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Rural Vermont’s top priority for the 2019 legislative session was to remove the July 1, 2019 sunset of the on-farm-slaughter law and to make meaningful improvements to the law. We did it! The new law is effective since July 1st 2019, and extends the sunset to July 2023, allows farmers to sell live animals raised on their farm to more than one person, and allows carcasses to be halved and quartered at the time of slaughter.
Learn what you need to know to take advantage of the new law - along with how we can help YOU and how you can help US:
On-Farm Slaughter Factsheet (https://www.ruralvermont.org/s/onfarmslaughter-final-factsheet.pdf)

On Saturday, July 27th, more than 1,200 visitors gathered at the Sprague Ranch in Brookfield. The central Vermont dairy farm was packed as guests enjoyed a Vermont-inspired pancake breakfast and took a self-guided tour of the 600 cow dairy farm. In its fifth year, Vermont Breakfast on the Farm aims to connect the public with hard-working dairy farming families like the Sprague’s – who have been producing wholesome dairy, caring for their cows, and protecting and maintaining the working-landscapes of Vermont, for more than 150 years.

Addison County’s very first food-based prescription program, Farmacy, launched on July 10th. The Farmacy Program, a collaboration of ACORN, the Vermont Department of Health, Bristol’s Mountain Health Center, Middlebury’s UVM Porter Medical Center and three local farmers, enables doctors to prescribe fruits and vegetables as medicine to patients with chronic or nutrition-related illnesses.

Food Connects is set to begin construction of their 1,200 square-foot cooler and freezer space in mid-August. The expanded operational space triples the available volume of cold and frozen storage space available to Food Connects to aggregate and distribute local foods.

Our streams, lakes and woods are teeming with high-quality, local food that is rooted in the Vermont’s heritage – as long as one knows how to cook it! That’s why the Vermont Fish & Wildlife Department is partnering with Rooted in Vermont, a program of the Vermont Farm-to-Plate Network, for a “Field-to-Fork: Wild Food Cooking Series” this July and August to help Vermonters learn more about what game foods are available all around them and how to make them into a delicious meal.

The 2019 Tour Features Two Routes and Finishes at Eat on the Green

Food Connects is excited to welcome Julicia Myers to their team as their Food Hub Sales Manager.

13 Upper Valley Farmers’ Markets Offer Fun Activities, Free Market Money for Kids Ages 5-12

Sodexo, a food services and facilities management company committed to Quality of Life, announced today that the company received an Outstanding Case Study Award at the Sustainable Purchasing Leadership Council’s (SPLC) national Summit in Portland, Oregon for Sodexo’s Vermont First initiative. Through Vermont First, Sodexo works with farmers, distributors, processors, state government, non-profits and supply chain players to increase the amount of local food grown and sold in the state and beyond.

Last year, 215 volunteers contributed more than 950 hours with Salvation Farms, serving 19 farms and 31 food programs in the Lamoille Valley and beyond. From arugula to apples, tomatoes to turnips, 70,166 pound (more than 210,500 servings) of Vermont-grown crops were gathered and shared. Salvation Farms provides this service free of charge to farms and to the sites receiving produce.