CRVT's Annual Samuel Hand Lecture

The 2026 Samuel Hand Lecture will feature a talk from former Vermont Secretary of Agriculture Roger Allbee drawing on the research for his 2025 book, Turning the Soil: 250 Years of Vermont Agriculture. Hearty refreshments to follow.

Turning the Soil: 250 Years of Vermont Agriculture by Roger Allbee traces Vermont’s farming history from before statehood to the present, emphasizing that the only constant has been change. Allbee grew up on his family’s hillside dairy farm in the Vermont town his ancestors settled, where they have farmed continuously since 1794; though not a farmer by trade, that deep roots and his later policy roles (Vermont Secretary of Agriculture; USDA Farm Service Agency executive director) shape the book’s perspective.

The book moves through key turning points—early mixed farming, the 19th‑century sheep boom and bust, the rise of dairy and maple, and the impact of westward expansion, technology, policy, and markets—to show how farmers repeatedly reinvented their enterprises. Blending stories of individual farmers and leaders with broader historical forces, it argues that these cycles of adaptation are Vermont’s agricultural heritage and a roadmap for the future.