Hippies' revenge as hardscrabble Hardwick goes organic (why my town is doing well)

[cali]

Last Updated: Thursday, March 12, 2009 | 5:16 PM ET Comments11Recommend111By David Gutnick CBC News

Before the long-haired people from the city moved into these tree-covered hills, Hardwick, Vermont, was known as the "Building Granite Centre of the World."

<Snip>

Fischer is the executive director of the Centre for An Agricultural Economy in Hardwick. He coordinates the growing number of food-based businesses in this town of 3,000 or so.

The walls of his office on Main Street are covered in charts that show how everyone from traditional dairy farmers and cheese makers to a soy-milk producer and an organic seed grower, even a lending circle called Slow Money, are part of the local network.

<snip>

More than 100 jobs have been created in Hardwick over the past three years, all of them are related to North American's growing interest in healthy food.

"This is not an organic-only club or anything like that," says Tom Stearns, owner of High Mowing Organic Seeds.

"From High Mowing to Jasper Hill Cheese we are going to be passing about 15 organic farms," he says. "Next door to Vermont Soy is the Vermont Milk Company, which is transforming itself into a dairy-based incubator building. The food venture centre is an incubation kitchen that will be built later this year."

In the space of an hour you can see quite a bit of Hardwick because everything is within a couple of kilometres.

Here we are passing the soy guys who will soon be exporting to New York City. Over there are the compost guys who teach everyone from kindergarten students to seniors about environmentally friendly waste. And these are the cheese women who hand out hairnets and sterilized boots before you tour the Jasper Hill, underground cheese-aging cellar

It is as big as a hockey rink — 22,000 square feet — and filled to the rafters with thousands of rounds of cheddar, blue and goat cheeses.

<snip>

But "we're hoping that this becomes a model that can be replicated," says Michelsen, "so that you have small-scale communities producing food and sustaining themselves and creating a local, thriving sustainable economy versus all of us getting our things from somewhere else. This is a community that cares."


http://www.cbc.ca/world/story/2009/03/09/f-hardwick-hippies.html

This is a wonderful, long article about a community revival in the midst of hard times. More and more people are looking at it as a model. What's going on here is pretty amazing.

[Warren Stupidity]

1. Thanks for posting this - there really still is hope for us. nt.

[cali]

3. The Slow lending thing in town is way cool

and the cooperation on levels is fantastic. I can't wait until the community ag kitchen opens.

[Name removed]

2. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[provis99]

4. Vermont is really the Blessed Realm of America

sort of like the Anti-Mississippi.

[terisan]

13. Vermont is the Whitest State in US-little racial diversity; also lowest in # preschoolers.

Vermont also has the most liberal gun laws.

Tough question for me lately---is Vermont de facto racist?

My friends who have moved to Vermont have all left much more racially diverse areas.

What does it mean? I don't know but I am not sure Vermont can be seen as a model for a much more racially and culturally diverse America.

Do you have any thoughts on this? I am interested.

[rox63]

19. I don't think Vermont is racist at all

I live a bit to the southeast, in Massachusetts, which is more racially diverse. Vermont doesn't really have any urban centers or the jobs that come with them. The largest city in the state is Burlington, which has less than 40,000 people. Jobs are what usually what draws people to a place, and Vermont doesn't have much of an industrial base.

[cali]

20. Vermont isn't perfect but it sure as hell is not de facto racist

Not only did Vermont vote in greater numbers for Obama than any other state but Hawaii and D.C., back in 1988, Vermont voted for Jesse Jackson in the primary. Now that's no guarantee of non-racism, but it does indicate something. Furthermore, VT law has strong protections against discrimination and has been very welcoming to immigrants and refugees from Africa. But Vermont is a very rural state: Montpelier, the capitol, has only 7,000 people. Burlington, the largest city, has around 30,000. It's a state made up of small towns and even (more) smaller villages. The population is pretty stagnant- not many people of any color move here. And as far as being culturally diverse- you'd be surprised.

