The Work of Working LandscapesVermont’s Farmlands and the Production

of PlaceCheryl Morse, PhD

University of VermontMarch 14, 2011

“The renaissance in Vermont agriculture…”Governor Peter Shumlin, Inaugural Address, Jan 6, 2011

“…[VT’s] wonderful marketshed from Montreal to Boston to Providence to Hartford to NY and Philadelphia…”

[We need to] “maintain this incredible landscape that makes Vermont such a special place" and “the culture we create by having working landscapes of farmers and foresters in our communities"

Chuck Ross, Sec. of Agriculture, Food and Markets, VPR, Jan 24, 2011

“We need to ensure that Vermont is the milk-bowl and breadbasket of New England…” Working Landscape Partnership, VT Council on Rural Development

Talk of Hope and Crisis in Vermont’s Food Systems

“…Vermont's farmers, right now, are in a constant economic struggle. Every year they have to figure out ways to work and survive so that we can all benefit: these are the folks who maintain a great piece of the landscape, jobs, and culture that is part of the fabric of what makes Vermont, Vermont.” Dan Kirk, “My Turn” BFP

The Work of Working LandscapesVermont’s Farmlands and the Production of Place

What ‘work’ do we expect Vermont’s landscapes to perform?

The Work of Working Landscapes

• Explain how I got to working landscapes, in other words, my theoretical and methodological approaches to the study of rural places

The Work of Working Landscapes

• Explain how I got to working landscapes, in other words, my theoretical and methodological approaches to the study of rural places

• Describe public and media discourses about Vermont’s pastoral countryside, and why they are important objects of study

The Work of Working Landscapes

• Explain how I got to working landscapes, in other words, my theoretical and methodological approaches to the study of rural places

• Describe public and media discourses about Vermont’s pastoral countryside, and why they are important objects of study

• Point out possible conflicts on the working landscape horizon

The Work of Working Landscapes

• Explain how I got to working landscapes, in other words, my theoretical and methodological approaches to the study of rural places

• Describe public and media discourses about Vermont’s pastoral countryside, and why they are important objects of study

• Point out possible conflicts on the working landscape horizon

• Recommend a suite of research projects to address these issues

The Work of Working Landscapes

• Explain how I got to working landscapes, in other words, my theoretical and methodological approaches to the study of rural places

• Describe public and media discourses about Vermont’s pastoral countryside, and why they are important objects of study

• Point out possible conflicts on the working landscape horizon

• Recommend a suite of research projects to address these issues

• Outline the contributions such research will make to rural communities, public policy, food systems and geography

How do teenagers living in northern Vermont experience their rural landscape as it relates to their social lives?

My Starting Point:

nature

(rural)people

experience meaning

Master’s Thesis Question:

Contributions:• Quantitative and qualitative findings • Gendered analysis• Production of identity in relation to place• Power, class, social clique analysis

Lacking:• Landscape was passive, quiet

Next Question:

How does wilderness civilize anti-social youth?

Lessons from:Nature Discipline:

The Practice of Wilderness Therapy at Camp E-Wen-Akee

focus on strategy, practices, interactions among heterogeneous actants (Actor Network Theory)

“[a]ny course of action will thread a trajectory through completely foreign modes of existence that have been brought together in spite of their heterogeneity.” Latour 2004, 227

spatial tactics (Foucault)

embodiment as object of study and a methodological approach

taskscape (Cloke and Jones; Ingold)the “entire ensemble of tasks, in their mutual interlocking’” Ingold, 2000)

“Therapy both takes and makes place” (Dunkley 2009)

place and identity are co-constituted from embodied, material engagements

Actor-Network TheoryRelational OntologyRelational Rural

In

Food SystemsAlternative Agriculture MovementsRural GeographyLandscape Studies

Vermonters’ Concerns about Working Landscapes

Imagining Vermont, p.12

From “Imagining Vermont”

Threats to agricultural landscapes:

• Cost of land• Rising cost of doing business• Lack of young farmers• Loss of dairy farms• Loss of arable land to development• Dairy’s vulnerability to global and national market shifts

Promise of agriculture:

• Attract tourists• Attract new residents • Provide revenue from landscape impacts• Provide revenue from sales of products outside the state

“Place in the Country”“Green pastures, bales of hay, and mountainous backdrop provide a

pastoral setting for this landscape photograph.”Orwell, VT

photo: John David Geery http://johndavidgeery.com

The Endangered Working Landscapes of Vermont

A Brief Environmental History of Vermont’s Landscape (in Crisis)

‘great swarming time’, chartering of townssheep crazedairy farmingoutmigrationtourism and agriculturework as leisure (Blake Harrison, 2006)

Vermont Department of Tourism ad in Spring 2011 Vermont Life

What Do These Maple Landscapes Produce, How, and For Whom?

