As hoped for, two of our Vermont farms just received $450,000 each from the Environmental Quality Inventive Program (EQIP). This marks the start of increased funding for digester projects originating from the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act. The IRA directs more than $40 billion to agriculture for projects with special focus on greenhouse gas mitigation.
It also demonstrates a broadening of the type of projects NRCS in Vermont assists. In prior years understandable concern about water quality, especially in the Lake Champlain watershed, resulted in dollars going to that type of project. Our position has always been that an Agricultural Digester can improve water quality by improving nutrient management while also reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
One of the first bodies of water discovered by the French in North America, Lake Champlain is of concern due to phosphorus runoff from Vermont’s many dairy farms.
NRCS also assisted one of these farms with their new manure pit in recent years.