[terisan]

24. I am going by statistics. It appears to be the least diverse state in the US. I am responding

to the poster's comment that it is the anti-Mississippi. Mississippi also has a large rural population and it is not at all, just white.

I am aware of Vermont's small population and have visited Vermont, especially when living in NY. I know that it has never had a very racially diverse population, unlike mnay other states. I once had an active Klan movement which apparently died out in the 1940s.

Friends who have moved there are caucasians and they are leaving states rich in racial diversity for a state that has very little. That, along with Howard Dean's comments about racism during the primary, made me look a bit closer at Vermont. I was surprised at the relative lack of racial diversity and have read some comments on other sites from Vermonters concerned about this. I don't think I referred to cultural diversity because I assume there is.

Why do not many people of color live or move there from the US population?

Is it possible that Vermont's liberalism is related to its lack racial diversity? Is it easier for people to get along well with each other in community spirit if they identify more with each other as white? or black? or hispanic? I read that the largest minority populations were Asian Americans and people from Africa.

Do racially homogeneous states and communities in America have a duty to go the extra mile in seeking residents from other states who are still considered minorities even though large in number, such as African American and Hispanic. Having lived in a southern city I know that it takes much effort to build an integrated community that works well for all people and have often been appalled by the racism in northern towns and cities.

Maybe Vermont could consider more outreach. I don't know.

It is curious to me that a state many consider to be the most liberal is so atypical in population . I agree that voting for a biracial or African American person is no guarantee of non-racism. However I am not sure it necessarily has a positive meaning. I just don't know. Same for Vermont serving as a model.

[cali]

25. Despite living in NY it

doesn't sound like you're very familiar with this state. First of all, I didn't say that it doesn't mean anything that Vermont voted for Obama more heavily than any other state than his birth state. I said it wasn't definitive. And there's more: Vermont has a proud civil rights tradition: It was the first state to ban slavery. In fact, it codified that before it even was a state. Today, Vermont has a very active Human Rights Commission that is vigilant about protecting the rights of all minorities.

Yes Vermont had some KKK activity, particularly in the 1920s. Name a state that didn't. It sure as hell wasn't NY which still has KKK activity.

I've lived her for 30 years. and I've seen and heard very little racisn. Yes, it exists, but it's just not prevalent. Oh, and sorry VT is not the whitest state. It lost that dubious distinction to Maine a few years ago.
http://morningsentinel.mainetoday.com/news/local/3000077.shtml
And there are several other states that don't have a great deal of racial diversity.

Why don't people move here? And it ain't just people of color who don't move here. The answer to that is simple: It's rural as all get out, and winter lasts for 5 freakin' months. How many people want to move to a place where 30 below is not uncommon? How many people want to move to a state where there are virtually no cities? In fact, the only city in the state, Burlington, has become increasingly racially divers over the last few years, because it's deliberately worked to bring more diversity, including immigrants and refugees.

And Vermont is very GLBT friendly. Now perhaps that doesn't count as diversity to you, but I think it should be considered as diverity.

And yes, in some ways, Vermont is a model. It's a model when it comes to health care for children, for the health of its citizens overall, for environmental action, for its low teen pregnancy rate, for how it educates its children.

The reasons why Vermont is not as racially diverse as Missippi should be obvious.

[terisan]

26. I am not attacking Vermont-just questioning whether its homogeneous population

can make it a useful model for a very racially diverse country. (I am including Hispanics as a "race" because office demographics do so in charting relative racial diversity).

I was struck by the extremely low representation of African Americans and Hispanic people and wondered if having a racially homogeneous population made it easier to engage in liberal initiatives.

I think Vermont's stand on civil is a fine one--but the fact remains that its African American population is said to be about 1%, and Hispanic population is similarly low. Certainly it is not and has never been a de jure racist state as many others have been--but is it a de facto one by virtue of being so racially homogeneous ? What does it mean to not be racist in states or places with few opportunites for day to day close contact with people of other races?

One of my questions is whether the better health for children, the health of citizens, and how it educates its children is actually easier to achieve partly because of its extreme lack of racial diversity.

