Agri-Mark Vice President Catherine DeRonde tried to explain to task force members that the federal milk order pricing system Is based on what raw milk is worth.

“No one buys raw milk right?” DeRonde said. “So we have this disconnect between the supplier and the consumer. So to try to fill that gap what the Federal Order Pricing tries to do is say okay well consumers don’t buy raw milk. What do they buy and let’s use those market prices to back into what the value of raw milk is and what we should pay our farmers. Through a series of frankly tedious equations relates those commodity prices and what components of milk are in those commodity prices back to raw milk essentially. You know that’s how we pay our farmers.”

At the same time the legislative task force is looking to revitalize the dairy industry, the Vermont Agency of Agriculture is holding forums on behalf of the Governor’s Commission on the Future of Vermont Agriculture. A recent conversation focused on young farmers and their visions for agriculture’s future. Ashlyn Bristle, who owns Rebop Farm in Brattleboro, says financial and regulatory support for farmers is crucial.

“I want to see a support of regulatory pathways for young farmers,” Bristle said. “I think that’s part of what drew me here. I think it’s a part of the success of my story. I want to see lots of thoughts about what of kinds of people we want to see on farms. The same applies for racial justice for getting more BIPOC people onto lands and farming here. There have to be those pathways that allow people that don’t have access to capital or large amounts of capital to move onto lands in our state.”