In rural America, robust regional food systems can provide substantial benefits to local economies, communities and ecosystems.  However, poverty, social isolation, food insecurity and extreme weather threats can converge on these regionals and threaten the very agricultural and food systems that can help communities thrive. Threats like these have undermined Vermont’s Northeast Kingdom’s long-term efforts to become more self-reliant on local food production.  

Can research help community leaders better understand these threats and how they interact with efforts to grow the regional food economy in the Kingdom?

This research partnership is tapping community members’ input to better understand existing strengths, common challenges, and opportunities to work together to meet these challenges.  These results will support resilience planning across many regional organizations.  

The partners are also creating a resilience scorecard that communities can use to measure the effectiveness of efforts to confront poverty, social isolation and other threats.

Three partners are working collectively to support socially and ecologically resilient food and agricultural systems in the NEK:

UVM’s Institute for Agroecology is bringing a participatory action research approach to this research and to strengthening connections among the people involved in this project. 

The Center for an Agricultural Economy is a key research partner that seeks to strengthen community resilience and the food system.  They are exploring the roles of Atkins Field, the Yellow Barn, and the Barton Hub in these efforts.

Northeast Kingdom Organizing is leading outreach to the community to inform the partnership research effort.