GREENSBORO – In 1998, brothers Mateo and Andy Kehler bought a piece of land in the Northeast Kingdom town of Greensboro that would become home to Jasper Hill Farm. Within a few years, the brothers were producing award-winning cheeses and had created an iconic Vermont brand. Among the numerous accolades received by Jasper Hill are Best American Cheese from the World Cheese Awards, gold medals from the International Cheese Awards and Best of Show from the American Cheese Society.
photo by David Goodman, VTDigger
Today, Jasper Hill, the largest employer in Greensboro with 85 employees, is confronting headwinds. Its lucrative Canadian markets have completely dried up. Canadians are boycotting American-made products in response to President Trump’s tariffs and his threats to make Canada the 51st state. And Vermont’s housing crisis is making it extremely difficult for Jasper Hill’s employees to live and for the company to grow.
The local housing crunch is so severe that Jasper Hill has bought 11 properties and is subsidizing rent so its employees can afford to live.
“The folks that are living in our houses can’t find anywhere to live. There’s nothing to buy and there’s nothing to rent,” said Kehler.
But despite the town’s dire need for moderately priced housing, Greensboro residents recently voted down a plan to redevelop its derelict and underused town hall into affordable housing. As VTDigger has reported, the plan was for the nonprofit Northeast Kingdom housing agency Rural Edge to invest $10 million in rehabilitating the town hall and create up to 20 units of affordable housing.
Greensboro, with about 800 year-round residents, is one of the wealthiest communities in Vermont. It has the highest rate of second home ownership in the state. In 2019, Greensboro’s town plan and a housing needs assessment detailed Greensboro’s “great need” for moderately-priced housing.
Jasper Hill Farm co-founder Mateo Kehler described his neighbors’ rejection of the affordable housing plan as “soul crushing.”
Kehler described what has happened to his Canadian sales. “We were expecting to sell nearly $1 million worth of cheese to Canada and Montreal, which is our closest metropolitan market and is the best cheese market in North America.”
“It went from going gangbusters to a zippo in just a few, the span of a month,” he said.
“I don’t think you can overstate the consequences for small businesses on the border here,” he said of the shutdown of Canadian business. “It’s been a disaster.”
Kehler said that he has received some blow-back as a result of his vocal advocacy for affordable housing. “Everybody loves Jasper Hill until we start talking about housing. And everybody wants housing in theory, but almost nobody here wants housing in practice.”
“Families with children . . . are the way that communities replicate themselves,” said Kehler, “and Greensboro has lost its capacity to replicate itself.” He said that Greensboro has erected a metaphorical gate that keeps out young people.
Jasper Hill Farm is “going to be fine, but . . . Greensboro is not going to be fine,” he continued. The housing crisis “is not existential for us but it probably is existential for the nursing home, and it is absolutely existential for the school, and it’s going to be a huge problem for the town when there’s nobody to volunteer for the fire department” and other town organizations.
Kehler is now advocating for affordable housing on a statewide level. He said that Vermont needs a new model of multi-unit housing.
“The days of single family homes spread out and in the middle of nowhere on the back end of dirt roads is basically over,” he asserted.
