So when we look forward to your input throughout, thanks for coming tonight. It's sort of a weird way for a rural Vermont to meet, but I'm glad you're here both to meet the staff, meet the board members and to elect new board members and also to do significant changes to our bylaws. I hope you've had time to review the strategic plan, which has been an incredible process to go through for all of us. I think we've learned a lot and I hope you can appreciate the work that we've put into it. Right now, I'd like to introduce the staff. Our legislative director for rural Vermont is Carolyn. So she, were you gonna keep up the picture of the staff? Now, Carolyn's waving. Okay, great. Emma is our operations director, there she is. Molly Wills is the grassroot organizer. Graham is our policy director. Hey, everybody. And Shelby is the development director. They're an incredible staff, they work really hard for all of us and I hope you all appreciate them tremendously. And I'd like to introduce our current board members. And I can't see everyone on the screen, but I'll call your name and maybe just give a wave. So, Ryan and Rachel Yoder, they're a team. Let's see. Hi. Oh, good. No picture, Ryan. No, I got it fixed. Look at that. Oh, wow. Great. There he is. Hi. Ms. Tuk. Jeannie Bartlett. Hey, everyone. There's, glad to see you. Chris Wood. Hello. And Sue Buckholz and me, Julie, Kat Buxton. Hi, everybody. And John Cleary. Hi, folks. Glad to be here. Cory Pierce. I'm here in audio. Oh, good. Thanks, Cory. And Celine, is Celine on? I don't have everyone on my screen. Maybe she'll be joining us later. Also with us is Keith Drinkwine, who's been on the board for a couple of years and served as our treasurer, done an incredible job working in the financial, with the financial aspects of her over a month. And the other member who is not present, I don't think is Christine from the islands. We do have three outgoing board members. Keith will not be running for reelection. We will miss him terribly. Also Meredith Niles and Nick Siegelbaum, who are not with us tonight, but they will not be running for reelection either. We really thank them all for their years with Rovermont. Their input has been incredible. And there they are on a shared screen. Meredith works for UVM. She's been really thoughtful and all of her contributions to Rovermont. Keith works part at the intervail and also has a Flatlander farm. And Nick is from Southern Vermont. We haven't seen a lot of him, but he was past president and we've appreciated his contributions. So now I think I'll pass it on to Chris to handle the elections of new board members and the reelection of a number of us. And he can explain it all to you. Thank you for coming. We hope I can explain it all. I'm going to try and if I sort of steer off, of course, do let me know. But so here, oh, so up here on the screen, it's showing the rules for the elections. So we're gonna vote for everybody at once. Including the new and the renewing members all at once. The board terms are for two years. And I think you'll hear this probably over and over again tonight. Only Rovermont members are eligible to vote. And the votes will be by yay or nay. So I think the first thing to do is to introduce the new board members and hopefully have them each say something a little bit short about themselves. And I do have a note that it's possible that John Turner, who was one of the candidates, is either not, he's not here now and may join us later, but he also may not. But let's start with Noah. Noah, do you wanna say a few words about yourself? Sure. Hi, everybody. Thank you so much for having me in this meeting and putting me up for election to the board. I'm definitely a little bit starstruck, a little bit nervous and have some feelings of imposter syndrome because there's so many amazing and influential people on the board and as members of Rovermont. So I'm very honored. I'm just somebody coming from New York City, New Jersey, suburban, urban area. Definitely didn't grow up with a connection to my local farms and local farmers growing up, let alone having a lot of access to outdoor recreational opportunities. But although that wasn't in my direct vicinity, I always felt a strong connection and admiration for it. Fast forward through high school, I kept those same passions and through a family friend vacation, first found Vermont, found Lake Champlain, found Burlington and just instantly fell in love with the beauty, with the people and knew that I wanted to, at least for a time, live here. So I went to St. Michael's College for my undergrad studying environmental studies, excuse me, environmental studies and biology. In that time, I had an internship with Vermont Epscore looking at adoption of best management practices. So that was kind of the first workings into agricultural sciences, ecological economics for me. After St. Michael's undergrad, I was able to get a graduate research assistantship at Plymouth State University with a Masters of Science in Environmental Science and Policy leading a contingent valuation survey looking at how local residents of the Great Bay Estuary in the Seacoast area of New Hampshire, how local residents were valuing ecosystem services and why they were doing so. In the summers and kind of late springs in between, I was very fortunate to be working at Shelburne Farms in the children's farmyard in the market garden in the education sector and just really fell in love with Shelburne Farms also and just kind of the intersections between community engagement, agricultural education knowing your farm or all the values that Shelburne Farms embodies. And so I consider Shelburne Farms another second home to me. After grad school, Shelburne Farms in Vermont kept pulling me back. I did a postgraduate education fellowship at Shelburne Farms. And then afterwards, I had the amazing opportunity to go to the Peace Corps in Jamaica about eight months after Shelburne Farms. And that was farming every day, working with farmers every day, working in rural populations and just kind of growing that love and admiration and respect for farmers and the hard work they do and the need for advocacy and innovation into their daily lives to keep up with climate change, to keep up with other economic sectors. And then as we all have been dealing with the pandemic hit, we were all evacuated, all Peace Corps volunteers around the world. I wasn't ready to give up playing in the dirt. So really since that time up until just about a month ago, I've kind of been full-time farming and maple sugaring and just kind of staying outside. This past February through rural Vermont, I was given the BIPOC farmers in Soil Health stipend. And through that was able to join the Payment for Ecosystem Services Small Farmers Working Group. And that was last February and that was the last piece that I was missing. I had the hands-on farming work, but I wanted to be engaging my mind a little bit more back into what I had gone to school for. That's been an amazing group. I've been able to stay up to date on different Vermont farmer programs and legislation. And then kind of with honestly, I feel a little bit of mentorship from Carolyn in rural Vermont, was able to kind of push me to stick with it, push me to keep going. And I was able to get a research assistant position with the Payment for Ecosystem Services Working Group. And lastly, kind of my greatest, my biggest joy and passion and involvement right now is I was the founder and co-manager of the People's Farm Stand, which is basically a pay what you can, payment optional farm stand operating in Pomeroy Park in Burlington and the South Meadows neighborhood, which is largely a low income and refugee resettlement neighborhood, getting produce from up to six farms we have signed on now. It's been really amazing to see how excited the farmers are about it, to see how excited the recipients are and that's been really fulfilling. Thank you all again so much. Wow Noah, I'm starstruck. That's pretty impressive. Great, thanks Noah. Okay, next, Mariah, could you give us some words on your background? Yes, hi, I'm Mariah. I use the Enchi pronouns, really nice to meet you Noah and everyone else. I work for Stratford Organic Creamery, mostly on the farm side.  So I interned for Rover Mott back in 2016 and I'm just really excited to get more involved again and to help Rover Mott with all their work around food justice, whether that's for farmers, farm workers or the climate. I'm really excited to be involved, so thank you. Wow, thank you, thank you very much. And I'm sensing that we don't have John. I don't hear John, so I've been given a little short description of for John's background to read to you. I will do now. John Turner, in 2014, John began to utilize the agricultural landscape as a classroom for community members interested in resilient food systems through service learning projects, internships and site visits for K to 12 college students and military veterans. He is the founding and former chair of the Vermont State Chapter of the Farmer Veteran Coalition, recipient of the National Farm to School Innovations Grant, former NOFA Vermont Board member and currently operates Wild Roots Community Farm in Bristol, Vermont. So those are the three new candidates for the board. And now we turn to the current board members who are up for reelection.  