Citizens Shake their Cream into Butter at the State Legislature
Food Politics
by Guest Blogger, Jessica Bernier, Vermont Coalition for Food Sovereignty
Our Butter Appreciation day at the Vermont statehouse was great! Our purpose was to openly challenge the Vermont Agency of Agriculture’s interpretation of Act 62 (the Unpasteurized Milk Law) by conducting butter making lessons inside the State House.
We arrived at the statehouse with each volunteer bringing their own jar of cream. I had my boys with me and we brought the supplies up. Checked in with the sergeant at arms and headed to Rm 10. There was a chamber of commerce mtg breaking up. Anthony Pollina (one of my state senators and founder of Rural Vermont) was there. When he realized why we were there he said he had a committee mtg and he’d try to get back down when we were set up. We didn’t see him again. It was a pretty busy day, made more noticeable by the extra security. More butter “shakers” came with the rest of the supplies.
The first reporter to arrive was Thatcher Moats from the Times-Argus. He spent quite a while asking questions, great quotes and photo in the article (see photo at the end of this post). Then Anson Tebbetts came from WCAX. Just then we were visited by a group of 4th graders on a class trip to the Capitol. It was BEAUTIFUL. The room was packed and all the kids got to help make butter. Anson interviewed me and he got quite a bit of footage. I was hoping they wouldn’t use what they ended up using because I wasn’t very articulate right then!
John Dillon came from Vermont Public Radio. Between the three of them they talked to almost all of us so there’s a nice diversity across them (haven’t heard the VPR piece yet but I didn’t talk to him at all) and people who read them all will see that it’s not just one voice here.
We got a lot of love from lobbyist Bob Stannard. He was fascinated at how easy making butter is and how good it was. Mary Lou got our Barre Town representatives Topper McFaun and Tom Koch to come down. They had some butter and we gave them more information about the issue (neither are on the ag committee where this has been concentrated). Rep. Cynthia Martin stopped in and talked about how she’s been making butter and yogurt forever from milk from her own cows. She runs a bed and breakfast and serves her home made product. She gave us a mini-yogurt lesson! Will Robb, event co-organizer, spent some time talking with Carolyn Partridge (chair House Ag).
Then, we had lunch in the cafeteria and Rep Tony Klein (Rep of one of our members, Dexter, who is not on Ag Committee) came over to talk to him. We had a good little talk and then I ran into Sara Kittell (chair Senate Ag) after lunch, gave her some literature and the info sheet about us. She mentioned that I should come in to committee to talk about this. Jared Carter was on the calendar for today. According to this article in Commonsnews.org the language AoA and RV have been discussing should be introduced next week. It’s going to be very important that we have someone there.
And the butter making was really fun. We had a pretty wide varieties of cream available for use (not that we intended for it to be that way but everyone had a different kind and enough to share). Moe showed us how to make whipped butter. We brought crackers, and bread and we feasted. So much fun! No problems with the police by the way– the ones we talked to wanted to learn about making butter!
Here are some photos of the event on the facebook page.
Thank you so much to everyone who contributed to making this event the success it was. It’s something we should be very proud of.
Jessica Bernier is an outspoken housewife and mother of three primarily focused on issues that relate to individual liberty, food, and health freedom. She is the organizer of the Vermont Coalition for Food Soverignty.
The Vermont Coalition for Food Sovereignty (VCFS) is a grassroots coalition of individuals from highly divergent political, religious and socio-economic backgrounds. We are an entirely self-funded and self-motivated activist group dedicated to protecting our basic human right to save seed, grow, process, consume and exchange food and farm products within the state of Vermont. We are committed to addressing and resisting infringements on these rights in a positive, productive way. We are actively engaged in finding responsible solutions which increase opportunity and freedom for Vermont’s food producers and consumers while solidifying Vermont’s reputation as a vanguard in the local, healthy food movement.
