Please note that the previously scheduled 6/14/26 Work Brigade at Shepherd Moon Farm in Corinth has been postponed. We will provide the updated information as soon as possible. Thank you for your understanding!
Welcome to the 2026 End-of-Session Recap—your guide to the biggest wins, toughest challenges, and most memorable moments from a whirlwind legislative session. We'll break down what happened with H.941 and the municipal exemption, the evolving S.278 Cannabis Bill, and the surprising and disappointing turn of S.60, the Farm Security Special Fund, and so much more. Thanks for tuning in!
Read the 2026 End of Session Recap HERE…
Listen to the 2026 End of Session Recap HERE…
It was a long and cold winter, and how sweet it is to see the trees leafing out, the plants growing, the cows grazing, and the summer season getting underway. It’s GO time for the farmers and broader agrarian community that Rural Vermont aims to uplift and serve. And it’s GO time for Rural Vermont to launch our summer fundraising appeal that makes this work possible!
Your support today fuels Rural Vermont’s steady, grounded, and impactful work to grow relationships and cultivate community around shared values of equity and justice. This foundation builds power for – and moves us closer to – a future that feeds our soils, farmers, and neighbors.
Signed into law earlier this month, NH House Bill 1205, is prohibiting state and county owned lands from participating in carbon sequestration projects! Vermont is not regulating carbon markets and does not have any regulatory protections that prevent NGOs like the Nature Conservancy to enrich themselves through Vermont based Carbon Programs that create biodiversity credits from computer models to greenwash (out of state) industrial pollution.
On Friday, May 22, VTDigger published an op-ed by our Legislative Director, Caroline Sherman-Gordon: “Vermont’s new farming legislation leaves small livestock operations vulnerable.” In her commentary, Caroline explains the context behind H.941 and highlights our concerns about rolling back protections for small homesteaders. She also raises important questions about how these changes could weaken food security and local self-reliance, especially as Vermont pursues aggressive conservation goals and new food security mandates.
In partnership with UVM Extension 4-H, Rural Vermont, the People's Agroecology School, and Vermont Woodlands Association, join us for a hands-on tractor safety day. Youth 14 and up may participate in this training and are eligible to earn their certification under the National Safe Tractor and Machinery Operation Program (caregivers will need to sign a waiver for their participation). An inclusive space, but designed for women and youth.
The day will include small group, hands-on instruction on tractor safety, including backing up, understanding the clutch, PTO safety, center of gravity considerations, and more. We'll stop to eat lunch and socialize together. Lunch will be made by VYCC and provided by Rural Vermont. Space is limited, registration required.
Before this week's rainy spring days slip away and we turn to welcome the first sunny days of summer, we hope you’ll embrace a bit of extra indoor time and browse our 2025 Impact Report, a snapshot marking the close of our fortieth year together. We traveled all over the state, reconnected with familiar faces and leaders from years gone by, and lifted the new voices who will shape the future. We hope you enjoy flipping through this little keepsake from our fortieth year—reminding us where we started, who we are, and the exciting places we’re headed to next.
Rural Vermont is working with representatives from NOFA-VT, the Vermont Farm Bureau, Agri-Mark, Cabot, the Vermont Dairy Producers Alliance, the Vermont Association of Conservation Districts, the Connecticut River Watershed Farmers Alliance, Farm to Plate, and the Land Access and Opportunity Board in an attempt to restore the municipal exemption for farming this legislative session. As of the 2025 Vermont Supreme Court decision, municipalities can now regulate farms (outside of water quality) and decide where farming is allowed.
Two bills address this issue, H.941 and S.323. Our coalition is still working towards a compromise between the two versions of the bill that protects farmers, respects communities, safeguards water quality, and builds a stronger, more resilient food system for Vermont’s future. One key issue is that protections for farms under 1 acre — and especially certain types of agriculture—are not guaranteed yet.