And then the picture shows up. I don't have to do any work. Cat Buxton, who is at the top, right in order. Sue Buckholz, Julie Walcott. Oh, I see, they're even in order. That's how impressive. Ryan and Rachel wrote Yoder and they are one seat for anybody who's sort of confused. The couple counts as a single seat. Myself, Chris Wood and Jeanne Bartlett. So now we go to the full screen and we get to vote on the entire slate which is the three new members and those six returning positions that I just described. And the idea I think is that we have a voice vote. Is that, should we do it by voice in which case everybody all together has to unmute? And I will say all those in favor, say yay and then all those opposed, nay. So for, if you can unmute, if you're, this is for again, we're over a number of official members only. So all those in favor, say yay. Yay, yay, yay, yay, yay, yay. And all those opposed, say nay or no. All those opposed, no surprise. Thank you very much. Congratulations. We now have the 2000 and 22 board. So thank you very much. And now I get to pass it back to Shelby. Hi everyone. I'm so happy to welcome and congratulate our new members. And also to welcome back so many really wonderful board members who have served over the last few years as well. We're gonna switch gears a little bit now and get started on the next vote that we will invite all of our members to participate in. And this is a pretty big update that we are proposing making two rural Vermont's bylaws. Hopefully you all have had the opportunity to review this in advance. It was linked on our website. We'll put a link in the chat as well if it's not already in there. So folks can have it if you want to take a look. But before we get into some of those details just want to run through the rules here. So we're all on the same page. So much like the board slate, we will be voting on this proposed bylaw amendment as a whole rather than piecemeal. You'll see there are many, many changes included. So we would be here till tomorrow morning if we went one by one. If there are any amendments posed to this amendment that we're putting before you then those would need to be offered by a rural Vermont member and seconded by another then we would discuss and then we would vote on that. The final vote will be a single vote on the amendment as amended or not if it's not amended. Hopefully that's clear enough for folks. Again, we've mentioned this, the rural Vermont members are those who are eligible to vote and we will use the same process that we used for the board election and it will be a voice vote. So yay or nay. I can't see everyone's faces but I hope that that is clear. If you have questions, please throw those into the chat about the process. We are going to now move into some of the upper level changes that are represented in these bylaws. So we're just going to focus on some of the highlights because there's a whole lot of detail. So I wanted to start by just sharing that the last time rural Vermont's bylaws were updated was in 2015 and this was a very minor change. We have all recognized for a while that were overdue for some pretty substantial updates to more accurately reflect how rural Vermont currently functions and also just to acknowledge some larger changes that have occurred over the last couple of years. So to start out, one of these changes that we are proposing including in the bylaws you will see show up in the beginning in the purpose section. We'd like to insert rural Vermont's refreshed updated vision and mission. These two statements came about through some work, a lot of work that Julie mentioned in her introductory remarks that began about a year and a half ago or so. The board and the staff worked diligently to draft a strategic plan for rural Vermont, a five-year plan and ICM has dropped the link to that in the chat if you want to take a look. And before we could get to the point that we were ready to really identify what those strategic goals look like for rural Vermont, we felt it necessary to dig into our identity a little more to revisit that and to articulate it and define it in a way that better captures who rural Vermont is and how we do our work and what the world we are working towards looks like to us. So the board, the staff spent many, many hours in conversation, word sniffing went through multiple drafts, lots of meetings and we're really excited to share with you all where we've landed. So I am going to read our rural Vermont's updated vision which again is our hope for the future and that is rural Vermont envisions a just and equitable world rooted in reverence for the earth and dignity for all. This abundant and generous way of life celebrates our diversity and interdependence in which communities of microorganisms, animals, plants and animals tend one another and nurture generations to come. And then moving on rural Vermont's updated mission, this is how we do the work to achieve that vision, reads like this, rural Vermont organizes, educates and advocates in collaboration with local and global movements to strengthen the social, ecological and economic health of the agrarian communities that connect us all. We're excited to be sharing this with you all tonight and to be proposing that we insert these statements into rural Vermont's bylaws. There's another change that I am going to share a little bit about here, which may be old news to some of you, but this is pretty notable in terms of, sorry, this is John Turner calling. I can't talk to him right now. Okay, I'm sorry about that. John apparently is trying to get into the meeting. I don't know if someone else can help him, but hopefully he will be able to join us. So rural Vermont, a notable change in the bylaws is that we are formalizing the sociocratic governance structure that we've had in place since 2018. Again, this is something that might be familiar to some of you because we did introduce this idea last year and we've been operating in this way for a couple of years now. What this means is that we've transitioned from a more traditional hierarchical sort of organizational structure to one that is horizontal and rests on principles of equity, transparency and shared leadership. And this shift has been a really natural fit for rural Vermont because we've always been a very collaborative organization and are inclined to work in the ways that that sociocracy sort of defines and formally adopting this structure gives us some tools to really do it well and to ensure that everyone is playing a role everyone has equal voice. And it's also for us important because it sociocracy mirrors the structures that we'd really like to see in the world around us. If you're curious about what that organizational structure looks like in practice sort of on the ground at rural Vermont, we just created in the context of our strategic plan. So if you look at that, you will see that we have an organizational chart that details the different committees that we term circles and how those overlap. I won't spend time too much time getting into that right now in the interest of time and that we're focused on the bylaws. So I'm going to pass it over to Emma to share some more highlights and changes that we're discussing. Thanks. Thanks, Shelley. So as Shelby spoke to between our transition to sociocracy and our new strategic plan, mission and vision seem like a natural time to make updates to our bylaws and hopefully you've had a chance to review those changes but we're just gonna provide a brief summary right now. So first you'll see that a lot of the changes are technical in nature, capitalizing proper nouns using more consistent terminology and modernizing some of the communication language. We also made updates to reflect our current practices, particularly stemming from our adoption of sociocracy such as in the section seven that describes their sociocracy, governance structure and the staff section as well. And then there are also changes to the membership section that were made to explicitly reflect our current practice. As Shelby said, we've included our mission and vision in the purpose section and in the board of directors section we specified that we strive to be led by their agrarian community and updated term-length language to support continuity while also providing flexibility and term length so commitment isn't as much of a barrier to participation. Regarding chapters, we took out language we found to be too specific but left them as a possibility to be created at the board's discretion. We'll hear more about that later. And then lastly, we've inserted a new section that holds us accountable to our new anti-racism policy which Caroline is going to speak to now. I'm having connection issues. Emma, did you just pass it over to me? I did. All right, can you, do you have, do we have an ability to share what's the bylaws amendment? Do you? We put the link in the chat for the panel. Are you looking for the answer? I actually have it open too. I can just share my screen. So I'll just do, yep. Because I thought, I hope you guys hear me. So I'm leaving my camera off because I have connection issues but the anti-racism policy. So first of all, a big tribute to Jameson Davis and Ariel King from Writing Wrongs LLC. They do tremendous work to make Vermont more equitable, inclusive and diverse and make Vermont institutions, organizations and businesses better places for BIPOC and society at large. And we are absolutely grateful to have been working with them on developing World Vermont's anti-racism policy which we as staff and board already had adopted back at the August board meeting. And now we're talking about with the bylaws amendment and in context of the anti-racism policy about this article 11 that you see on my screen. I'm just trying to read that even though there's parts of Zoom in the way here. So over month commits to identify, acknowledge and eliminate all forms of racism within the organization through its anti-racism policy and subsequent procedures. These documents aim to foster diversity, equity and inclusion through a culture of anti-racism while addressing disparities in agriculture and are supported by one of Vermont's beliefs outlined in our affirmation of solidarity with the movement