Press Release: Intervale Farmer Recovery Fund
July 25, 2024
Burlington, VT: For a second year in a row, Intervale farms experienced historically high floodwaters during peak growing season, and despite precautions taken to mitigate potential flood damage, losses are still high. Nearly all the Intervale farm fields were inundated, resulting in significant crop loss. Our farms need our support, and they need it now.
Though food is a basic need, farmers take on all the risks associated with farming by themselves. They steward our lands and grow food to nourish us as a public good. With each climate-related event it becomes clearer that building resiliency on all farms is essential. Our collective food security depends on it. A single yield-crushing frost can ruin an entire apple harvest, extended periods of rain can cause feed shortages for the livestock sector, and intense precipitation events can lead to flooding in the most productive floodplains.
As the Intervale community, we know how to respond to flooding. While we have strong climate resilience plans in place, we also need your help to get back on our feet. As the Intervale began to flood two weeks ago, we saw the power of our community. Hundreds of people mobilized, braving wet and muddy conditions to help their farmer neighbors harvest food before the floodwaters came. In the coming weeks, we will continue to call on our community to volunteer to help our farmers with flood clean-up.
The people who grow our food and take care of our soil also need funds to pay bills, clean up, retain staff, and replant. We simply cannot ask them to assume the full risks of farming in a changing climate any longer. Please consider donating to the Intervale Farmer Recovery Fund.
Finally, to be more resilient in the face of climate change, we need better support systems for our farmers, and we need it now. Please consider contacting your local and national representatives to tell them we need a climate emergency fund for farmers.
Our mission is to strengthen community food systems.
For 35 years, the Intervale Center has led a community food revolution that sustains farms, land, and people. We work in Vermont to address massive challenges, including food security, farm viability, water quality, and climate change. We have pioneered farm and food innovations in local food development, commercial composting, land access ecosystem restoration, farm business development, food access, and food hub development.
Learn more about Intervale Center programs and history.
For media inquiries, please contact Maddy Traynor, Communications Manager: (802) 660-0440 ext. 103 or maddy@intervale.org