Sending this on behalf of the Duttons and the industry overall. The VT House Agriculture Committee is taking testimony Thursday on a bill to provide financial relief to farmers affected by last year’s freeze. Please se the information below if you’d like to participate. -TB

Hello, fellow apple growers of Vermont,

I am emailing you to encourage you to step forward and give witness testimony for the frost that affected our apple crop last May. We lost between 80-90% of our apple crop on our farm in Windham county. Bill H.813, or the Tree Fruit Farmer Assistance Program, is going to be reviewed by the House Committee on Agriculture tomorrow at 2:45 pm; testimony will be given by Casey Darrow (Green Mountain Orchards), Simon Renault (Scott Farm) and Joseph Dutton (Dutton Berry Farm). The committee is open to testimony, again on Thursday at 1:00 pm; if any of you are available to testify I encourage you to. You can attend in person or on zoom. For further information on how you can testify, email SLary.

In case you are not aware Bill H.813 (An act relating to establishing the Tree Fruit Farmer Assistance Program) was put forth by Rep. Arrison of Weathersfield, and Rep. Mrowicki of Putney, (Anthony of Barre City, Burke of Brattleboro, Chase of Chester, Hooper of Burlington, Ode of Burlington, Patt of Worcester, Rice of Dorset, Sibilia of Dover, and Surprenant of Barnard) on the 16th of January. If this bill is passed, farmers will be able to submit an application and be eligible to receive aid for lost revenue from our apple crops.

Thank you all for reading this, and thank you to everyone who is working towards getting this bill passed or any other aid that will help us after this loss.

BILL AS INTRODUCED H.813 2024 Page 1 of 3

House Committee on Agriculture, Food Resiliency, and Forestry Agenda

Lily Dutton, on behalf of Dutton Berry Farm

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