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The Food Systems Research Center (FSRC) is excited to the announce the winners of our Sustainability Metrics Planning Grants, focused on assessing the sustainability of Northeastern food systems. These planning grants are to provide researchers and community partners with the time and resources needed to plan larger projects to investigate sustainability metrics in our food system across five key dimensions; economic, environmental, human, social, and production. The winners of these planning grants are eligible to submit for the larger grants this winter and we anticipate funding five larger grants. The FSRC is committed to funding this sustainability work to explore and address issues in the sustainability of our food system and help to develop metrics which can improve food systems in Vermont and the Northeast. We are funding 10 planning projects and we asked each PI to summarize their projects below.

Developing a Food Systems Assessment to Evaluate the U.S. Maple Syrup Sector
PI: Mark Cannella, Extension Associate Professor, Farm Business Specialist
Co-PIs: Qingbin Wang, Professor of Community Development and Applied Economics, Anthony D'Aamto, Professor and Director of the Foresty Program, and Abby van den Berg, Research Associate Professor of Plant Biology

Our team of researchers, Extension specialists and graduate students will develop a food system (FS) sustainability assessment framework for the maple syrup sector in the northeast United States. Working closely with the , maple producers, and other partners we will investigate the feasibility of using selected indicators to monitor and evaluate how maple activity impacts private businesses, ecosystems and our communities. The project will also include Mark Isselhardt, Zachary Smith, and Andrew May.

Pollinators & Pollinator-Dependent Crops -- Key to Measuring Food System Sustainability
PI: Suzy Hudgson, Sustainable Agriculture Outreach Specialist
Co-PIs: Terence Bradshaw, Assistant Professor Plant and Soil Sciences, Yolanda Chen, Professor of Plant and Soil Sciences, and Laura Johnson, ¶¶Òõ̽̽ Extension Pollinator Support Specialist

About 75% of fruit and vegetable crops rely upon insect pollination to reproduce. For many high value crops, insect pollination is needed to achieve economic yields. However, recent alarming trends show that pollinator populations and pollination services are declining due to multiple stressors including pathogens and parasites, pesticide exposure, floral abundance loss, diversity decline, and habitat destruction.  Although these multiple stressors are contributing to honeybee losses and the decline of wild pollinators, there is no set of sustainability indicators for the key role that pollinators perform in sustaining Vermont’s food system.  This proposal’s goal is to develop sustainability metrics for how Vermont’s farming practices influence pollinators and pollinator-dependent crops encompassing productivity, economics, environment, human health, and the social dimensions of Vermont’s food system. The (VTFGA) and the (VBA) as well as Juan Alvez round out the team.

Sustainability Analysis of Beef Integration in Dairy Systems in Vermont and the Northeast
PI: Juan Alvez, Extension Research Associate
Co-PIs: Sabrina Greenwood, Associate Professor of Animal and Veterinary Sciences and Qingbin Wang, Professor of Community Development and Applied Economics

Dairies looking to diversify their revenues are exploring opportunities to crossbreed cows with beef breeds. Beef packers, distributors and retailers who need to meet consumer demand need a consistent product that can market well before they can commit to buying crossbred dairy beef at scale. The goal of this project is to analyze and measure the sustainability dimensions, indicators and metrics that will directly influence the adoptability of the beef-over-dairy production and management system in both conventional and organic dairy systems. ¶¶Òõ̽̽ personnel Jana Kraft, David Conner, and Kelsie Meehan as well as community partners the , , and Kevin Channell are also members of the team.

Food Systems Sustainability Starts with Soil
PI: Gillian Galford, Research Associate Professor of Environmental Sciences and Natural Resources
Co-PIs: Eric von Wettberg, Associate Professor of Plant Biology, Deb Neher, Professor of Plant and Soil Sciences, and Heather Darby, Professor of Extension