of for black lives and the rest I actually can't read because something's in the way. But yeah, that, oh here through this reference in these bylaws will be among staff, board members and interns are accountable to adhere to the anti-racism policy and subsequent procedures which is will be the point of this paragraph. The solidarity statement is also something we already had issued last year. So not everything in the anti-racism policy is new. This is a preview into the policy. Of course, in advance to this annual meeting we have given you the opportunity to share your feedback with us through a survey. Haven't heard that much through that channel but if you're interested in discussing any of the contact of this policy with us we'll also stay on after this annual meeting for about half an hour to engage in policy conversation with you and surely also about this anti-racism policy. Just wanted to give you all since we're here together for the first time with so many members, a little bit of an insight in what that policy really includes and means without speaking too much in detail about it. So maybe at first a little bit of a preview of what does it mean anti-racism? There's a definition section in the policy document and there the definition of anti-racism reads the practice of identifying challenging and changing the value structures and behaviors that perpetuate systemic racism. And then of course you've read in that paragraph also that it's about accountability. Are you losing me? Can you hear me still? No, I see. And that's kind of the heart and that's kind of the heart piece of the whole policy. So while the policy document is a little bit like the vision statement, including goals and statements the procedures document is really where to look for and for answers on how we're going about these things. And what's included there is this rule of amont accountability section. And that is really the place where rule of amont staff and rule of amont community is stepping up to the task to respond to notifications about direct acts of racism that are occurring within the rule of amont community. This section is basically laying out a process on how rule of amont would respond in such scenarios. And with an attempt to resolve the issue with honesty, sensitivity and respect really through conversation and the space that we call brave spaces. And also with a support structure for those that cope with race-related stresses and a non-punitive platform. And then for the worst case scenario that a meeting on eye level cannot resolve such a dispute. Our core circle may decide after due process and that is then outlined here further down through the section on membership revocation and position termination. There's a process in place for the worst case scenario that a dispute cannot be resolved and that the core finds, yes, there wasn't a racist act and either membership to over amont has to be terminated or official staff position or board membership can maybe terminate it for that reason. And that's just what I call really the heart piece of this policy because it's showing that rule of amont is not just soft edge talking but also has the ability in the worst case scenario to express that there's no tolerance for intolerance within rule of amont. And yeah, but today, as I said this policy is already part of rule of amont now. And today we're really more voting on these bylaws with this paragraph and why that is so important is because it demonstrates rule of amont's commitment to our racial justice work for the long run because then the policy doesn't just create a structure to hold the organization accountable but that policy itself becomes a structure ingrained in the organizational identity. And as such makes that racial justice work much more resilient to outlive individual staff and board members. And that was kind of the intent behind including it in this amendment this year. So with that, I pass it back to Shelby. I can take over your action. So now we know this is a lot of information to take in and we hope you did have a chance to review it in advance in an effort to make the most of our limited time together. We have provided a form on the registration page for folks to ask questions and provide feedback. While we didn't receive many responses, we just wanted to let you know that we did seek input and also let our doors open year round. We love hearing from our members and we're always happy to chat. And so that said, we will open things up for discussion before we take a vote. And again, given our limited time, we're gonna be prioritizing numbers and ask folks to keep their comments brief as possible. If you'd like to speak or make a comment, ask a question. Just let us know by either putting in the chat or if you wanna just come off mute and that works. I was too. Joan had asked the question about what our definition of equitable is. And I think that is a really good question. I think our response. Yeah, Joan, do you wanna elaborate on what different definitions you might have heard? Or what? I was having a hard time hearing from you, but I think we're all just coming from a place of really making sure that everyone has what they need. And I don't know if any other staff wants to speak to that. My good question. Yeah, I mean, equity I think also has to be, I don't think we have like a blank definition on equity. They're not sure if the question related to that. But I would just freely answer that the context is important and there's no blank approach to equity. But the concept, seeing things in context is so important in seeing whether a policy decision specifically is equitable or not. And that can mean different things. And I would say from a constitutional law perspective, in the legal education world, you learn that there are things in the same way and different things, different. So it's not that treating everything the same always, but also to have that context relation in policy decisions specifically is what we're concerned about. Thanks for framing that, Caroline. That's great. And I see Andrea's put in a chat saying, having been around for some of the earlier efforts by Roller-Mont to bring its operations into alignment with its values. Congratulations on taking a huge step forward to do that. Congratulations and thanks. Thanks, Andrea. Can I just speak for a minute maybe? Yes, please. This is Graham and I just wanted to go back to Joan's question and I appreciate you asking that. And I think, broadly speaking, and I think in our conversation about equity, and maybe we should include definition of equity somewhere. But we're talking about one, did you have equity living throughout all of these these outcomes to how we engage with people, to how we consider whether or not something is an issue we engage with, et cetera. In distinguishing between sort of, as Caroline was saying earlier, and we're hearing all the, one of the primary issues in Vermont, which is the broadband access from Caroline's angle and Joan's. But equity is a means of sort of differentiating I think from treating everyone equally to treating everyone equitably such that we all reach a point of equality where we're all seen, treated, envisioned with the same degree of dignity, rights, freedoms, responsibilities. But that doesn't mean that everybody comes is positioned and starts at the same place. So equitably means thinking about how we approach folks given their positionality to enable people to reach a point of equality. And I'll stop there. Thanks, Scott. Joan, I hope that answers your question. And one last thing I just say, I think about, you know, we think about racial equity, you think about economic equity and equity exists in all these forms. And I don't think our policy is to distinguish one way or the other. Clearly we have a racial equity policy and we're dealing primarily with racial equity with that. But when we say equitably more broadly where it's not defined by that adjective, we're talking about economic, racial, gender equity, et cetera. Is there any other questions, comments? Sue, do you want to make your motion? Yes, ma'am. I was called in at the last minute and asked to make a move, a technical amendment as I understand it, as it wasn't part of the conversation that there are places in the bylaws where we refer to ourselves by the cold and unfriendly name of corporation and the motion is to replace corporation with organization in article six, number one and number five and article eight, number one. And I thus move. Thank you. Is there a second? I second that. Thanks, Pat. This is Pat Buxton. Is there any discussion not hearing any? Let's close. Now would be an appropriate time to vote the amendment to the amendment. So at this time, all in favor of changing corporation to organization in those two sections, set the five by two, please say aye. Aye. Aye. Yay. Aye. Are there any nays? Hearing any. And is there any further discussion before we move on to taking a vote on these changes on the original amendment? Not seeing any. Speak up. Okay. Suppose with that, we can now move to take a vote on this amendment and all those in favor can signify by saying aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. And now, we can return to some more for the rest of our presentation. And I'm gonna share with all the over to you. All right. Okay. So we wanted to spend a little time tonight remembering a near and dear member of the Royal Vermont family who passed away last month. We're talking about Dexter Randall. And I'm sure that many of you knew him or knew of him. He left a pretty large legacy and impression with many of us. And I'd encourage you to share your memories or any stories that you have, things you remember about this guy into the chat for all of us to reflect on. Dexter was a lifelong and multi-generational dairy farmer in Northern Vermont.  