Protect our soil from pollution
Coalition members share a common commitment to protect Vermont’s soils from systematic and legal soil pollution.
We collectively believe that stewarding Vermont’s soils is central to fostering thriving communities here. Soil is essential to the local food system, our capacity to stop the climate crisis and build resilient local economies.
Soil is also one of the interfaces between human activity and systems (like farming) and the greater ecosystem. How we treat soils, and their overall health, effect the health of surrounding watershed ecosystems.
Support for Farmers Hit with PFAS Act
Throughout September, the Protect Our Soils Coalition is gathering signatures to endorse the PFAS Relief for Farmers Act.
As Vermonters, we know that healthy soil and farms are essential to our communities, economies, and values. We crafted a letter supporting federal legislation that will help farms impacted by industrial pollution. Unfortunately, the list of farms is expected to grow, and the financial and health effects can be devastating.
Please join us in supporting the Support for Farmers Hit with PFAS Act. Together, we can make our voices heard and let policymakers know that we demand expedient and effective action. Each farm is a unique community asset, and no farmer or grower should be left vulnerable due to lack of action and regulation.
The problem?
In 2018 the Vermont Agency of Natural Resources reinterpreted key provisions of the Universal Recycling Law governing the management of discarded food.
Specifically, the Agency deviated from the legislative intent of the law to protect farm soil from pollution by negating the ‘source separation requirement’ and allowing for the use of mechanical depackaging technology to separate food from packaging.
The depackaging process can result in microplastics ending up in compost or methane digestate produced with this material, which then ends up in farm soils when it is applied.
Some packaging materials contain PFAS (forever chemicals) that could end up in soils as well.
“It's foolish to think that we can lace our precious agricultural lands with countless bits of indestructible microplastic and not suffer the health and environmental consequences.”
— Paul Burns, executive director of the Vermont Public Interest Research Group
The Solution.
The Protect Our Soils Coalition is dedicated to the development a circular organics recycling system in Vermont that prioritizes use for the highest and best use of discarded food, while ensuring it is effectively source separated to prevent soil pollution (as envisioned in the Universal Recycling Law).
We believe Vermont can implement 100% organics recycling, achieve the climate-positive outcomes it promises, and prevent soil pollution.
In fact, we believe if you prioritize responsible stewardship of resources, like food scraps, the other outcomes and benefits of the system are more plentiful and widely distributed.
We are working together to ensure that the food systems-based approach to organic materials recycling remains the priority in Vermont and are working with policy makers to reverse the current trends.