Soils are the foundation of food systems and soil health is a critical topic as the world considers feeding a growing population, sequestering soil carbon to address climate change, and other transdisciplinary challenges. Understanding sustainability dimensions of soils is key for impacting meaningful change for increased resilience, equity, and sustainability in the Northeastern US food system. This team will focus on two objectives related to soil health: 1) improving data and knowledge of the environment dimension. Soil metrics are key environmental sustainability indicators but are currently hampered by limited understanding of management impacts on soil health (e.g., how does management impact soil carbon?) coupled with logistical challenges (e.g., lack of data and in-state testing facilities, expensive methodologies); and 2) identifying and assessing emergent food systems impacts on production, economic, social and human dimensions of sustainability, such as crop yields, ecosystem services, labor, and community embeddedness. This project involves a strong transdisciplinary team, including ¶¶Òõ̽̽ postdoctoral fellow Mojtaba Zeraatpisheh, ¶¶Òõ̽̽ Research Associate Julianna White, , and community partners Abbie Corse of the , Scott Magnan of the , Ryan Patch of the , and Alissa White of the .

Sustainability Metrics of Consumer Facing Farms
PI: David Conner, Professor of Community Development and Applied Economics
Co-PIs: Emily Belarmino, Assistant Professor of Nutrition and Food Sciences, Eric von Wettberg, Associate Professor of Plant and Soil Sciences, Lisa Chase, Professor of Extension, and Gillian Galford, Research Associate Professor of Environmental Sciences and Natural Resources

We propose to explore the connections of the five dimensions of sustainability in the context of consumer-facing agriculture in Vermont. We are focusing on farms selling directly to consumers, both on and off the farm, as well as all categories of agritourism. Five community partners will be integral members of the team during the planning phase. Kristen Brassard of VAAFM brings expertise in Vermont’s agritourism sector and marketing for farm and specialty food businesses. Jenn Colby of is an agritourism operator. Kelly Dolan of brings expertise of coordination across the food system. Andrew Graham of brings knowledge of direct markets including farmers markets. Tara Pereira of brings expertise in marketing and outreach for the agritourism sector. To expand the range of input from outside of ¶¶Òõ̽̽, we will share this project and seek feedback from the many organizations represented at the Farm to Plate Agritourism Community of Practice meeting in January 2023. Our transdisciplinary team features faculty and staff from across several departments at ¶¶Òõ̽̽, including Juan Alvez, Farryl Bertmann, Terence Bradshaw, Maire Folan, Mark Cannella, Yolanda Chen, Joshua Faulkner, Sabrina Greenwood, and Ike Leslie.

Sustainability metrics for upstream input value chains on small- and medium-scale farms in Vermont
PI: Travis Reynolds, Associate Professor of Community Development and Applied Economics
Co-PIs: Mario Machado, Postdoctoral Fellow, and Bryony O'Hara Sands, Postdoctoral Fellow

This project approaches the question of sustainability metrics with an explicit focus on farm input value chains, that is, where farmers source key agricultural inputs including seed, nutrients, energy, equipment, labor, knowledge, and finance. In agricultural and food systems, input value chains not only play key roles in the relative sustainability and resilience of food producers, but they also create vital secondary economies around the provision of locally-derived inputs. Developing metrics to measure the sustainability of both farm output supply chains and farm input supply chains can help provide important insights into improving the sustainability of food systems and community economies at multiple scales. This project brings together a multidisciplinary team from the Gund Institute for Environment, the departments of Community Development and Applied Economics (CDAE) and Plant and Soil Science (PSS), and ¶¶Òõ̽̽ Extension. It also works with community partners at the American Farmland Trust, the Vermont Maple Sugar Makers’ Association, and the . Our full team also consists of Eric von Wettberg, Gillian Galford, Mark Cannella, and Daniel Tobin.

Operationalizing Embeddedness for Sustainability in Local and Regional Food Systems
PI: Daniel Tobin, Assistant Professor of Community Development and Applied Economics
Co-PI: Amy Trubek, Professor and Chair of Nutrition and Food Sciences

This planning grant brings together a team of interdisciplinary researchers and practitioners within and beyond ¶¶Òõ̽̽ to develop a measure of social embeddedness in an effort to provide insight into social sustainability, a core yet (until recently) overlooked domain of sustainability. Embeddedness is the extent to which economic action is governed by non-economic structures and institutions. Using embeddedness as a theoretical anchor, this project seeks to capture the full range of values and motivations that underlie farmers’ economic actions and production decisions through the development a survey tool accounting for the dimensions of market self-interest (the degree to which individuals utilize market transactions to maximize efficiency and profit), non-market self-interest (the actions of individuals to accrue private benefit outside of the market), and relational (the actions of individuals that intend to generate benefit for both parties in a relationship (both human-human and human-nature). Bringing together social and natural science researchers with outside partners including , Northeast Organic Farming Association of Vermont (NOFA VT), , and , the purpose of this interdisciplinary effort is to assure policy and programmatic applicability alongside theoretical and methodological rigor. Our team includes Joe Ament, Ike Leslie, and Scott Merrill.

