Are you interested in increasing your or your community’s sustainability, climate resilience, and food access? Rabbit meat is among the most sustainable proteins you can consume, using far less resources and definitely less work than most other livestock. And, yes, it really does taste like chicken... buttery, lean chicken!

Join Rural Vermont and Giant Journey Farm in Newfane on Saturday, October 28th from 10:00-1:00 to learn about raising and processing the other other white meat! The workshop will be led by farm owners Seren and Rick on their quirky 2 acre regenerative farm where they teach folks about farming while they grow year-round produce, and raise poultry, rabbits, and goats. 

Register Here…

In response to the devastating impacts caused by the severe flooding that occurred this week, we aim to provide support to our affected farming and rural communities. We are compiling a comprehensive list of the currently available resources. This list will be regularly updated to include any additional resources that become accessible and known in the coming days. Together, let us help rebuild and restore the affected areas, as we remain committed to supporting our farming and rural communities throughout this challenging period.

Read More Here…

Rural Vermont will be at Summervale on Thursday, August 24th! Stop by and say hi!

Summervale is a weekly festival presented by the Intervale Center that celebrates community, local food and live music. This free public event takes place at the Intervale, a unique community resource for agriculture, conservation, and recreation located in Burlington’s Old North End.

Read More Here…

This final update (after the one-day veto override session on June 20th of the 2023 legislative session) aims to go beyond status updates on the Governor's vetoes but summarizes key takeaways from all bills passed by the General Assembly that we flag as relevant to agrarian communities. For the first time ever, we are also providing an audio recording of the whole thing so that you can listen in while tending to other stuff on and off the farm as well.

***NEW!!***
Listen while you work!
Find Rural Vermont’s recap summary as an audio recording by clicking on the Read More Here… link below!

Read More Here…

Please join us for a two-part educational workshop on the raising, slaughtering, and processing of meat chickens guided by Suzanne Long, Tim Sanford, and Elizabeth Roma. Part I of the workshop will begin in the morning and cover the raising of healthy, pastured birds and slaughter techniques at Luna Bleu Farm. Part II will begin in the afternoon and cover the cutting/processing of meat birds at Roma’s Butchery. This workshop includes two certified organic meat birds raised at Luna Bleu Farm- each participant will use their own birds for the cutting/processing practice in the 2nd half of the workshop.

Sponsored by South Royalton Market and Green Mountain Feeds.

Read More Here…

Rural Vermont's Vice Chair Nour El-Naboulsi says, "Rural Vermont remains fearless in the face of injustice" and encourages your support of our dogged efforts to amplify the agrarian community and build an equitable farm and food web.

Donate here, see our Mid-Year Progress Report here, and read Nour's full appeal for your support here!

During this 2-part workshop at Fledgling Farmstead in Tunbridge, participants will learn how to humanely slaughter a lamb in the first half of the workshop and process a lamb in the second half of the workshop. Participants can choose to attend Part 1 or the full day.

This workshop will be guided by Mary Lake. Mary Lake is a professional itinerant slaughterer, butcher and sheep shearer who lives in Tunbridge. Mary learned the craft of slaughter through several years of full-time work with the Royal Butcher in Randolph, which is a USDA inspected slaughter facility. Her expertise and engagement through testimony was essential for the improvements to the On-Farm Slaughter law.

At the slaughter workshop, Caroline Gordon, Rural Vermont’s Legislative Director, will present the updates on on-farm slaughter regulation and give room for questions and discussion throughout the event.

Read more here…

If you are an ally or supporter of On-Farm Slaughter, we need you now!

For a very small amount of your time (3 minutes), this a HUGE opportunity to step up your support for clarifying language to the Federal Meat Inspection Act’s personal-use-exemption to confirm on-farm slaughter is legal! Please help our US legislators understand they should clarify On-Farm Slaughter is legal and make it a priority for the 2023 Farm Bill.

The House Agriculture Committee of the U.S. Congress is where the farm bill starts and they have created a portal for direct stakeholder feedback! You will find the feedback portal by clicking the link below.

Read More Here…

There is a strong push from the legislature to end the legislative session this week, and there are a number of bills which we are monitoring, testifying on, submitting language for, and mobilizing around as the session comes to a close.  This is a time when your voice can have a potentially significant influence on the outcomes of these bills, and issues such as childcare, funding for agricultural grants and programs in the budget (e.g. Working Lands Enterprise Fund, Land Access and Opportunity Board, Small Farm Diversification and Resilience, etc.), agricultural access and social equity in cannabis, and more. This is also a time when we are assessing the likelihood of vetoes from the Governor’s Office - and in the case of Universal School Meals, which has just passed the House and Senate and is moving to the Governor’s desk, this is a time to contact his office urging him to support this bill.  In the Vermont legislature, it remains true that the voices of a relatively small number of constituents reaching out are able to at times make a critical difference.

Read More Here…

This year's legislative session is nearing completion with the second week of May marking the current target to adjourn. In this week's update we focus on bills at the intersection to agriculture that we haven’t written about much before, namely the childcare and paid leave bill. We also included a heads up about more new legislation that got some initial attention in preview to the 2024 session. Most importantly there’s a few updates that come with a last minute action alert. Stay tuned for the full end-of-session update with a comprehensive overview coming up soon!

Read More Here….

