Jake Claro is the Director of the Vermont Farm to Plate Program, widely regarded as the most comprehensive state-wide food system plan in the United States, and the only one with full government engagement. It is approaching the end of its first decade, and gearing up for the next, with a growing global reputation.

The program takes a coordinated, long-term and collaborative approach with all parts of the food system - beyond a simple focus on agricultural output. Since 2010, and in the wake of the GFC, as so many communities and industries have struggled, the program has helped Vermont achieve enormous value – such as a rise in local food purchases of around 75%, 742 new businesses, over 6.5k new jobs in food-related industries, and a sharp reduction in the increasingly critical area of food insecurity. And that’s just the quantifiable stuff - all on the basis of improving the health of people and country.

Jake himself is a recipient of the Rachel Carson award at the Bard Centre for Environmental Policy, sits on a multitude of boards, and shares the story here of his instructive beginnings in this work.

Jake will be a special guest at the Food for Thought Festival in Albany, Western Australia, between the 19th and 23rd of March 2020. For that and other possible dates around Australia, stay tuned to our partners supporting the production of this episode - Community Food Events, the Food for Thought Festival, Sustain: the Australian Food Network, Commonland, and the Centre for Social Impact at UWA.

Title slide: Jake Claro, Farm to Plate Director at the Vermont Sustainable Jobs Fund provides an update on the next 10 years of Vermont Farm to Plate, at the recent annual gathering (supplied).

Music:
Food, by Land of Milk & Honey.

Concluding tune by Jeremiah Johnson.

Due to licencing restrictions, our guest’s nominated music can only be played on radio or similarly licenced broadcasts of this episode.

Find more:
Vermont Farm to Plate Program.

Vermont Sustainable Jobs Fund.

Food for Thought Festival.

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