There’s nothing like an exciting event on the farm to get the weeds pulled, flowers planted, and the barn pressure washed just in time for Mark McAfee, chairman of the Board for the Raw Milk Institute, to come back to the farm on Monday, July 23! About 45 Raw Milk Producers will be traveling from all over the state of Oregon to gather here at Champoeg Creamery to take part in a Raw Milk Institute Training Day. This will be the first time raw milk producers in Oregon have united for training and networking, and this occasion will mark the start of educational opportunities to be presented throughout the year offering support to raw milk producers.
Mark will be flying in to spend the day presenting the newly published common standards you can find here. The day will be packed full of presentations to teach, encourage and inspire, a farm tour, discussions about producing raw milk in the state of Oregon, and many other topics. Bringing this training and the RAWMI standards to Oregon producers will help jump start our efforts to unify and self-regulate.
Also, given the “off the radar” atmosphere Oregon raw milk producers usually work within due to the exemption prohibiting us from advertising, just having this gathering where we can meet like-minded colleagues will help create a supportive farming network benefiting producers and contributing to insuring the production of safe raw milk.
We are so honored our farm was chosen as the site for this presentation and look forward to meeting all raw milk producers we now only know by name or email on the internet, and facilitating new farming relationships across the state!
