It's a lucrative market, by farming standards. Farmers get $5 to $7 a gallon for their unpasteurized, unhomogenized milk in Vermont, significantly better than the $1.72 or so they're presently fetching in the commodity market.

"If I could sell 50 gallons a day, that'd make just such a huge difference for me," John Clark said Thursday.

But Clark can't sell 50 gallons a day. A Vermont law passed in the 1980s sets a 25-quart daily sales limit on raw milk. On Thursday, in the Statehouse, lawmakers and farm advocates unveiled legislation that would abolish the cap on raw milk sales and allow farmers to advertise their wares, a practice also prohibited under Vermont law.

Amy Shollenberger, director of Rural Vermont, said during a press conference that the proposal will infuse the rural economy with a new revenue stream and preserve the state's dairy farms.

Source:Rutland Herald