Rural Vermont's Assault on Vermonters

Pretending to help those they hurt

In my previous two Substack posts, I have documented activities by nonprofit Rural Vermont that are far different from what this organization advertises as its primary mission — to help small farms. Here I share yet more of its overtly far-left positions, and how these are the opposite of its stated goals to help “all” Vermonters.

(Now THAT’S a rutabaga!)

Setting aside Vermont lands on a racist basis.

Rural Vermont strongly supported the Vermont legislature’s dubious push by government to “set aside” 30% of all the state’s lands by 2030, and 50% by 2050. This is part of the Biden push, which in turn is part of a globalist pseudo-Marxist Agenda to seize land in order to control the world. The best stewardship of land, according to farmer and writer Wendell Berry, Kirkpatrick Sale, E.F. Schumacher, Thomas Jefferson, GK Chesterton, and others, is local, small-scale, intergenerational farms, not Big Bureaucracy Rulership.

To its credit, Rural Vermont has rightly opposed carbon credit systems and hedge fund takeover of Vermont farmland for “rewilding” or investment. But it gets no credit for invoking racist nonsense that does not advance farming, and certainly does not represent “all” Vermonters:

“It is the goal of the State that 30 percent of Vermont’s total land area shall be conserved by 2030, and 50 percent of the State’s total land area shall be conserved by 2050.

“The enabling statute finds that “the land and waters, forests and farms, and ecosystems and natural communities in Vermont are the traditional and unceded home of the Abenaki people”, meaning that any effort to increase land conservation must include land access opportunities for Indigenous People and to all who come from historically marginalized and disadvantaged communities. President Biden’s executive order of 2021 on 30x30 explicitly honors Tribal Sovereignty and supports the priorities of Tribal Nations. Currently, neither of the State-recognized Abenaki tribes are represented in any of the work groups that are part of the Vermont Conservation Strategy Initiative. We believe that the Indigenous people of Vermont have important knowledge to share about land care strategies and that their ideas for land use and conservation should be decisive for the Vermont Conservation Plan that’s projected for the end of 2025.”

This is absurd race-baiting fantasy. There are very few Abenaki left in Vermont, as recent battles with Canadian tribes demonstrate. Of those, how many farm? What percentage of Abenaki blood do they have? If there is a single Abenaki left with even 10% native blood, would Rural Vermont gift them the entire state? What of tribes pre-Abenaki who hold the “real” claim to the land? Ultimately the land belongs to Neanderthals, so where is the movement to allocate land to their long-gone souls?

But more central to what was supposedly Rural Vermont’s central goal, what “land care strategies” are Abenaki tribes bringing to the regenerative agriculture table? Can Rural Vermont credibly identify any? How many Abenaki farmers are there, and what deep-wooded recesses will they be farming in? Rural Vermont laments Vermont’s dependence on food imports – what does its bold advocacy for Native Americans and Biden’s 30x30 land grab do to further those goals? How much will land and housing prices escalate as the government “sets aside” lands (and taxes itself, or grants tax property tax exemptions, reducing the tax base and shifting its massive budget onto fixed-income Vermonters?), and how will that assist local farmers to become profitable and survive economically? Perhaps Rural Vermont will explain this in an upcoming newsletter.

Rural Vermont does explain a great deal in its overtly political, one-sided, and obnoxiously false newsletters. Its February 20 newsletter histrionically begins:

“The new federal administration is unleashing a shock and awe campaign against the institutions and norms of US government and democracy, is threatening and actualizing persecution of our neighbors, and creating deep instability for our farms and communities. Executive Orders and dehumanizing narratives have targeted immigrants, transgender and gender non-conforming people, communities of color, and people affected by Diversity, Equity and Inclusion initiatives and programs.”

“Subsequent court rulings have stated that the funding freeze cannot continue, though uncertainty remains if court decisions will be followed or enforced. The New York Times reported that over 2,600 programs were temporarily paused. Sen. Welch, speaking at the NOFA VT conference this past weekend said, “I'm often asked if things are as bad as they look. I’m here to tell you they are much, much worse.” ”

So the New York Times, Peter Welch, and lies about cutting government excess are what this Lost-in-the-Marxist-forest organization is really all about? As this newsletter proceeds to clamor about the big bad wolf Trump taking things away from the poor and marginalized, simply recall that both Clinton and Obama slashed federal jobs, that our bloated, inefficient state and national bureaucracies are destroying working-class and low-income Vermonters (especially retirees), and that there aren’t actually that many jobs being dropped by Trump’s lay-offs (which for career bureaucrats means a golden handshake much larger than Clinton’s, even adjusted for inflation – Clinton laid off over 425,000 federal employees). Trump’s effort, like Clinton’s and Obama’s before him, is an effort to save money, reduce the national debt, and hold down runaway inflation fueled by astonishingly reckless profligacy under the reign of Big Brother Biden.

