Heather Surprenant, a Barnard resident and former Windsor-4 House Representative, says she left state government in September to pursue a deeper investment and commitment to the farmland she fell in love with long ago.
“I’ll start by saying that I have been farming for thirteen years,” Surprenant told the Standard. “That is where my career, passion, and area of expertise have lied, and farming will be my guiding focus moving forward.”
“I have been in the legislature for the past five years, serving in the Agriculture Committee. More recently, in the past three years, I have served in the vice chair position. I felt deeply honored to have been so connected to Vermont agriculture and to have been able to have a platform on more of a statewide level to enact some of that policy and to integrate some of my personal with the professional. This experience has been deeply valuable and humbling. The decision to step away was not made lightly.”
Surprenant went on, “There comes a time of deep recognition and reflection in yourself — a questioning of, ‘Do I feel like my energies and efforts are being put to best use in this position and are they in alignment with the ways in which I want to engage with my community?’ In spite of being in a prominent position on the Agriculture Committee, and in spite of having a position of leadership within the Democratic Party doing their internal communications, I think I still was feeling like I was falling short in the specific advocacy around farming that brought me into the legislature in the first place.”
“My decision to step away is really rooted in the fact that it has proven difficult for me, in the past five years, to continually try to convince a 150-member body why small-scale sustainable agriculture should continually be invested in. I don’t want to be a performative politician and only celebrate farmers when it’s advantageous for a campaign, but rather actually advocate for farmers in a considered, fiscal manner. I am someone who believes farming touches on every aspect of social justice. From land access to food access to immigration and workforce development, farming holds traditional heritage in our state, and I sadly felt alone in that work at the state level,” Surprenant said.
Now, Surprenant hopes to return to her roots. Growing up in Randolph, Surprenant was exposed to farmland, but she found her passion for agriculture after college. She told the Standard, “I went to college at Smith for politics, and then moved to San Francisco to pursue human rights law. I ended up working at a tech firm doing patent law, and it was one of the most soul-sucking experiences. I realized this lifestyle, this work, was not touching upon any of my dreams. So, I quit at twenty-two and started working at a farm in Half Moon Bay, just south of the city. We grew organic vegetables, had a 350-member CSA (community supported agriculture), and delivered to the greater San Francisco area. I fell in love with working on the land. I fell in love with being outside and moving my body. I fell in love with the idea that I could talk about everything that was important to me. I could engage with social justice issues, immigration rights, housing and land access, climate justice, feeding people, and food deserts.”
Even though politics was not the right place for Surprenant to feel fulfilled and to flourish, she looks back fondly and humbly on the work she was able to achieve at the state level. Surprenant told the Standard, “When I look back, it is easy to point to specific policy I feel proud to have worked on. During my second term, I co-sponsored a bill with the former representative of Williamstown, Rodney Graham. He was a Republican on the Agriculture Committee. He was an old-school Vermonter, a deep conservative and long-time farmer. I was a progressive young first-generation Vermonter, and we came together to co-author a bill that would give specific financial preference to small farmers who were wanting to diversify their farming operations. This piece of legislation was specifically important because a lot of the funding through the state is allocated to big farms. It goes to farms who can provide a financial match for those grants, and it is suffocating the small farms who are desperately in need of that funding to maintain and sustain themselves. This bill was a momentous situation where two people on opposite ends of the political spectrum agreed that small farms are the heart of Vermont agriculture and deserve to be saved and prioritized. It was a poignant collaboration that passed unanimously on the floor of the House. Every farm awarded this grant receives $250k, and it has become one of the highest in-demand grants across the state.”
While Surprenant is saddened that, with her resignation, these small farms will likely lose one of their most zealous advocates, she is confident she can find a place to still help farmers — with boots on the ground and hands in the soil.
Surprenant has been succeeded by Michael Hoyt as the new Windsor-4 Representative.
For more on this, please see our Dec. 18 edition of the Vermont Standard.