Using a systems perspective to build a sustainable food and agricultural system for Vermont
PI: Brian Beckage, Professor of Plant Biology and Computer Science
Co-PIs: Asim Zia, Professor of Community Development and Applied Economics, Deb Neher, Professor of Plant and Soil Sciences, and Joshua Faulkner, Research Assistant Professor of Extension

Our project will seek to develop a systems perspective to identify key sustainability indicators relevant to Vermont’s food system. The importance of approaching food systems sustainably from a systems perspective is essential as the food system includes a variety of inputs that cannot be simply analyzed with linear thinking and analysis. Our work will culminate in the building of a system dynamics (SD) representation of the Vermont food system, with all five sustainability indicators measured—environmental, economic, social, productivity, and human. Our work will allow the indicators and metrics to inform the SD model, which in turn will allow us to conduct computational experiments to identify pathways towards a more sustainable food system. We are excited to work with the to identify the key sustainability indicators for the regional food system. Our team including USDA Scientist Courtney Hammond-Wagner and ¶¶Òõ̽̽ professor Jon Erickson is excited to get underway.

Plant-based proteins as part of sustainable food systems in the Northeast
PI: Jane Kolodinsky, Professor and Chair of Community Development and Applied Economics
Co-PIs: Emily Belarmino, Assistant Professor of Nutrition and Food Sciences, David Conner, Professor of Community Development and Applied Economics, Heather Darby, Professor of Extension, Joshua Faulkner, Research Assistant Professor of Extension

Our team will utilize the existing ¶¶Òõ̽̽ Food System Research Center’s (FSRC) sustainability framework to develop a plan for collecting, assessing, and benchmarking sustainability data related to our topic, and identify how Vermont/NE production capacity of plant-based proteins aligns with the sustainable development of a Northeast food system. Five FSRC metrics are included: social, human, environment, economic, and production. This project will work with the Vermont Sustainable Jobs Fund (VSJF), who administers both Vermont Farm to Plate and the , towards complimentary shared research goals. VSJF works with hundreds of partner organizations to implement the state’s 10-year strategic plan, and regionally with New England State Food System Planners Partnership to strengthen and grow the New England regional food system. In our collaborative partnership, we will mobilize existing networks to develop assessment tools to use in data collection for measuring the localized production, distribution, consumption, and environmental impact of plant-based protein foods to meet dietary needs of the Vermont and Northeast population within planetary boundaries. Eric von Wettberg, Andrew May, Hannah Lacasse, and Teresa Mungazi are also valued members of our team.

Agroecology Principles to Assess Sustainability in Diversified Farms of Vermont and the Northeast
PI: V. Ernesto Méndez, Professor of Agroecology and Environmental Studies and Co-Director of the Agroecology Livelihoods Collaborative
Co-PIs: Martha Caswell, Co-Director of the Agroecology & Livelihoods Collaborative and Rebecca Madden, ¶¶Òõ̽̽ Extension Vegetable Nutrient Management Specialist

There is an inherent tension between approaching food systems analysis from a holistic perspective and trying to determine metrics that indicate whether we are making progress in the direction and to the level desired. Agroecology principles frameworks attempt to straddle this divide through a range of social, economic, political, and environmental themes (), including concepts such as: Diversity, Resilience, Synergies, Human and Social Values, Co-creation of Knowledge, and many others (). Agroecology principles have been used in several proposals to assess agroecology transitions in other contexts using existing tools developed by the , among others. We will work with community partners to determine key factors of food system sustainability, determine alignment with agroecological principles and propose processes that track change over time toward the desired outcomes. Current partners include and NOFA Vermont, and we intend to widen our circle of community input as the participatory research process unfolds. We are excited to have postdoctoral associate Catherine Horner on our team as well.