After crossover, the agency of agriculture (VAAFM) makes promising attempts to double budget appropriations of the House to the full $14M as proposed by the Governor. The House Ag committee moved the Right to Repair bill to the House Committee on Commerce and Economic Development with a chance to still pass this biennium - if not this session. The House also started to discuss new initiatives proposed by members of the ag committee, including H.274 related to ag and nutrition education and H. 368 related to supporting new, veteran and disadvantaged farmers. On the Senate side we’re excited to see potential progress on cannabis related to treating outdoor cultivation in the same manner as agriculture, and integrating Social Equity programs and funding. Read More Here…

Please join us for an inaugural two-part educational workshop on the raising, slaughtering, and processing of meat chickens guided by Suzanne Long, Tim Sanford, and Elizabeth Roma. Part I of the workshop will begin in the morning and cover the raising of healthy, pastured birds and slaughter techniques at Luna Bleu Farm. Part II will begin in the afternoon and cover the cutting/processing of meat birds at Roma’s Butchery. This workshop includes two certified organic meat birds raised at Luna Bleu Farm- each participant will use their own birds for the cutting/processing practice in the 2nd half of the workshop.

To Read More About this Workshop or to Register, go HERE….

Big news! The “miscellaneous cannabis bill” (H.270) is in the VT Senate, and there is a rare opportunity to make some real progress towards a cannabis economy which is racially just, economically equitable, and agriculturally accessible in VT!  TAKE ACTION THIS WEEK!

Read More Here to Take Action!

Urge Congress to Add Clarifying Language in the Federal Meat Inspection Act for On-Farm Slaughter to their Priorities for the Farm Bill! Support the proposal to protect the practice of slaughtering livestock on the farms where they were raised and clarify the Federal Meat Inspection Act’s “personal-use exemption." Currently, farmers selling livestock for on-farm slaughter, itinerant (traveling) slaughterers, and custom processors all rely on guidance provided by the USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS), which bases the personal use exemption on ownership. USDA FSIS guidance, however, is vulnerable to change. 

To Learn More and Take Action…

The Basic Needs of Farms, Small Businesses, Medical Patients, and Communities Disproportionately Impacted by the Criminalization of Cannabis are not being Addressed by the VT Legislature or Cannabis Control Board.

The legislature has the ability to take action right now to address clear and present inequities and negative impacts occurring in the cannabis marketplace for farmers and others.  Tell policymakers on the Senate Committee on Economic Development, Housing and General Affairs that they need to take action this session on our coalition’s priorities by including them in H.270 and by inviting impacted community members and the member-based advocacy organizations in our coalition into the committee to represent themselves and their needs.  We currently have a regulated market in which producers of the crop have no direct market access to the user of the product, in which farmers and outdoor producers face substantial barriers to participating in the market (from municipal regulation and current use, to federal law related to land trusts and programs like NRCS), and in which there is no tax revenue from this economy going towards addressing the impacts of criminalization and disproportionate enforcement in our communities (among other things).

There is harm actively occurring that can be stopped with statutory change.  Many farms and small businesses will lose their investments, livelihoods, and ability to operate this year without an improvement and extension of the exemptions provided to Tier 1 Outdoor Cultivators in Act 158 to all Tiers and types of Outdoor Cultivation license. These exemptions allow this scale of cultivation to be treated in the same manner as farming when it comes to development, municipal regulation, taxation and current use status.  Right now, there are new and existing operations which are dealing with unreasonable and potentially illegal restrictions and processes being enacted at the municipal level which will make it not feasible for them to operate and the Cannabis Control Board has said it is powerless to provide them legal support or advice.    

Contact Graham@ruralvermont.org for more information.

The final Small Farm Action Day of the 2023 legislative session will be an opportunity to bring forward issues that otherwise fall under the radar because they don’t affect a majority but may represent a small portion of the farming community - maybe even only your farm! What regulations are in the way of the success of your farm business? Tell legislators now or learn during our advocacy training how to best address your issue with policy makers - be the change! Registration Required.

To read more or register….

Are you interested in raising a highly sustainable (and very tasty!) protein on your farm, homestead, or backyard? Meat rabbits require less land, less water, and less energy to grow than most other livestock. 

They convert food and water into edible meat 1.4 times more efficiently than pigs and 4 times more efficiently than sheep and cattle....making them both highly efficient and sustainable and did we mention...delicious?

Please join Rural Vermont and Eliza Boudreau at SunStone Orchard and Rabbitry on Saturday, May 13th from 10:00am - Noon for a rabbit butchery workshop. 

Click here to learn more about this workshop or to register…

Youth, Land Access & Housing
Farming shouldn’t be this hard! While farming itself isn’t rocket science, getting into it is all too often a question of intergenerational wealth, privilege and capital, that must change! Share your devotion and struggle with lawmakers, what it takes to afford farming, to transition or revitalize farms, to repurpose vacation homes into farms, to evolve collective models and to feed local communities. Register now, show up or speak to your ideas - be the change! 

Read More Here….

Tune in to our latest Legislative Update to read about Rural Vermont’s current and ongoing legislative and policy initiatives…this month’s update includes highlights on: on-farm slaughter, cannabis, healthcare, Right to Farm, and much more!

Read On Here….

Tune in to our latest Legislative Update to read about Rural Vermont’s current and ongoing legislative and policy initiatives…this month’s update includes highlights on: on-farm slaughter, cannabis, healthcare, Right to Farm, and much more!

Read On Here….