He had a big laugh, a big heart. And he had big ideas. And he was a really active member of Royal Vermont for essentially the organization's entire existence dating back to the mid-80s. He was really committed and made it part of his life's work to advocate in support of farming being a more viable and dignified livelihood for everyone in Vermont and beyond. And he was often in the spotlight and on the front lines of so many of Royal Vermont's early campaigns and actions. And you'll see him in some of these photos here, milk dumps to protest low milk prices in the 80s, did a lot of work with BST, GMOs. He was also, so yeah, this is him in 2003. He joined Royal Vermont's board in 1993 and he was on Royal Vermont's board until 2012. I joined Royal Vermont as a staff member in 2006. And Dexter was one of the first Royal Vermont folks that I connected with. He actually interviewed me and I got to sit around his kitchen table over in between chores back in the day and pick his brain. He was the guy that I often called up when I needed information or support early on. He was so generous with and really reliable too with his stories, his information, his memory of Royal Vermont. He was always available to chat through things that Royal Vermont had been involved with to update me on sort of like the policy landscape in my early days and with just general farming questions too. He was always helpful. He was really a Royal Vermont institution and a natural storyteller and so much so that we tapped him often to share his stories. And I remember there being a stretch of time a ways back when we would bring him into the office when we were orienting new staff members and interns so that he could share his stories of Royal Vermont campaigns and work over the decades that he had been involved because there was of course no better person to share those stories than the person who lived through all of them. And we're super grateful that we've got a really good quality video of Dexter sharing one of those stories. And this photo that's on the screen now is a snapshot of a video that we recorded back in 2015, actually Orca Media recorded it I believe 2015 during Royal Vermont's 30th anniversary celebration and the story is about the Farmer Protection Act and it's done with Amy Schoenberger who was the director of Royal Vermont at the time. And it's a really powerful, wonderful story and you've got a moment at some point I would encourage you all to check it out and hear about some of Royal Vermont's history in Dexter's words. So yeah, in closing, Dexter was an incredible guy. We loved him, we miss him and just want to thank him for all that he's contributed to Royal Vermont over many, many years and for the benefit of farmers everywhere. So you've got a special place in our hearts and if you've got a beverage nearby and want to raise it let's cheers to Dexter. Cheers to Dexter. So with that, I'm gonna pass it over to our mighty policy team, Molly Wills, Caroline Gordon, Graham Unox, Rufinocht and they are going to share some updates on what Royal Vermont has been up to and there's a lot. All right, I'll kick us off here. I still leave my camera off for the sake of hearing me. So here's some highlights from my work with Royal Vermont in 2021. For those of you who don't know me and I guess I missed out on introducing me earlier I'm Caroline, I'm the legislative director of Royal Vermont. And here you see a picture of the poultry farmers for compost foraging. And next to me is Andrea Standard. So first of all, a big tribute to you Andrea, former executive director that policy consultant basically introducing me to the organization for my first initial year and a half or almost two. So your great contributions to this important work Andrea have also greatly contributed to the success of this year.  And you wanna say hi very quickly. I do wanna say a very quick hi and I just wanna say how thrilled I am to see Maria joining the board as I was thrilled when Emma joined the staff collective and all the seeds of work that I got the chance to be part of are really blossoming in so many wonderful ways. So and all the great new board members not only tonight but in the last year or two is so exciting. And I say hello to everybody who I have known and worked with and I welcome and greet all the view who I have not yet had the chance to meet. So thanks. Absolutely. Good to have you Andrea. So yeah, on this picture, you see the poultry farmers for compost foraging celebrating the passage of act 41 at Vermont compost. So that act or formerly S-102 our bill back in the race the last year is what now defines unformed composting of food residuals as farming. And I will post in the chat just for the fun of it a link to the act to 50 law. And for those of you who like to, I know I have to paste the link again have fun with that. You can just scroll through that very long provision of definitions and act to 50 and see if you find the definition of farming with number 22. And in there you can then find that now compost foraging or the unformed composting of food residuals including the foraging of hands on the compost in that definition. So now big steps towards making more close loop systems and a decentralized way of generating a clean resource that can be used to enhance Vermont soils on farms and to raise poultry. With this act. So the next year we continue our coalition with the poultry farmers for compost foraging Vermonters for Clean Environment. John is also on the picture VEPR Conservation Law Foundation on protecting the universal recycling law which will mean we demand the implementation of source separation and also the management hierarchy for organics and help to make grain grounds there next year. And then we work with the poultry farmers towards rulemaking. That'll happen with the Agency of Agriculture and of officially launch in January. So coming up very soon. And with that, I'll move on to the next picture please. So here you see Liz Roma from Roma's Poultry in South Wilton. Liz and her husband Russell have a poultry CSA farm putting down roots and Liz also just started her own custom butcher shop last year. And last Saturday, we had the second of two poultry slaughter and processing workshops. And we're also thinking about doing a series of just butcher workshops throughout the winter so that customers of unsprung slaughter poultry can really learn how to support their local farmers who do unsprung slaughter of poultry. And that means that they can only sell whole birds. So it's important for customers to learn how to butcher them. Next picture please. And here you see Mary Lake at our recent workshop at Stratford Village Farm. So Mary and Liz are both really great educators and receive interest from consumers, homestairs and small scale producers alike for advancing their meat processing skills. Liz and Mary Lake both testified during the last legislative session on behalf of the successful doubling of the allowances for unsprung slaughter livestock. And some of you might also remember that last session we finally got rid of the sunset provision which had cursed the unsprung slaughter law to cease to exist in the past. But now the practice is actually more secure as a solid institution in Vermont's agricultural law. And that is also just better reflecting what's happening on the ground. So next year we hope to expand the workshop series with an unsprung slaughter demo of beef and potentially also with rabbits. And in the legislative session we'll be working towards allowing for the CSA with animal shares. Something that we at Groover-Monthink is already legal but it will be worthwhile having clarity around that. So stay tuned. And we are also aiming probably to improve the marketability of unsprung slaughter poultry. And I'll post in the chat now that there's one more slaughter workshop coming up December 5th and up in San Alban, Benz. So if you're interested, please register for that or share the info with who might be in. With that, I'll pass it on to Molly. Thanks Caroline, I'm Molly Wills, our grassroots organizer. And it's really nice to see a lot of familiar faces here tonight and thank you so much everyone for hanging through our business. We're gonna have opportunities to answer questions. I see a couple of things that have come up in the chat. So hang on after our update of what we've been working on we'll definitely talk a little bit about the future. And this year was a really big year for raw milks. I think we're gonna start there. And we work with the leadership team of really amazing producers from around the state to pass a bill that allows for the sale of raw milk by tier two producers at other farms, farm stands and CSAs within Vermont. And so this bill significantly increases access to raw milk consumers and also economic opportunity for farmers. And I think it's worth noting that this bill faced a really extreme amount of opposition at just about every step of the way. And it's also a unicorn piece of legislation in the sense that it actually ended up passing in better shape than it was introduced. So just a big thank you to our farmer leadership team for making that happen and ensuring raw milk laws and regulations are fair to farmers and their communities is definitely an ongoing priority for us moving forward and part of our food sovereignty work in general. And these photos are of us celebrating at Donagham family farm in Charlotte at the victory that we got that went into effect on July 1st of this year. We've also been spending a fair amount of time on healthcare that has been an issue that's continually raised by our community is something that's very impactful and impacting them every day. And so we continue working to bring agricultural voices and experiences into Vermont healthcare regulatory spaces and we're building intersectional allies and a early stage coalition with a really broad based group of folks that are all sharing the goal about increasing affordability of and access to healthcare in the state. And in general, we're really working to highlight healthcare childcare and elder care as significant and really critical issues that are impacting the agricultural community. We've been working with the Vermont worker center as you can see in this photo here who led this recent sign on effort to the legislature asking them to fulfill their obligations around the public health care. And last spring, we're also part of a successful coalition supporting H430 which expanded Dr. Dinosaur healthcare to include income eligible pregnant people and children regardless of immigration status. That was a victory. We definitely look to our allies at Vermont legal aid and migrant justice for that one. We can move on to the next slide, please.  