RURAL VERMONT OPEN BARN VICTORY PARTY!
A Celebration at Rogers Farmstead in Berlin on June 25th

Exciting changes to the raw milk law mean opportunities and access are on the rise. Let’s celebrate! Join the Rogers family and Rural Vermont for an evening on the farm, Thursday June 25th, 6-8 pm at Rogers Farmstead, 934 Rowell Hill Road in Berlin. This rain-or-shine event is free to the public and sponsored by Rural Vermont partner member Vermont Compost Company.

The Rogers family will be serving up their deliciously creamy raw milk alongside cookies they’ll make with their very own oats and flour. Elmore Mountain Bread will donate their Honey Oat & Vermont Redeemer breads, which are also made with Rogers Farmstead’s products. Live music will set the tone for an upbeat evening, and farmer Nate Rogers will be leading farm tours and field walks for those who want to see the cows grazing and the wheat flowering.

And that’s not all! Rural Vermont farmer members, including host farmer Nate Rogers and neighboring farmer Peter Burmeister of Burelli Farm, will share personal stories that provide a glimpse into their worlds on the farm and the values that guide their farming practices, as well as real-life examples of how public policy can help or hinder small-scale producers and their customers.

Nate’s story will focus on the 2015 legislative session which was pretty wild, and yet thanks to grassroots pressure, yielded some meaningful improvements to the raw milk law in the final days of the session. These changes went into effect on May 28th and include more reasonable animal health and milk testing protocols, the elimination of the farm visit for customers picking up milk at the farmers’ market, and an increase in the sales cap limit.

In his story, Peter will talk about his decision to build an inspected poultry processing facility, as well as a new poultry bill that would build upon the 2007 “Chicken Bill” by providing additional opportunities for small producers and increased access and options for customers.

For more info, call Rural Vermont at (802) 223-7222 or visit www.ruralvermont.org.

Since 1985, Rural Vermont has been amplifying the voices of farmers and advocating for a fair food system. Through education, organizing, and advocacy, we work to create scale-appropriate, commonsense public policy that helps rather than hurts our family farms and preserves Vermont’s cultural heritage of neighbors feeding neighbors. Share this vision? Stay informed and get active by signing up for Rural Vermont’s mailing list. Better yet, build our people power and join Rural Vermont today!