Healthcare may be much more expensive in states which have had massively unequal rights in the past or have large immigrant populations and people may feel less of a "kinship" with neighbors in places where populations are more racially diverse and may thus be less inclined to engage in liberal initiatives.

For example, would Arizona have better healthcare is it had the demographics of Vermont? if it were 98 or 99% white or 99% latino or hispanic?

Certainly the advantages of the benefits in healthcare and education could make Vermont a choice place to live for members of minorities despite long winters.
Obviously the Somalis are not finding climate a deterrent. I think the outreach to African refugees is wonderful and wonder if outreach within the US might not have the same positive result. I think of the many positive results of affirmative action in education and wonder if it might not work in terms of community.

Many African Americans and Hispanic people live in rural areas-and enjoy what it has to offer and I think many people in large cities might also welcome such an opportunity.

My comment about the KKK was from a sermon by Gary Kowalski , a Burlington, Vermont Unitarian minister speaking in 2003 about the history of racism in Vermont and its modern presence.

<http://www.uusociety.org/sermons/racism_9_28.htm}[br />
The disease is racism. And it’s hard to believe that such an unpleasant diagnosis could apply to our pleasant little state. We tend to picture Vermont

as a bucolic place, sheltered from the worst ills of the American society that surrounds us: clean, friendly and civic-minded for the most part. All these characterizations may be accurate. But it’s also true that Vermont harbors more than its share of bigotry.

Underneath the appearance of rustic innocence, prejudice abounds. Last spring, for instance, the Champlain Valley Office of Economic Opportunity conducted a study of bias in the housing market. CVOEO investigators posing as prospective home buyers visited various real estate offices across the state. Each one claimed to have similar income and savings. Each was looking for a house in the same price range. Each was dressed appropriately and spoke politely with the agent in making their request. The only difference between the two was that one of the investigators was black and the other one was white. In forty-eight percent of these visits, racial discrimination was obvious. African American customers were told they needed to get pre-approval for a mortgage before being shown a home, while the white customers didn’t need pre-approval. The black customers were told no homes were available in a certain locality, but the white customers were told of two houses available in the area "where the doctors live ... and next door to a famous author." Housing discrimination exists everywhere in America, but the level of bias measured in Vermont was three times the national average. After all, this is the whitest state in the Union, and more than a few people seem determined to keep it that way.

If only racism wore sheets and robes and pointed hats, it would be very easy to recognize. But all too often racism in Vermont wears a variety of more subtle masks that renders it invisible to most observers. When persons of color are shadowed by security personnel in downtown stores, it masquerades as good business practice. When African Americans are incarcerated in Vermont prisons in disproportionate numbers, it masquerades as the need for public order. When bills addressing harassment in the public schools stall in the statehouse, legislators explain that we have no race problem in Vermont and don’t need to clutter the statute books with laws aimed at imaginary issues. The masks are many, but they all conceal a meanness, a parochialism, an ingrown mentality that does disservice to the traditions of a great state.

I personally feel deep affection for Vermont. I love the landscape. I like the human scale of its institutions. I like Vermont’s ethos of hard work and self-help. And I also admire the history of its freedom loving people. We were the first in the nation to outlaw slavery in our state constitution. For our size, we offered up more soldiers in the Civil War that any other state in the union. And for all its inroads into our midst, we did manage to repulse the klan.

________snipped___________

[cali]

31. look, sorry, I think the de facto racism charge is complete bullshit

and you keep ignoring that very few people want to move here- and yes, that includes whites, not merely people of color. Obviously the rural nature of the state and the climate are deterrants to people of all hues.

I'm just going to point out one thing: Many states with a similar lack of racial diversity as Vermont do not do well re healthcare or education. So claiming that Vermont's success re these issues is because it doesn't have as much racial diversity as, say, Arizona, is challenged by that fact. And another thing about the Vermont/Arizona comparison: Vermont, over the last 35 years or so has consistently elected liberals. Arizona has done the opposite. Why is that?