We were sort of crisscrossing the state touring farmers markets and community events sharing information and making art while we built relationships with folks on the ground. And so this is our all star grassroots organizing intern Olivia St. Pierre. This was at the Barnard Feast and Field Market. And the next photo, you can see this is real Vermont staff member Emma at the regeneration fair in South Royalton. And here she's helping spread the word about regeneration core which is a growing educational initiative that we're psyched to be part of that helps get high school students out of the classroom onto farms learning about the intersections of agroecology racial justice and climate change all for academic credit. And so regeneration core is a partnership between many organizations including grow more waste less, let's grow kids, fail the grassroots center, farm to plate and a whole bunch more. And we're really proud to be supporting these leaders as they expand their reach into more schools across the states. And go to the next photo. So one of the most exciting things that I've been working on recently is with a group of folks who have interest in potentially starting a pilot chapter of real Vermont in their community. This was at a September meeting where a group of over 40 of us gathered at the Crosby Lita Farm in East Corinth to share a meal and chat about how a local chapter of real Vermont can support community initiatives. Ideas that came up were things like a tool library, a farm mentorship program and land access issues all while helping inform rural Vermont's grassroots priorities and strengthening our overall social mycelium. So this is an ongoing conversation with grassroots leaders and community members. And we look forward to sharing more soon as this project develops. And if you live in the Corinth area or interested in learning more about the chapter idea in general, we hope that you will get in touch. This fall, we again collaborated with, I think it was over a dozen this year, food and ag nonprofits across the state for the fourth annual State House to Farmhouse. And this event brings legislators and regulators directly onto farms in their districts to hear from farmers about what's impacting them. And this year we were really honored to partner with New Farms for New Americans in Burlington. And we got to hear directly from the new American agricultural community about their needs and their goals. And it poured with rain and we all huddled under a shelter and ate a bunch of watermelon. And there was three different interpreters that helped facilitate conversations with farmers and policymakers. And just a couple of weeks ago, we hosted and co-hosted a couple of stops on migrant justice's milk with dignity tour. And we continue to support their leadership and pursue the human rights throughout the supply chain and also to amplify how this program really supports farm workers and farm owners alike and is a totally vital step in the future of our dairy economy. And in a nutshell, we're meeting folks where they're at and we're doing everything that we can to stay connected to our grassroots community during a time where it's super hard to get together. And we're always open to ideas about how we can better learn and meet with folks, connect and share ideas. This is a photo from just a couple of days ago with a few members of La Via Campesina that were from Massachusetts and one farmer from Ontario as well as a number of leaders from Vermont talking about how we can best support young people in agroecology and learn from and share with each other and continue to build a movement of active and engaged land stewards. And Royal Vermont is a member of La Via Campesina through our membership with the National Family Farm Coalition. And because we are a membership organization, every member of Royal Vermont is also a member of La Via Campesina. So just wanted you all to be aware of that as well. And if you ever wanna hear from us or share with us, just know it's an open door and we would love your feedback. We'd love to have a conversation. We'd love to come sit around a fire with you and please don't hesitate to be in touch and I'll pass it on to Graham. Hey everybody. My name is Graham, you're thanks to Rufnacht and I am the policy director here at Royal Vermont and I'm just gonna do my best to envision you all in-person as at one of our more quote unquote normal annual meetings somewhere in Vermont. I'll enjoy each other's company a little more viscerally. But I wanna take a second, I don't know much time but I also wanna truly applaud Caroline and Molly for their incredible work over the last year and just my appreciation to them as colleagues as well as Shelby and Emma as well. But we're in the policy and organizing sessions. I just wanted to give them a shout out and just recognize that as Molly said, like that raw milk legislation, that on-farm slaughter legislation, that poultry foraging legislation, those are all efforts that we are gradually building on year after year and they really are significant wins. I got in trouble with the state for on-farm slaughter in 2012 or 2013 and now there's a path for basically doing what I was doing legally. That's a big change. So I'll stop there and speaking of on-farm slaughter, this is a picture of some of my animals here on Lee's land in Calis, Vermont. And one of the issues I was working on this last year, I see Joan's tag there. And Joan was one of the farmers supporting this group. We know for Vermont, rural Vermont and many farmers and service providers sought to ensure that existing animal welfare standards related to adequate shelter requirements for livestock in Vermont did not prohibit appropriate grazing and livestock management. We proposed alternative language based on national organic program. Although our language wasn't accepted based on our advocacy, the Senate Agricultural Committee did include language in a related bill which clarified that accepted animal husbandry practices will not be subject to the adequate shelter requirements which basically meant that grazers will not be subject to violations of animal welfare if their animals do not have access to shelter at all times. And that's not necessarily the best solution. We'd love to see like an awesome, articulated animal welfare matrix. But this is at least for the time being ameliorated some of our concerns that folks wouldn't be inappropriately prosecuted or otherwise for animal abuse. On to the next slide. Vermont Cannabis Equity Coalition. So since 2018, rural Vermont's been making some comments on Vermont's interoperational cannabis law. And in 2020, in the spring time, we formed an alliance, a coalition with the North Sea, with Nova Vermont, with Vermont Racial Justice Alliance, with Justice for All, with the Vermont Growers Association. And at the time with Trace, which is the seed to sale tracking system of a Vermont hemp program, and its co-founder is still in our coalition. And our goal is really to make sure that this coming economy is gonna be racially just, economically equitable and agriculturally accessible for folks in Vermont, for small businesses, for farmers, et cetera. On to the next slide. This slide sort of speaks to some of our stronger local collaborations. I just wanted to give the name to. At Farm to Plate, I have shared the Farmland Access and Stewardship Working Group for a couple of years. I sit on the steering committee, Caroline and I both sit on their meat processing working group, which if you are someone dealing with meat processing in Vermont, you are familiar with the number of the issues that have surfaced throughout the pandemic, but which are also sort of perennial challenges with this part of the supply chain. We also participate in agroforestry working group and contributed a lot to the ag strategic plan. And going forward, Farm to Plate is really gonna be about all about implementing that plan. We have rooted in Vermont and Vermont Fish and Wildlife here as well, because rural Vermont is now a partner. Thank you Shelby for so much of your work in particular and facilitating this in a program called Vermont Wild Kitchen. And if you haven't seen this, check it out. This is basically a collaboration through us and these organizations trying to combine the links between the cultivated environment like on farms, but also the wild harvesting environment from venison to bear, to wild mushrooms, to trout, et cetera, and bringing it onto one place where it's in these really fun YouTube sort of, how do you prepare this food? Pretty short and fun videos. You can learn more about where to find that in the commentary at the end here if you have a question. Our next slide names some of our national and international coalitions and alliances. And I think it's really