ABBIE Corse
Company: The Corse Farm Dairy
Title: Organic Dairy Farmer
Age: 36
Career Highlights: Within the last few weeks I’ve been able to meet Senator Leahy who has my deep and abiding respect for his career’s commitment to looking out for and forwarding the interests of farmers and for his calm and steady handling of some very tricky 
current politics. I will be forever grateful to the Flynn Center and my time there for so many entertaining highlights not the least of which was that skidding around in a 12 passenger van with no snow tires and a number 
of ballerinas resulted in no one’s injury. And, I’m most proud to be back on our farm, to continue the legacy of the generations before me of land stewardship and conservation, of high quality milk and lush perennial pasture.
Community Involvement: I currently serve on the board of NOFA-VT, VHCB’s Farm & Forest Viability Advisory Board, as an Act 250 Commission and Justice of the Peace.
What motivated you to live and work in Vermont? Farm and family; my heart is tied up in this land in a way I couldn’t escape. I wanted my kids to be deeply shaped by the hills and glades, by the seasons and how they each have a pattern and a feeling, a scent and tastes of their own—I wanted them to know from where good food comes.
Favorite part of your job? Nerd alert: I actually love working with my parents. In addition, the scenery’s not so bad. I love the freedom, the fresh air, the fact that I exist in a plane of contentment most days that wasn’t remotely available to me in previous jobs.
Most inspiring mentor and why: My grandmother Elsie taught me to play outside, to move about, the joy in clearing brush and playing in brooks, that a woman’s place did not have to be in the house. My grandmother Barbara taught me to love quality food, the joy in cooking and baking, that amazing, strong business women (she and my grandfather owned the A&W in Essex Junction many years ago) can come in the tiniest of packages.
What is the best career advice you have received? From my father: “It’s good for your constitution,” which, as a child made me nuts and as an adult makes me roll my eyes, but he’s not wrong.
Tell us something fun about yourself that few people know: I hated cows for the majority of my life.
What three words best describe you: Compassionate. Advocate. Humorous.
Favorite Vermont escape: A room at Hotel Vermont, dinner at the Farmhouse Tap & Grille, wandering the waterfront at dusk and hiking back up to meander Church Street under the lights.
Favorite downtime activity: Sitting on my porch listening to my kids play in the yard, echoes of my brother’s and I bouncing around as they giggle.
Favorite Super Hero: My mama. She’s my Wonder Woman.
Favorite Social Media and why: Instagram. It retains at least a bit of soul and conscience that I cannot find in any other platform.
Where do you see Person you would most like to share a Vermont beverage with: In a tragic reality, Enid Wonnacott is no longer with us, but if I could share a steaming cup of Pierce Brother’s Fogbuster with Organic Valley half and half and my uncle’s maple syrup with she and Senator Leahy—to hear them tell in person the stories of building out the legislation for the National Organic Program—that would be incredible.
If you had unlimited access to funds, which cause(s) would you support: What cause wouldn’t I support? I’ve been trying to save the world since I was four. Ask my dad— we heated our house with wood and I would tell him the Lorax was coming for him because he was killing the trees.
What one song is on your playlist that are you ashamed to tell your best friend: My husband and I share an iTunes account. Every time Mandolin Rain by Bruce Hornsby comes through the shuffle it makes me want to throw my phone.
Where do you see yourself professionally in the next 5-10 years? You’ll find me hiding in the same hills I frequent now.
What career goal(s) would you like to accomplish in the next 5-10 years? I would love to make more trips to DC—advocating for policy shifts to create a food system where environmental degradation is mitigated and farmers are compensated justly for their immense efforts. I desperately wish to see the paradigm shift and would love to know that in some small way I helped to make that happen. I hope to continue learning about silvopasture and the amazing resources of entire watershed ecosystems and how livestock can integrate into them beneficially. And by that time I’m hoping to be a certified Master Grazier with the Dairy Grazing Apprenticeship Program as my father is now.
