Vermont

Vermont has been conducting Local Food Counts since 2011, with the most recent taking place in 2020. Vermont’s count has utilized the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Consumer Expenditure Series to estimate total in-state food expenditures. NEFNE’s local food counts for the other New England states utilizes the USDA’s Food Expenditure Series, which prior to 2023 was unavailable at the state level. Utilizing the State Food Expenditure Series increases the estimate for total food purchases within Vermont, and therefore changes the estimated percentage of local food purchasing in the state.  In order to include Vermont’s data for our regional percentage, our Research team used the local food sales data from Vermont’s 2020, applied the total food expenditures from the USDA series for 2020 to recalculate the local percentage of the total, and then held that percentage constant and adjusted it to the 2022 USDA food expenditure data. As a result, the Vermont calculations and percentages for total and local food expenditures in this reporting reflect a 2022 estimate and do not match what is reflected in Farm to Plate’s Data Dashboard from 2020.