important to, as you've noticed in our mission and vision, we're really starting to re-strengthen our commitments to these organizations. We now serve on the board as well as the executive committee of a National Family Farm Coalition. As Molly said, she's a liaison to La Vie Campasino right now for our organization. Caroline has been interfacing with the U.S. Food Sovereignty Alliance. And we are also a plaintiff in a lawsuit for the Center for Food Safety which challenges the federal guidelines on GMO labeling. And this is ongoing. And we can certainly talk more about this going forward, but on to the next slide. This is sort of our, and what's left slide. So given we're running a little behind, I'm not gonna say too much about these things, but clearly we've been doing a lot of work outside of the session and that you haven't seen in these photos. It's been a time that's been hard to capture great photos because a lot of our work is remote right now for better or for worse still. So supporting farmers impacted by the Horizon Danone decision. We've been monitoring and participating in the Climate Council Agricultural and Ecosystem Subcommittee. Just trying to get our comments in there and just make sure that works for folks. Vermont Soil Health and Payment for Ecosystem Services working group and associated working groups. Caroline can speak more of that at the end and on and on. So check out that slide. I'm happy to, we are happy to talk more about this at the end of the meeting when you all have questions. On to the next slide. And there you are. That's our contact information as people have been very clear to say, we wanna hear from you, we love hearing from you. You know, we're here to really work with you to make changes in support of a better place for us all to be here in Vermont as farmers, as eaters, as homesteaders, whatever our position is as people in this place. And I think I will pass it back then to Shelby. Thanks, Ram and Molly and Caroline for providing all the good content, all the stuff that people I'm sure are gonna have questions about and want to talk more about. So I'm gonna be brief here. We've still got about 15 minutes set aside for this meeting but the staff is absolutely willing and planning to stay on a little bit later till 815 or so for those who want to linger and ask more questions or engage in conversation, share your ideas. Before we get into that, just wanted to make a few closing remarks.  Fingers crossed that next year we will be together in person and it will be a different sort of meeting with a lot more celebrating and just a different feel. I'm sure we're all very zoomed out. I also want to thank Royal Vermont's lead partner members for sponsoring tonight's event. So this includes action circles, rabble rouser and Meadows beef farm. Check them out if you're unfamiliar with any of them. They do great work and we're grateful to have their support. And I also want to extend a big thank you to all of our board members who are here tonight who work really hard alongside us to get a lot of this work done over the years. And we're so thankful for all of your wisdom and your time and creativity and your enthusiasm and support. We love you all and big thanks to Chris and to Julie for participating tonight in facilitating this meeting. So I'm going to turn it back to our policy team for to answer questions and to move things forward. But first, we can't let this meeting. You don't have to keep the slide open. Anyhow, if folks are willing and able to donate to Royal Vermont, we of course would really welcome your support. You might know this, but Royal Vermont does not accept government funds nor do we take money from most corporations and we really rely on our members and individual supporters and small businesses to fund all of that work, the majority of that work that Caroline Molly and Graham were sharing just now. We're about to launch our biggest and most important fundraiser of the year or your end appeal. You can help us get that started in a really solid place if you're able and willing to donate. We'll put the link to do so in the chat. If you're able, membership is $35 for anyone who is not a member and anything folks are able to contribute is very much appreciated and we put it to good use. So I'm gonna wrap it up there and pass it off to the policy folk. Thank you, Shelby. And I thought this last slide that Graham has shared with other ongoing work that we didn't have a chance to talk about much might be nice to keep up but it's also nice to see everyone and maybe we can just look at that on demand. This is basically the end of the meeting for all of you who have, you know wanna say goodbye at this time and dive into their evening. That's absolutely fine, we understand that but those of you who wanna hang out and ask us some questions or share some comments, share some feedback, you know this is really open time just for us to share some quality time virtually. And so I'll open the floor. We don't have a really good system for that and I'm not sure maybe Graham and Molly do you wanna add anything before we see who unmutes themselves next? All I was gonna say is, you know we're happy to take questions from you about our work. We'd also love hearing, you know what's going on in your community, on your farm and your family that's important to you that you think is something that we should know about at Real Vermont. More things in the kitchen and also in your kitchen. Making, are we working on making cheese and yogurt out of raw milk? I think I, was that Joan? Yeah, uh-huh. Awesome, I think Joan I'm gonna restate what I think I heard you say because I was a little came through a little garbled at the beginning but I think you had questions one about work towards allowing farmers to process their own chickens from on farm slaughter for sale and the other was value added products for raw milk. Yeah. I can speak to the second half of that question regarding raw milk and thanks for speaking up Joan. That's definitely an issue that has continually been raised by our farmer leadership team at least for the last 10 years as being something that would be incredibly economically supportive for raw milk producers and also something that customers are really wanting to have access to. And unfortunately, it's been a tough sell in the legislature lately and we face a decent to very stiff amount of opposition around that piece in particular and so we're constantly working with our team of raw milk leaders and guidance farmers that help us walk the right line and also weighing what we have the potential to actually change because every time we open raw milk legislation we know that there's a huge amount of opposition and we actually run the risk of the law becoming more restrictive and less fair to producers than we started out with. So there's a lot of strategy that goes into this work and I wanna hear you and really recognize that that's a big one and it's certainly something that's on our list for future and as the climate continues to change and we share more information and education around raw milk and the longer that these expansions to the law have a really positive track record all of that is really wonderful fodder and it makes a great case for us continuing to make expansions like this into the future. So let's stay in touch. We're definitely still gonna work on this issue and we're really happy to have you here. As anyone asked for the safety specific for raw milk producers because farmers of course use these products. I'm having a hard time hearing you Joan I would love to answer your question. I'm not sure if you're able to use the chat but we could see that the audio is just a little bit hard to hear. Caroline, do you wanna address Joan's question all about the poultry processing? It sounds like I think Caroline's been having connectivity issues all evening. I mean, I just didn't hear the question yet. I think Molly asked for posting the question in the chat and I was sort of also waiting to see if something pops up. Or did Graham, did you understand the question? Yeah, and I think Joan did. She wrote it earlier in the chat during the meeting. It was a question about being excited to see the workshops around the poultry processing from the consumer end but wondering if there's gonna be a push or if folks have asked from farmers have asked for a push to push for the allowance of farmers processing their own chickens for sale from on farm slaughtered poultry. Yeah, that's a good question. We have had discussions about that a little bit recently. That is one of two asks we're debating. And of the two, it is the more difficult one because processing on farms would have to come with a certain sanitary standard and it'll still not lead to the meat being inspected and therefore it's a whole big difficult new arena to step into having on farm processing of any meat whether that's poultry or livestock. And since we will approach that CSA with animal shares now in this, it's also the second half of our biennium which means we only have one term left, one year left to get something passed. So it's strategically not a good time to introduce something of that scale in the legislature for debate. We also don't wanna overstress the legislator's attention that they share with us. We think what's easier is the other ask we have on on farm slaughtered poultry and that is just to increase the marketability. And that would mean to have maybe an allowance for retail sale of on farm slaughtered poultry or other people's farm stands be allowed to sell on farm slaughtered poultry. I think that is a good argument to be made because it's already legal for restaurants to offer on farm slaughtered poultry. And it's also now, as you know, for raw milk possible to be sold through other