Jordan’s Sugaring Operation, Essex

What Do These Maple Landscapes Produce, How, and For Whom?

The Tension Between the Productive and Aesthetic Functions of Vermont’s Working Landscapes

Taskscapes of multiple agricultural productsViewshedsTourism (in state and out of state)Recreation Place and identityClass

Paying attention to aesthetics is crucial to working landscape analysis

The division between conventional agricultural and alternative agricultural movements is replicated in academic and public discourse about food systems

Less than $9,999

$10,000 to $49,999

$50,000-$99,999

$100,000-$499,999

More than $500,000

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Vermont Farms by Sales, 1997 and 2007

19972007

Farm Sales

Percent of Farms

Top 5 Agricultural Commodities

Percent of state total farm receipts

Dairy Products 65.4

Cattle and calves 8.0

Maple products 6.2

Greenhouse/nursery 5.3

Apples 2.5

Number of farms (2009): 7,000Dairy farms (2010): 1,010

Organic dairy farms : 205

Conventional dairy farms: 805

Organic dairy farms make up 20% of the state total;They produce about 5-7% of the state's milk

Data: National Agricultural Statistics Service

Vermont Farm Data

6,000-7,000

24,000-62,000

156, 545

ORLEANSFRANKLIN47,746

ADDISON36,821

ESSEX6,306

RUTLAND61,642

GRAND ISLE6,970

CHITTENDEN156,545

LAMOILLE24,575

CALEDONIA

WASHINGTON

ORANGE

WINDSOR

WINDHAM

BENNINGTON

Vermont County Population, 2010

POPULATION

One of every four Vermonters lives in Chittenden County

Chitt. County’s population is 2.5 times larger than the next most populated county, Rutland

loss of pop since 2000

Two Vermonts?

PERCENT OF VT’S STATE AGRICULTURAL SALES

23.5-24

12.2

5.2-6.4

Vermont’s Top Five Counties in Agricultural Sales, 2007

ADDISON$161,417,000

1

2FRANKLIN$160,619,000

3ORLEANS$82,348,000

ORANGE$43,292,000

4

5RUTLAND$35,286,000

Together, Addison and Franklin counties constitute nearly half of VT’s agricultural production

The county in third place produces half that of the counties in first and second place

How Many Agricultural Vermonts?

Less than $9,999

$10,000 to

$49,999

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Top 3 Agricultural Sales Counties Farm Sales, 2007

AddisonFranklinOrleans

Farm Sales

Percent of Farms

Addison County

Total number of farms: 773

# farms w/ $500,000 + in sales: 79

Milk is 78% of ag salesCattle and calves are 8% of sales

Franklin County

Total number of farms: 740

# farms w/ $500,000 + in sales: 80

Milk is 81% of ag salesCattle and calves are 11% of sales

Orleans County

Total number of farms: 635

# of farms w/ $500,000 + in sales: 25

Milk is 85% of ag salesCattle and calves are 8% of sales

Map: Jan Albers, 2002, Hands on the Land

The Freestall Landscape

Smaller Farm Landscapes

The Vermont Farmlands Project

Vermont Community Agricultural Lands Spatial Analysis

The Vermont Farmlands Project

Vermont Community Agricultural Lands Spatial Analysis

‘Working The Landscape’ Community Narratives Study

The Vermont Farmlands Project

Vermont Community Agricultural Lands Spatial Analysis

‘Working The Landscape’ Community Narratives Study

Rural Landscape Perception and Value Study

The Vermont Farmlands Project

Vermont Community Agricultural Lands Spatial Analysis

‘Working The Landscape’ Community Narratives Study

Rural Landscape Perception and Value Study

Public Policy Debate Analysis

The Vermont Farmlands ProjectAnticipated Contributions

Community Development Initiatives

UVM – Community of Vermonters Collaboration

Public Policy and Planning

Transdisciplinary Food Systems Work

Rural Geography in North America

Nature-Culture Theory