[Tashca]

5. That's what I'm talkin' bout...

Reading this really make me want to visit and see what's going on in person. I see no reason these things can't happen all over the country.....and truth be known...I think it is, just not a progressed.

[cali]

6. Well, I love what's going on here

but I don't know that it's possible everywhere, but certainly in many parts of the country what's happening here could be emulated. One neat thing that happened re Claire's (the restaurant mentioned in the article) was that a few dozen people invested $1,000 each and they're eating it off at the restaurant.

[Tashca]

7. Sounds to me like....

If you can gather a few people together with a vision and creativity that great things can come of it. I would love to see this functioning and talk to some of the people .....

These types of things may be developed as much out of need as anything else. I know times are tough, but this is exciting to me.

[cali]

10. here's another article (from the NYT)

Uniting Around Food to Save an Ailing Town
MARIAN BURROS
Published: October 7, 2008
HARDWICK, Vt.
The Center for an Agricultural Economy

Claire's

Clean Yield Asset Management

High Mowing Organic Seeds

The Highfields Institute

Investors Circle

Jasper Hill Farm

Northeast Organic Farming Association

Pete's Greens

the University of Vermont

Vermont Natural Coatings

Vermont Soy Company

Vermont Institute for Artisan Cheese at UVM


Paul O. Boisvert for The New York Times
CONNECTED From top: Downtown Hardwick, Vt.; Kristina Michelsen of Claire’s Restaurant; Andrew Meyer of Vermont Soy; organic cabbage.
THIS town’s granite companies shut down years ago and even the rowdy bars and porno theater that once inspired the nickname “Little Chicago” have gone.

Facing a Main Street dotted with vacant stores, residents of this hardscrabble community of 3,000 are reaching into its past to secure its future, betting on farming to make Hardwick the town that was saved by food.

With the fervor of Internet pioneers, young artisans and agricultural entrepreneurs are expanding aggressively, reaching out to investors and working together to create a collective strength never before seen in this seedbed of Yankee individualism.

Rob Lewis, the town manager, said these enterprises have added 75 to 100 jobs to the area in the past few years.

Rian Fried, an owner of Clean Yield Asset Management in nearby Greensboro, which has invested with local agricultural entrepreneurs, said he’s never seen such cooperative effort.

“Across the country a lot of people are doing it individually but it’s rare when you see the kind of collective they are pursuing,” said Mr. Fried, whose firm considers social and environmental issues when investing. “The bottom line is they are providing jobs and making it possible for others to have their own business.”

In January, Andrew Meyer’s company, Vermont Soy, was selling tofu from locally grown beans to five customers; today he has 350. Jasper Hill Farm has built a $3.2-million aging cave to finish not only its own cheeses but also those from other cheesemakers.

Pete Johnson, owner of Pete’s Greens, is working with 30 local farmers to market their goods in an evolving community supported agriculture program.

“We have something unique here: a strong sense of community, connections to the working landscape and a great work ethic,” said Mr. Meyer, who was instrumental in moving many of these efforts forward.

He helped start the Center for an Agricultural Economy, a nonprofit operation that is planning an industrial park for agricultural businesses.

<snip>
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/08/dining/08verm.html?partner=permalink&exprod=permalink

I'm sure people from any of the organizations listed would be happy to talk to you.

[Bill McBlueState]

8. sigh, I had to move to Ohio from western MA last year

Western Massachusetts is basically South Vermont, as you probably know. Compared to rural New England, there's so little sense of community here in suburban Ohio.

[cali]

9. yep, love Western MA

Great Barrington, Williamstown, Stockbridge. Great places.

[pipi_k]

11. Western Mass...

to me, is like Heaven on Earth.

I live in one of the Hilltowns, halfway between Pittsfield and Springfield.


I'm really sorry you had to leave. Maybe someday you'll be able to move back?

[skooooo]

12. Same thing in Northern California..

...where marijuana basically supports local economies. Revenge of the children of the hippies, I'd say. (That line from the recent show MJ Incorporated...where they talked about the golden triangle of N. Cali...

