by the RAPs and requiring a study committee to develop a model zoning ordinance that does not functionally prohibit homesteaders from raising livestock, with a goal of relieving towns of unintended regulatory burdens, to encourage beginning farms, and to ensure fairness across Vermont. 
• Ensuring consistent statewide standards, guided by agricultural expertise, rather than a fragmented town-by-town approach.

Food security is a matter of resilience, public health, and national security. Vermonters must retain the right to use accessible land to grow, raise, harvest, donate, and sell food without fear of inconsistent local prohibition.

We respectfully urge you to act decisively and inclusively.

Thank you for your leadership and service to Vermont.