CALLING ALL VIRGINIA FARMERS AND HOMESTEADERS!
On January 23, 2017 at 4:30 p.m. the House Sub-Agricultural Committee met about House Bill 2030.
Here’s an excerpt on HB 2030:
“Exempts a producer of food, including milk, products made from milk, and poultry, from regulations of the Board of Agriculture and Consumer Services so long as the sale of such food by the producer is made directly to the end consumer; the sale is conducted at a farmers market or through a home or farm; the food product contains no uninspected meat other than poultry; and the producer informs the end consumer that the food product is not certified, regulated, or inspected.”
Read the entire bill here.
HB2030 was not passed but will be on the agenda in the House Agriculture Sub-Committee for January 30th at 4:30 p.m, as they have gone back for revisions of the bill.
This bill could mean an incredible new income for homesteaders across the state, as well as an easier resource of farm to table food and raw milk to the consumer.
We highly encourage you to contact subcommittee members and the delegate in your district to tell them you are in favor of this bill and that you would like for them to co-sponsor these bills. Email is good, calls are even better!
Here’s who you need to contact —
Delegate Knight (804) 698-1081 email: DelBKnight@house.virginia.gov
Delegate Orrock (804) 698-1054 email: DelBOrrock@house.virginia.gov
Delegate Poindexter (804) 698-1009 email: DelCPoindexter@house.virginia.gov
Delegate Webert (804) 698-1018 email: DelMWebert@house.virginia.gov
Delegate Bloxom (804) 698-1000 email: DelRBloxom@house.virginia.gov
Delegate James (804) 698-1080 email: DelMJames@house.virginia.gov
Delegate Keam (804) 698-1035 email: DelMKeam@house.virginia.gov
There have been some changes to parts of this bill that would be very BAD for milk herd share owners – in particular, point #2 which currently states; 2. Any sale of raw milk shall occur on the premises of the seller’s farm. This is NOT GOOD. Apparently, in negotiations with Virginia Farm Bureau and the “Small Family Farm Foundation” Del. Freitas has changed it into a “Raw Dairy” bill WITHOUT the 3 cow exemption in the latest draft. This was as of Friday. The requirements are the same basically as for a commercial conventional dairy and therefore cost prohibitive, especially as you have to sell all the milk at the farm, AND it would be invasive of the farmsteader’s privacy. The verbiage keeps changing and all though most of this bill is good, the changing of the verbiage regarding the milk farmer to herd share owner is not good at all.