U.S. Department of Agriculture Assistant Secretary Dr. Gregory Parham visited Slopeside Syrup in Richmond Tuesday joining USDA Rural Development State Director Ted Brady who announced that the maple producer was one of six Vermont forest and agricultural producers receiving $734,045 in USDA Value Added Producer Grants. The grants will help Vermont farms and forestry operations build a natural pork supply chain, produce more naturally raised turkeys, make artisan yogurt and gelato, create goat milk truffles, develop maple energy snacks and study new wood-based products.
Slopeside Syrup will use a $49,999 USDA Rural Development Value Added Producer Grant to manufacture a new gummy energy snack using all natural maple syrup as the sweetener. Slopeside Partner Roger Brown said the family sugaring operation, located on the family’s storied Cochran Ski Area property, recently started Untapped, a new business that uses maple syrup as the foundation for multiple energy snacks targeting athletes. Brown said the USDA funding will enable Untapped to get a new product on the market before next summer.
“The USDA aims to provide farm and forest based businesses with an incentive to expand their products, making their businesses more profitable, creating more jobs in rural America, and diversifying the agricultural economy,” said Parham. “Vermont is fortunate to have a mix of entrepreneurial producers, a support system of public and private agricultural technical assistance providers, and state financial support that has created a fast growing and high-profile ag-based economy.”
The Value Added Producer Grant program provides up to $250,000 to agricultural producers seeking to turn their raw crop and commodity into a new, more profitable finished product. The grant can be used to cover half the cost of a project, including working capital to help produce or market the product, or funding to conduct a feasibility study.
During Tuesday’s announcement, representatives from the other Vermont farm and forestry businesses receiving Value Added Producer Grants displayed their new and proposed products. The grantees included:
-Vermont Green Wood Resources (Waterbury): $13,870 grant to study the feasibility of turning wood into value added forest products including wood pellets and kiln dried firewood. -Big Picture Farm (Townshend): $124,280 grant to fund working capital to make goat milk truffles.
-Larson Farm (Wells): $49,999 grant to fund working capital to make cream lined bottled milk, yogurt and gelato.
-Champlain Valley Farm (Addison): $250,000 grant to fund working capital to work with Black River Produce and other Vermont family farms to build a supply chain of naturally raised pork products.
-Stonewood Farm (Orwell): $245,897 grant to fund working capital to expand all natural turkey production.
Vermont Deputy Secretary of Agriculture Jolinda LaClair said the Working Lands Enterprise Fund, a state-funded program that makes investments in Vermont’s farm and forest based businesses and industry, has helped many Vermont producers be better prepared to leverage both private and federal resources like the Value Added Producer Grants. LaClair said of the six grantees, four have received, or are connected to, Working Lands Enterprise grants.
USDA, through its RD mission area, administers and manages housing, business and community infrastructure programs through a national network of state and local offices. Rural Development has an active portfolio of more than $211 billion in loans and loan guarantees. These programs are designed to improve the economic stability of rural communities, businesses, residents, farmers and ranchers and improve the quality of life in rural areas. For more information on Rural Development visit the Vermont/New Hampshire Rural Development website (www.rd.usda.gov/vt) or contact USDA RD at (802) 828-6000.