people's farm stands. So that might be the easier lift and that might be something we can easily advocate for on the side of also having that debate on the CSAs with animal shares for the livestock that is slaughtered on farms. And then that gives us just a whole nother year that is next year to really have more of an in-depth conversation with who is actually interested in on farm processing of poultry so that farmers may be able to sell uninspected cuts. But we would also have to carefully really think about what that then means in terms of sanitary requirements that come that farmers might have to face. That's, yeah, it is a conversation we had a little bit and Liz Roma from Roma's Butchery had opinions to share about that. And one of that was that it's probably much more difficult than talking marketability. I just wanna say I saw Lee had a question earlier about rabies vaccination and cattle and potentially other ruminant livestock. And I'm not sure if that's concern has surfaced before but we can certainly add it to our list and happy to hear you speak more to that as well if you want to. Great, thank you. Well, first of all, Andrea, I wanted to say hi to you. And Caroline, I wanted to say hi to you. I'm getting to know a lot of you. Shelby, I've known you for a long time. So hello. I just came from Texas and I met with the farm to legal defense fund. They thought I had an MP Kennedy from the raw milk, whatever that organization is. They thought I had a really good case. And I just was wondering how I might find other farmers that might wanna join on this case with me. They said maybe they could help defend me, get a defendant or sorry, they might help me get a lawyer or Vermont Law School might help me get a lawyer. So that was one thing. And then I have a whole another thing and that's from my raw milk micro dairy. I'm only milk two cows. So I've read the whole statute and it's fascinating. I wanna thank you for your help. But I have another thing, another request from rural Vermont. Will you be hosting any Zoom classes? I think you did one last year that really walked us through all the protocols for on farm slaughter and what the legalities are in that because didn't you just do that last year like a really long like three hour class? Well, it was a forum that we got the agency of agriculture to host. Yeah. That video is still online on the agency's website. I'm not sure if it's if it's, if it's helpful, you know, look at it and let me, I'm happy to find the link here as we talk and posted in the chat for you. And if you wanna check that out, it would be very helpful for us to know how helpful that appears. We did it, we attended it and we thought it was great. It's just, it's a lot to do. We had three of us and we were working on it. It's just a lot to do. We think we've done most of it. You know, and if you still have open questions, that's the thing we do. We open, we answer any policy inquiries on an ongoing basis. So if it's really for you an implementation question that you don't wanna ask the agency directly. So how does your farm comply with the on farm slaughter law for livestock? Do you meet the requirements? We can talk through that just amongst us and see, you know, I can share with you what I know about the law and we can hear what you do. And if there's any concern or discrepancies that I see and there's an open question that we might not resolve, I'm happy to call the agency on your behalf and see what their responses. So you can stay anonymous and don't have to reveal your situation if that's favorable. And so even, and that would be my first approach. You know, we can do that anytime. Not sure if we will do a virtual forum on on farm slaughter guidance during the legislative session but I appreciate that feedback and that is certainly something we should consider organizing also in that I appreciate you saying that that virtual format was helpful. We're just also on, there's, you know why we don't do that? Like we asked the agency to issue guidance because there's actually some gray zones in the law where there's also really hard to know if you're doing it correctly or not. And so our stance is there's a lot of legal uncertainty related to the law and it's actually the agency the ones who have to give us guidance and tell us what is right or what is wrong. And the agency now we discovered is actually openly in the unknown about what is correct and not under the federal allowance. So we actually are in the middle of discovering with the agency themselves through direct conversations with FSIS what is permissible or not for states within their own farm slaughter laws. So that the agency themselves are a little more decisive with producers on what they can or can't do and that producers like you don't have to be in the gray about if they're doing it correct or not. So that's if you join our on farm slaughter group be in touch with me. Again, I put my email in the chat I'll send updates on that because we really, we know that there's a need for more clarity. And right now it's all individual inquiries and individual consulting because what we think is the law at rule Vermont is in discrepancy to what the agency puts out there. And that's not a good situation to be had. Thank you. Hi Caroline, are you all in support of the primates? Yes. I didn't hear the question. My computer was too slow. Can you repeat that Lee? Are you, is rule Vermont in favor of the primates? We are cosign. This is work, all the federal work we are in coalition with the national family farm coalition who basically shepherd that advocacy on the federal level. So we always sign, we sign what they say. Great, thank you. I think I saw that Gloria raised her hand earlier. I did. Is my microphone working? Yeah. Thank you Gloria. Just curiously what your problem is with the rabies shops because I saw milk and frankly, we were vaccinating before it was even required because we've had rabid animals in our pasture. I would never, ever not vaccinate. So I'm just really curious what your concern is with it? We're biodynamic farmers and we haven't seen any rabies anywhere. Vermont is one of the only states if not the only state in the country to acquire this and we don't think it's necessary at all. The only way you would ever get milk into a customer's bottle is if you were milking a rabid cow which would not happen. I get that, but I won't get it. Well, I'm sorry, you asked me, Gloria. Do you want me to answer? Should an animal become rabid? It has no consequence. It wouldn't harm the farmer unless they stuck their hand down their throat. I mean, I've read the whole statute. It's not. Because I have a friend who was attacked by a rabid cow. That's cramped. I'm more worried about my cow losing a good cow. I'm not, I don't have a big herd.  Well, you must live in the western part of the state because we've only been in about three or four accounts of this in the past 15 years. So that's a really reform. Yeah, no, I live on the Connecticut River. I'm just curious, like you said, why, what you find the issue is. Well, we're just biodynamic farmers. It doesn't go along with organic farming. Okay. I have to talk to you more about this. Sure. No, and from our perspective, I really appreciate the question, Gloria, because it's just helpful to hear your people's perspectives. And, you know, for both of you, you're both welcome to call in and form us more and we can have these conversations. I just didn't realize, like you said, I didn't, I don't think I realized it was no one who's biodynamic or organic standards. Whatever. It's a thousand dollar fine a day. If you do not do what the state health department asks, and I don't think it's that relevant. Oh, I get it. And I never, I never thought it was important myself until we had to call the state the first time to come and retrieve the rabbit raccoon from my cow pasture. And then all of a sudden, yeah, haven't...  No, I haven't. But somebody I know, their brother on a dairy farm was, and I said, how did you know it was rabbit? She said, well, we didn't know until it went after her brother and then they had to have it. I don't know. I don't remember the whole story, but she told me about it. I was like, oh, okay. But I just don't want to lose a cow. That was my concern. A rabbit cow can go into isolation and then you can watch it and treat it. Okay, wow. Did that ever happen to one of your cows, which is very, very unlikely, but should it happen, you can isolate it. But anyway, we're probably taking up too much time. You all be glad to talk to you about this another time. I love to hear more about it then. That's been our only concern twice. So, we figured we were pushing our luck. Well, look at the statute. They describe all the cases. It's interesting. Okay. Thank you both so much for sharing and for the dialogue. I really appreciate a very respectful back and forth discourse. And I'd encourage you to use the chat so you can privately message each other with contact information or publicly or if you want to invite others to join this conversation. And then I'd like to open things up. So, we've talked a lot about what Royal Vermont has done over the past year and we have a lot of ideas for what's to come. And we also want to hear from you. And so, just encourage you all to use the opportunity of having us here at your beck and command to answer any questions or concerns or thoughts and ideas that you might have. And folks can use the chat. And if folks don't have immediate questions, then maybe Caroline and Graham you could talk a little bit about what's down the road legislatively that folks might be interested in hearing. Sure. So yeah, of course, the next legislative session is ahead of us only a couple of weeks till January. And we're also not quite sure yet how it will look like