[cali]

14. actually the title's kind of dumb

this really has very little to do with the hippies who originally came up here- except that they kind of prepared the ground, so to speak. And this obviously isn't about building an underground economy. But if people in Northern Cal are doing something similar around agriculture and food, that's great and I'd love to know more.

[roody]

30. We are working on localization. Farmer's Markets are part of it.

From N. Cal

[grassfed]

15. Thanks for posting

[HillbillyBob]

16. What is old is new again. This is how our ancestors lived

in close community with each other.
Except now we know more of how things like the interchange and chemistry work.
Thanks for posting this.
I remember as a kid in the 60s the derision heaped upon the folks that wanted to live in peace and cooperation.
Funny ain't it ? Looks like us treehuggers were right all along, we cannot continue to dump pollution into our air, water and soil, global climate change or not we are destroying our ecology faster than it can heal it self.
Yep the Earth will be here if we kill every living thing on it off, and life will likely start over..but would we recognize it??

[cali]

18. yes, it's rooted in traditional practices as well

as being innovative. The people involved though are hardly all hippie treehugger types. It's a pretty diverse collection of folks. Gotta add that in Vermont environmentalism is pretty mainstream.

[DeschutesRiver]

17. Here is another link to a community in Brooklyn heading in the same direction

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/25/dining/25brooklyn.html

I think things like this are really encouraging. We do this in a small way out in the ranching community where I live, but not in such an organized fashion. I raise natural grass fed cattle, slaughter them at the local usda plant and have just started selling it in a small way locally - all you have to do is mention it, and there is more demand than what I have to sell. Others do so with chickens, and other meats.

People here are canners and gardeners, and we did try to get a farmer's market started in one of the nearby small towns, though it is a slow go when distances are this great and most have this kind of produce in their own back yards/back 40/back 40,000. Since there isn't much a ranching family can't make at home, they don't need to buy it elsewhere.

Side issue, but related: I did read an another local article, though, that the Oregon USDA is going to crack down on sellers here at local farmers markets with regard to labeling and packaging and storage requirements. Orginally, I was ticked off, but when I read the regs, they were not unreasonable (however, some were not the best common sense and would unnecessarily restrict trade). Not everything that comes from a "local" source is automatically cooked or packaged in a sanitary fashion.

OTOH, fancy packaging means nothing - had an acquaintance who make a food product in her home, packaged it exquisitely, has even won repeated awards for it. And I had tried it many times in the past - taste is too die for, way beyond anything similar I've tried commercially.

I quit eating it cold turkey when another friend mentioned on the qt, when asked why she declined the product when I offered her a piece, that she had recently been to the acquaintance's home, saw the kitchen set up, and said it was filthy beyond a third world environment, and that the mere sight now of this fancy beautifully packaged product gave her nausea from the flashbacks:)

Of course, I have also seen photos of usda approved plants that make me hurl, so I don't know the answer to this - you can't tell a thing unless you have personally inspected someone's premises, that much is a fact, usda approved or otherwise.

[democrank]

21. Hardwick is my next door neighbor

Hardscrabble town indeed but one filled with thoughtful, innovative people who really do care about one another. Vermont is such a special place.

[cali]

22. well hello neighbor

What town do you live in?

[democrank]

23. And a warm hello to you, neighbor.

I`m in South Woodbury.

[Arkana]

27. This is freaky--I live in Hardwick, Massachusetts.

[Mike 03]

28. Cali, I'm so grateful you posted this. I had a gut feeling that you were onto something

special, and I have always wanted to know what it was.

What a healthy, sane, revitalizing way to live. I so envy you and other members of your community.

Thank you so much for sharing this.

Mike

[Mike 03]

29. Tip to anyone reading Cali's post: Bookmark and Print.

This IS the sane way of living in our future, and if you don't believe this, read James Howard Kunstler's "THE LONG EMERGENCY: Surviving the End of Oil, Climate Change, and other Converging Catastrophes of the 21st Century."