Milk Group Resources

Information about H.218, the bill that would expand community sales of raw milk 

•  Transcription of testimony on H.218 from 2.24.21

  • Witnesses:

    • E.B. Flory, Dairy Section Chief, Agency of Agriculture, Food and Markets

    • Dr. Kent Henderson, Northwest Veterinary Associates, Vermont Veterinary Medical Association

    • Elisabeth Wirsing, Senior Environmental Health Program Manager, Department of Health

    • Natalie Kwit, State Public Health Veterinarian, Department of Health

    • Rich Larson, Owner, Larson Farm and Creamery

    • Kylie Cook, Owner, Sunday Bell Farm

    • Mollie Wills, Rural Vermont - Read Rural Vermont’s written testimony

    • Michael O’Grady, Legislative Council 

• Link to House Ag Cmte Youtube Livestream

  • Link to video of 2.24.21 testimony on H.218 (witness go in order of the above list) 

• H.218 as introduced

• 2021-2022 House and Senate Ag Cmte Members and the towns and districts they represent 

Other Resources:

• Breakdown of raw milk regulations state-by-state 

• Food Safety issues and supportive research on raw milk

Crowd-Sourced Technical Assistance for raw milk producers:

We’re working on a crowd-sourced Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) document for raw dairy producers that would include anonymous "farm case studies" where highly detailed SOPs are outlined for various types and scales of farms. For this project to be successful, we need farms who are willing to work with Rural Vermont to document their SOPs in the spirit of increasing the quality of milk production for everyone. All identifying information would be removed from the farm SOPs and Rural Vermont would be the interface with the Agency. If you are interested in contributing to this project, please contact mollie@ruralvermont.org

Support around milk sample delivery:

We are working with Dairy One to discuss utilizing their VT pickup locations for milk sample drop off to their FDA-accredited lab. They estimate it would cost a maximum of $65/month to pick up samples and provide required bi-monthly testing services to Vermont producers. You can see a map and list of their pickup sites here. (make sure to select VT on the left, and ‘list view’ at the top). If you are interested in learning more about this service, please contact mollie@ruralvermont.org with the pick up site(s) you’re interested in utilizing. Please note that not all pickup sites are suitable for this service.