if it'll be all in person is very unlikely. So it'll be some sort of hybrid, I'm sure. Amy Schoenberger is also on the call. So maybe Amy, if you want to chat what you know that will be, I'm sure of interest of folks. But assuming it'll be hybrid, I will surely make my way back into the state house being fully vaccinated. I'm looking forward to in-person contact with legislators as it is sort of essential for the work we're trying to do. That was really a challenge in the last year. And we're looking forward to the advancements to the on-front slaughter law that we have outlined. Graham outlined a little bit the work of the cannabis equity coalition that we will shepherd through. If folks are interested to hear more about that from Graham sure he's welcome to elaborate a little bit on that. And then also that work from the climate council is coming down the pipe with a lot of recommendations that will be interested to monitor what will be, what legislators will be thinking of implementing from those recommendations now. And so there will be lots of discourse happened around that. And then also about the ag strategic plan that the front plate network has put together the whole network is in reorganizing mood. So all eyes on how to implement the plan. And that also will have some legislative consequences. I'm sure so will be really eager to engage with that. And aside from that, I must say honestly there's also going to happen a lot outside of the legislative process for rule of a month next year. There's a lot of rulemaking happening. As I mentioned earlier, there's the compost rules. There's the amendments of the required agricultural practice rules. Then there's the cannabis rules. And then we also advocate for agency of natural resource to do rulemaking on deep packaging technology. So altogether rulemaking and legislative process will be quite a focus for the next couple of months. And of course, and then aside from that there's a lot of partner organizations that we support that we also support with our advocacy whether that is no problem on the agenda whether that is micro justices agenda whether that's the neighbors networks agenda whether that is in indigenous laws that gains some traction potentially next session. So we'll stay to elsewhere too. Farm to school will have an agenda that we'll be supporting. So it's in many ways also time for fostering collaboration where possible to get things done. I thought I'd just chime in quickly here because I saw at least question on Horizon, Danone and sort of what's going on with that as well. And I'm happy if for Molly or others also to chime in here but I'll try to give a quick roundup of some of the work that we're all been doing around that. I'd say one in our primary concern is these farmers themselves right now in their situation they're clearly in a very vulnerable place their contracts leave them very vulnerable. And just knowing that they're gonna lose their market next year is an incredibly vulnerable place to be in. So we've been doing our best to reach out to the farmers that we know in our networks or who are being put in touch with us to hear from them directly. We're also fortunate to have folks on our board and our networks who are directly involved with either the organic milk market or working on the ground with farmers and we rely on them as well for input. We also have relationships with NOFA with VOF with regional and national groups where we've been able to have some conversation. I attended the last dairy task force meeting convened by the agency of agriculture where there are organic farmers also reps from NOFA from VOF from Stonyfield, et cetera involved and some of the primary things we've heard so far is that most of these farmers they want sort of more or less the same more or less to continue to have the same thing happening which means a milk truck showing up at their farm taking their milk, they keep producing organically that would be the ideal situation for them. We heard recently that Stonyfield's picking up some you don't know how many we know organic Valley is very interested in picking up more we don't know how many yet. So we're sort of in this early stage of understanding what's gonna be possible to meet those farmers' needs directly as best as possible. That's sort of one end of things. I'd say the other end of things is how we consider actions and relationship to Horizon Danone and I would say corporate agriculture in general. And in this respect, you've also been in conversations with migrant justice because it's really important for us to remember that as we're fighting for these farms that there's also farm laborers and that organic standards don't necessarily assure just labor conditions. And if we're gonna be fighting these farms you also have to know that we were fighting for these farm workers. And thinking about what's that intersection? How can we use this an opportunity to potentially gain a lot of ground on both ends for farmers and for farm workers? And so we're still relatively early in this. I know that's sort of strange to say given the momentous how consequential the action this was from Danone, et cetera. But as I said, we're really trying to make sure we're not overstepping our boundaries and we're making sure that we're not compromising farmers' safety and recognizing their vulnerability as a current situation while also recognizing as we have for years in this work at Role Vermont and some of our partners have that we need to really push back against this corporate agricultural global corporate agricultural agenda. We did write a, not directly related to the Danone Horizon situation but we did partner with the National Family Farm Coalition, Federation of Southern Cooperatives and others and writing an op-ed this last fall about the Justice for Black Farmers Act and the Relief for Small Farmers Act. But I think that article really dovetails with this situation and really shows the impact not just of Danone, but of corporate agriculture in the US and globally and making those connections. So I think for us it's important both to be focusing on this situation but also making the connection between this situation and this particular global agribusiness but also the nature of global agribusiness in general and how it affects our day-to-day lives as small farmers in the US but also as we were talking to Niels from La Via Campesina the other day, small farmers across the planet in Nicaragua in parts of Africa and other parts of Central and South America in Europe, et cetera, Canada. So maybe I'll leave it there and see if Molly in particular you wanna add anything because Molly also works on commodity dairy with me as well. Thanks, Graham. I think you did a really nice job of summing that up and I think the only thing that I would add is that there are folks that are, the average age of the farmer is somewhere around 67, I believe. So there are a number of these farmers that are sort of at the end of their working career and looking to potentially get out to retire, whatever it may be. But there's also a number of farmers that are in their early 30s and they have young kids and they're banking on being dairy farmers for the rest of their lives and raising their children that way and paying their bills that way and feeding their families that way. And so these are the folks that were really holding in our hearts and in our minds as we do this advocacy and do this work because as Graham said, we need long-term solutions. We need to address the problem of corporate consolidation because even if between organic valley and Stonyfield, folks are able to find a market for the farmers that wish to continue milking that doesn't get to the root of the problem. It just sort of stops the immediate crisis at hand. And so we recognize that there's just, with the current way that commodity agriculture and the corporate consolidation is set up, there's just going to be the same issue later down the road. And so we're really, again, looking at long-term solutions, how we can support these folks in a meaningful way, not just through this year, not through next year or the next five years or 10 years, but really long-term as part of our food sovereignty and therefore our food security. And I see your question, Leigh, there about this. Is there a direct protest at the moment? And I think a number of people are doing their individual protests and there may be organizations that are trying to collectively organize right now. And for us, we're sort of in the place of trying to strategically group with these farmers with other organizations to consider what that can look like, how to both keep these folks protected, but also have a consequential impact from our action. So I would say, keep an eye going forward, at least from rural Vermont, and keep your eyes open more broadly for other opportunities, but we all have the clear ability to have our individual protests, but I'm sure there will be more collective actions coming soon. We're really just trying to make sure that we have our, not to use a poor metaphor, but our bases covered and just to make sure that we have the appropriate players in place, et cetera, and are part of a strategic movement that can make a difference on this. So I'd say, we will be in touch more and certainly be in touch with us as well. If there's no further questions, I would say we might wrap it up here. I certainly smell dinner, unless there's any final comments. And then with that, I thank you all so much for hanging out another little bit with the policy team and rural Vermont. And come join again and hope to see you soon in person. That would be more fun, for sure. Thank you. All right, have a good night, everybody. Thanks, everybody. Thanks.


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