"Vermont in Transition" Report

A report by researchers Vince Bolduc and Herb Kessel at Saint Michael's College, released this month by The Council on the Future of Vermont, examines current trends in Vermont's population and economy. Entitled "Vermont in Transition:Social, Economic and Environmental Trends", the report is available free online.  Although it takes up160 pages, the report is easy to scan because each chapter ends with a summary list of trends and readers can navigate directly to each chapter and its appendices from the table of contents. The report contains simple charts to make the content easier to absorb. Some of the information confirms what we already know - for example, there is a trend toward fewer but larger dairy farms. Other trends may not be as intuitive, such as the observation that small non-dairy farms are growing in number in Vermont. I am a close observer of the agricultural economy but the idea that the Vermont farm economy is diversifying as a long-term trend had escaped me.  Another interesting point in the report is that women in Vermont are faring well both economically and politically (see Chapter 4, Trend 11 and Chapter 14, Trend 1). You can take in the highlights in just a few minutes by reading the trends at the end of each chapter, then go back to study the points that interest you in more detail.