There’s been a lot of debate around small-scale livestock, and while that’s being pushed to a study committee, we want to make sure that activities like raising rabbits, beekeeping, and mushroom cultivation are clearly protected from local zoning restrictions. That’s why your voice is really important right now- we are looking for testimony and written support!
Read More Here…
A recording of our 3/24 webinar is now available! This webinar provides an overview of our coalition’s proposal on the municipal exemption and was presented on March 24, 2026 by: Rural Vermont, Vermont Farm Bureau, Agri Mark, Cabot, the Vermont Dairy Producers Alliance, NOFA-VT, the Vermont Association of Conservation Districts, the Connecticut River Watershed Farmers Alliance, Farm to Plate, and the Land Access and Opportunity Board. Webinar passcode: QE4B+9sa
Come hang out with Rural Vermont and friends for a relaxed evening of book readings and conversation with Alexis Lathem (Lambs in Winter) and Teresa Mares (Will Work for Food)! We'll chat about farming, food, activism, and the awesome people who make it all happen. Join these two Vermont-based authors as we dive into the connections between food, farming, labor, and the real stories behind our food system.
Tuesday, March 24th
6:00pm - 7:15pm
Kellogg Hubbard Library
Hayes Room
Montpelier
This event is free; registration is encouraged!
There hasn’t been adequate time on the issue of municipal exemption/Right to Grow Food this legislative session to do the work that would have allowed us, or you, to have this as a warned item on the agenda at Town Meeting. With this in mind, please consider proposing the following Non-Binding Advisory Petition to the Vermont State Legislature to adopt The Right To Grow Food & restore the regulation of Farming & Farm Businesses to the Vermont Agency of Agriculture, Food, & Markets. This non-binding resolution is intended to encourage the Vermont State Legislature to restore the long-standing exemption for farms from municipal zoning, and to codify a Right to Grow Food that clearly includes the right to raise livestock and to sell agricultural products.
This week, legislators need to hear from us to protect the Right to Grow Food for homesteaders, including the right to raise livestock and to sell food!
Due to a 2025 Vermont Supreme Court ruling, farms and farming in VT are no longer exempt from municipal zoning, meaning towns can regulate where food can be grown, which animals can be raised, and when machinery can be operated, among other possibilities. We are working with other agricultural organizations and lawmakers to address this, and restore the exemption - but we’re meeting resistance. You may be particularly vulnerable to increased regulatory requirements if:
You are a farmer or homesteader with livestock on fewer than 4 acres, who sells anything you produce.
You are operating near a downtown, village, or "planned growth area" (or Tier 1a or 1b area; learn about this here).
You make less than $5,000 each year from farm products, or qualify as a farm under the Required Agricultural Practices (RAPs) by filing a Schedule F.
Now is the time to contact us and the legislature to make sure your voice is heard and that they understand how you could be impacted by these changes.
Protect Farmland from Municipal Regulations! Due to a 2025 Vermont Supreme Court ruling, farms and farming in VT are no longer exempt from municipal zoning, which means towns can regulate where growing food is allowed, what animals can be raised, or when machinery can be operated, among other possibilities. We are working with other agricultural organizations ( Vermont Farm Bureau, Agri Mark, Cabot, the Vermont Dairy Producers Alliance, NOFA-VT, the Vermont Association of Conservation Districts, the Connecticut River Watershed Farmers Alliance, Farm to Plate, and the Land Access and Opportunity Board) and lawmakers to address this and restore the exemption. Join our coalition for an informational webinar on Tuesday, March 26th, from 9:30am - 11:00am to hear about the ongoing work around this issue, our coalition’s proposal, and to receive your valued feedback.
Read More Here…
Each year, Rural Vermont invites farmer members and ally organizations to learn about and engage in the legislative process, advocacy, and pending policy during the legislative session. This event series offers farmers and the broader agrarian community—homesteaders, gardeners, urban farmers, medicine makers, and food activists—opportunities to speak with lawmakers, voice their real-life concerns, and gain empowerment through learning more about the legislative process. We will be hosting Small Farm Action Day at the Vermont State House in Montpelier on Thursday, February 26th, from 8:00 AM to 1:00 PM!
