Farm or facility? A scrap over waste definition
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worker rakes a pile of compost at Vermont Compost in Montpelier as chickens hunt for food in the pile. |
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By Louis Porter Vermont Press Bureau - Published: September 28, 2007
MONTPELIER – In a state which does all it can to encourage and protect the agricultural landscape and workforce, it can matter a lot who is called a farmer. But that isn't always as easy a call as it might seem.
For instance, is the growing business of making compost from organic waste – from food scraps to manure and even animal carcasses in some cases – farming? Or is it something else?
Karl Hammer raises 1,200 chickens on the upper reaches of the Main Street in the smallest state capital in the country. Those chickens do a lot of the work of turning such "residuals" (don't call some-thing so useful and valuable "waste" with Hammer around) into compost and eggs, both of which he sells. But two state agencies seem to be somewhat at odds over whether the operation is farming or solid waste management. It matters because solid waste facilities come under the jurisdiction of Act 250, the state's rigorous environmental and land use law. But farms are, by and large, exempt from those rules and from local zoning.
The operation on Main Street is a farm, according to Hammer and the Agency of Agriculture. But the Agency of Natural Resources – and some neighbors – believe an argument could be made that the place is actually an organic waste processing center and therefore subject to Act 250 regulation. Other composting facilities around the state are regulated under Act 250.
The local district environmental commission under Act 250 will likely make the ultimate call in Hammer's case. The matter came up because of several complaints made by neighbors – some anonymous – against Hammer's Vermont Compost Co. to the Agency of Natural Resources.
"We intend to prove that our composting is agricultural," Hammer said Thursday. Most of the raw material for his compost comes from Fairmont Farm, a large dairy operation. Some also comes from food waste and compost bins.
His operation is farming, according to a legal opinion offered to the city of Montpelier for zoning purposes by Michael Duane, an attorney who works with the Agency of Agriculture Food and Markets. The agency hasn't been asked – yet – to make a similar determination for the pending Act 250 case, but the matters are similar.
"Those are similar questions. They are not exactly the same question," Duane said.
Warren Coleman, an attorney for ANR, said it is the commission's role, not the agency's, to make the final ruling. But ANR did look into the complaints, which would have automatically been turned over to the Agency of Agriculture if ANR officials had believed Vermont Compost was a farm.
The Agency of Natural Resources has devoted a fair amount of work to trying to encourage composting operations. "The agency fully recognizes the environmental benefits of composting facilities and has an interest in their success, however these facilities must be able to meet the necessary standards to ensure protection of human health and the environment," according to a recent ANR enforcement letter in a different composting case. And, Hammer points out, his first flock of chickens was actually purchased with a grant from ANR.
The definition of a farm depends in part on how much of the product the operation sells is produced on-site – with 51 percent as the threshold.
That's fairly easy to tell when you are raising apples, for instance, Hammer said.
"In the case of molecules in a bag of compost it gets a little bit more challenging," he said. That is because his chickens don't just eat food scraps or spilled grain in animal manure or bedding. They also forage for things that are growing during the composting process, including fungus.
"It makes an awful lot of sense since there is an awful lot of it around," he said. After all in the right circumstances, he added, "I eat fungus, when I get the chance."
The delineation between farming and waste processing is not easy to make. Burlington's Intervale Center has been whacked by the state's environmental agency for not abiding by rules regulating the operation of its composting facility. A ruling earlier this year by the environmental commission in Chittenden County established that the Intervale's compost operation – separate from the vegetable farms on the site – is a commercial enterprise not a farm.
Clearly more than 51 percent of the material that goes into the Intervale's compost is from outside the site, said Kit Perkins, the Intervale's Executive Director.
The 22,000 tons of waste that go into the composting operation annually come from, in order of volume, waste from horse manure and bedding, ice cream making, leaves and yard clean-up, cheese making and cow manure.
Whatever rules govern composting should make it possible to continue such enterprises, she said.
"The issue of whether or not composting constitutes farming has come up a couple times in the past," Duane said.
Perhaps, said Rep. David Zuckerman, a Progressive who farms in the Intervale and heads the House Agriculture Committee, lawmakers should consider whether to clarify whether composting operations are farms or not.
"That is something that needs further work," he said. "If you look at what these composting operations are dealing with it is agricultural waste (and) they are producing a product that is used for agricultural purposes."
If there is ambiguity in the regulation "the administration would be willing to take a look at that", said Jason Gibbs, a spokesman for Gov. James Douglas.
It is also important, Hammer said, not to open the doors to an unregulated processor of organic waste which might – however unlikely – truck in the material from all over. He maintains a "good chain of custody" over the material he composts so he can trace any problems back to their source, Hammer said.
"That is one of the reasons farms are protected from certain types of nuisance complaints, because we realize they are necessary," he said.
And there is the side benefit of operations such as his that produce eggs without buying – and trucking – chicken feed, Hammer said.
"You don't need teeth to eat eggs, they keep without refrigeration and you can produce them all year around," he said. "They are a very important brick in the food security wall."
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