Farm Fresh Milk

The Unpasteurized (Raw) Milk bill was passed and enacted into law on July 1, 2009. This progressive legislation legitimizes raw milk, acknowledges that the locally-based food system requires different rules than those established for industrial food, and recognizes that raw milk sales are an incredible economic opportunity for farmers and that there is a growing and significant demand among consumers. It creates a tiered regulatory system that is defined by the quantity of milk being sold. Tier 1 producers can sell up to 50 quarts (12 1/2 gallons) per day from the farm, and Tier 2 producers can sell up to 40 gallons per day between on-farm sales and home delivery to prepaid customers. It establishes a set of reasonable and basic standards that ALL raw milk producers must follow, thereby ensuring a clean and safe raw milk supply. A few examples: animals must be healthy, milking equipment must be cleaned and sanitized, milk must be cooled quickly, and farmers must maintain a daily transaction record. Those operating as Tier 2 producers must follow some additional requirements, including registration with and inspection by the VT Agency of Agriculture and regular milk testing. Regardless of the total quantity of milk being sold, any farmer can operate as a Tier 2 producer as long as s/he is following the Tier 2 requirements - this may be of interest to farmers who want to deliver smaller quantities of milk.

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Get Involved

If you are interested in getting involved in spreading the word about the benefits of farm fresh milk and the belief that farm fresh milk would contribute to thriving farms and a healthy community, please email us at shelby@ruralvermont.org.

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History

Rural Vermont has been working with a statewide network of farmers and customers to make it easier to buy and sell raw milk in Vermont since 2005. In 2007, Rural Vermont conducted surveys of dozens of raw milk farmers all over the state, and used the information to draft the Farm Fresh Milk Restoration Act of 2008, which called for farmers to be able to sell unlimited raw milk from their farms, deliver pre-purchased milk, and advertise their raw milk. While much testimony (much of it great testimony from farmers and medical professionals in support of the bill) was heard, the bill ran out of time, and was changed to double the daily limit of raw milk that could be sold off of the farm (from 25 to 50 quarts). In the process of considering the bill, it was found that the advertising of raw milk was technically legal, and since then farmers have been allowed to advertise!

In 2009, Rural Vermont helped to pass H.125, a bill that creates a tiered system for raw milk dairies, requiring basic standards to be met by all farmers, and greater standards be met by those selling between 50 quarts and 40 gallons a day and/or delivering their milk.

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Current Materials

There are more materials, including recordings of testimony, in the sidebar to the right, marked "Farm Fresh Milk Materials".

Download our RAW MILK SELLERS' GUIDE, a comprehensive list of ways to meet the requirements of the new law (.pdf, 2.5 Mb). This is still being updated, so check back periodically. The most recent update was December 2009.

Also, download our template for a customer contact list,
our template for labels,
and our template for transaction records.

A sheet with information for consumers buying, or looking to buy, farm fresh milk, with updates from the 2009 bill (.pdf format).

The 2009 bill, H. 125, as signed into law by the Governor

View Materials Distributed at the July 2009 Raw Milk Producer Workshops on the VPN Website here.

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Links

The Weston A. Price Foundation, proponents of raw milk

Visit the website for Dairy Bacterial Testing, LLC - a farm fresh milk/product testing company in VT that is run by a Rural Vermont member

Directory of Vermont Raw Milk producers, hosted by realmilk.com