Listen to this episode of the Vermont Viewpoint podcast (WDEV), recorded on January 22, 2026, as Caroline Sherman Gordon (Rural Vermont’s Legislative Director) joins David Zuckerman on WDEV to discuss the push for a "Right to Grow Food" following a landmark ruling on municipal farming regulations.
Listen Here…
Read More about our Protecting Farming from Municipal Regulations…
We’d love for you to tune in as we explore the people, the places, and the history that define us, both as a culture and an organization. We’ll enjoy stories from the past, hear lessons for the present, and draw on this shared wisdom to inform the future. We’re working on our 2026 podcast schedule! If you would like to be interviewed, know someone who might, or have an idea or thought for a really great podcast - please be in touch at infor@ruralvermont.org!
The second year of a legislative biennium always hits the ground running because bills introduced in 2025 need to make it over the finish line in 2026, such as the Farm Security Fund, and new bills introduced only have this session to pass into law. There is heightened tension this year given the historic shortfall in federal funding and the quickly shifting sands of the federal government, civil rights, and democracy. You can find our legislative priorities in our Course of Action for 2026. Check out our new 2026 Bill Monitor (read more about it in the next section) to dive deeper into what’s happening on the issues that matter to you and visit our Advocacy Toolkit to learn more about the State House and how to approach it with your advocacy.
As the sun drifts to its furthest south on the horizon and the light grows short and long at once, we look to what has come this past year, and what is coming ahead. For Rural VT, we are thinking of the gifts provided by those who have made this work possible over time, of the work and love and dedication of the farms and communities we are here to support, and we are moving into the new year with a new Course of Action, and an understanding that we must be strong in our commitments, generous with our solidarity, and agile and aware in the moment in order to shift our capacity and focus based on our communities’ emergent needs and goals. We look to our members, our local communities, our allied organizations locally, regionally, nationally and internationally, and we are guided by the constellation of our mission, vision, and the principles and values we embrace.
The new year will see a host of new and ongoing legislative efforts, events on farms and in communities celebrating and listening to people’s voices and ideas. There will be on farm workshops, work brigades, citizen advocacy trainings and opportunities to testify at the statehouse. You will hear from us on issues ranging from healthcare and childcare, to on-farm slaughter and poultry processing, to equitable cannabis regulations, to extreme weather recovery funding for farmers, to municipal regulation of agriculture, farmworker rights, civil rights, human rights, and support for the boycott divestment sanctions movement in solidarity with the Palestinian people’s struggle for self determination and food sovereignty. We will be organizing, educating, and activating locally, nationally, and internationally.
We want to hear from you - on the issues we are and aren’t working on. When we hear from the grassroots community, we know better how to be there for you as Rural Vermont and the values we are committed to. Tell us what you are concerned about, what your ideas for a better future are, what you are working on, what is happening on your farm and in your community, and together we can chart a path forward.
Across four decades, Rural Vermont has stood with farmers, amplifying their voices as we advance our shared vision for a just and equitable world rooted in reverence for the earth and dignity for all. Our work has always been fueled by a community who cares deeply and gives wholeheartedly. We need our community's support today so we can continue standing with farmers in 2026 and beyond.
Read the Full Appeal Here…
Join us for a series of three webinar presentations by Vermont Legal Aid staff specifically centered on the needs of the farming community related to healthcare and taxation. Submit your questions in advance or bring them to each webinar to get the most out of this opportunity (questions can be submitted within the RSVP). A presentation from Vermont Legal Aid staff will be followed by an overview of opportunities for how to increase engagement or take action around healthcare. This series is co-hosted by NOFA-VT and Rural Vermont. An RSVP is required to receive the webinar link and information.