Biden pulled a trick the Vermont progressives like too – create more government jobs paid for with working-class people’s taxes, then pretend these government hires are “economic growth.” Here’s a fact for you: Fifty percent of overall jobs in the U.S. that were created in 2024 were indirect or direct government jobs! Heaven forbid that spendthrift corruption is slowed down!

Rural Vermont’s newsletter opposes cutting federal and state bloat. It does not explain how this will help rural Vermonters or farmers:

“As we walk into what many are calling an impending “constitutional crisis” we are walking hand in hand with our community - near and far. As steps are taken to overwhelm the checks and balances - we are here together to hold the breaches, to hold each other. Given the fear and sense of overwhelmedness right now, we are being very careful to vet the information we are passing along to ensure we are spreading accurate and actionable information, and to support strategic response. We are in communication with our friends and allies nationally at the National Family Farm Coalition and beyond, and locally with organizations like NOFA VT, Migrant Justice, and more.”

More, Rural Vermont is strongly advocating for the wealthiest Vermonters (the ones whose incomes over $500,000 it targets for taxation) at the expense of fixed-income Vermonters struggling to pay skyrocketing property taxes to pay all the big spending:

“Governor Scott has proposed eliminating universal school meals, leaving tens of thousands of students without guaranteed access to the food they need to learn and succeed. This rollback is hidden in his budget under the guise of “Education Transformation” — but this is not the transformation Vermont families need.”

Oh mercy me, the sky is falling! Only, it’s not. Those “tens of thousands of students without guaranteed access to food” are wealthy families’ kids that do not receive federal benefits. The Universal Meals program simply uses state funds to pay for children not covered by the federal program which will remain intact . Vermont’s “universal” program makes retirees pay for rich kids’ lunches so the poor kids “won’t feel stigmatized.” When our grandmothers are vagrants eating cat food on the sidewalk, at least we can take comfort that millionaires In Colchester who have paid off their mortgages get free lunch for their (lilly-white?) offspring to “learn and succeed.” Rural Vermont is here advocating for a patently regressive policy that transfers wealth from the poor to the rich. Progressives take from the poor and give to government bureaucracies, in the name of a Robin Hood fantasy by which THEY get secure jobs and benefits, skimming wealth inefficiently from those who actually work for a living.

Supporting Illegal Migrants Instead of Vermonters

But wait, this newsletter also closes with links to help illegal immigrants in Vermont:

“Supporting the needs of our migrant farmworker community in a time of increased threat.

“If you're wondering if immigration agents can search your property without permission or ask you to provide documents about your farm or employees, check out the resources below for more information about your rights as farmers, farmworkers, and more…”

Where does Rural Vermont, self-appointed supporter of “rural, agrarian communities,” send readers? The National Lawyers Guild, of course! I was a card-carrying member of the National Lawyers Guild for several years after I became close friends with my law professor, John C. Brittain, who headed that organization at the University of Connecticut School of Law. But like Rural Vermont, I joined for one mission and discovered I was on a destructive ideological joyride when the organization left the reservation for a toxic mission. The NLG still touts itself as “the United States’ first racially-integrated bar association to advocate for the protection of constitutional, human and civil rights” (which is why I originally joined), but it has become the champion of Antifa and supporting illegal immigrants’ “rights” at the expense of US citizens. Much like Rural Vermont!

With a border agent murdered by trans-extremists in Vermont’s Northeast Kingdom, and illegals sneaking into Vermont from the north or funneling fentanyl and sex slaves up from the south, Vermonters should be aware that Rural Vermont supports THEM above and against the safety and economic interests of most Vermonters, and indeed against “all” legal Vermont citizens.

Rural Vermont holds forth its globalist (utopian) “vision” for Vermont (as of 11/10/21: this may change at the kaleidoscope’s will, like gender?):

“Rural Vermont envisions a just and equitable world rooted in reverence for the earth and dignity for all. This abundant and generous way of life celebrates our diversity and interdependence, in which communities of microorganisms, animals, plants, and humans tend one another and nurture generations to come.”

This equity, diversity, and One Health nonsense is not the same as supporting local Vermont farmers — it is supporting globalist Marxism while pretending to help local farming communities in Vermont. This violates 501(c) (3) requirements of federal law, as I will explain in my next Substack.