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5:00 to 6:00 PM: Grange Program–Migrant Justice for VT farmworkers
April 3, 2021 @ 5:00 pm - 6:00 pm
“Milk with Dignity” campaign seeks better working conditions and protections for the immigrant workers who keep Vermont’s dairy farms going.
As we’ve learned in the last year, our food supply is brought to us by a previously unappreciated group of workers. We found out that “essential workers” include people who grow, process and ship our food and grocery items, and those who staff the stores where we buy them.
This month, our bi-monthly Grange Program series builds on some of the discussion at our last program (about Hollister Hill Farm in Plainfield) about farming, small farms vs. large agribusiness, state regulation and farmers’ rights. We’ll be looking at the community of immigrant farm workers who are a vital part of keeping Vermont’s hard-pressed dairy farms going. These in turn support major Vermont dairy industries, like Ben & Jerry’s and Cabot Cheese, plus the milk sold to dairy processors and grocery chains.
As it has been since the advent of the COVID-19 virus in our communities, our Program will be available via ZOOM. Grange Lecturer Carl Etnier has been in touch with Migrant Justice, the organization of those farmworkers which has been working since 2009 to gain rights and better working conditions for them. Carl has arranged for a showing of “Milk with Dignity” and “Impact of Milk with Dignity”, short films about Migrant Justice’s campaign to get corporations which buy Vermont milk to require the farmers who supply them to provide decent working conditions to farmworkers. Since the landmark agreement with Ben & Jerry’s in 2017, Migrant Justice has been campaigning to get other corporations–notably Hannaford’s Supermarkets–on board.
Carl is working to get a speaker from the farmworker community to join us as well–we’ll post the details on the Grange website Calendar as soon as they are confirmed. We’ll have a chance to discuss the films, what the campaign means for the people most directly affected, and ways that Grange members and friends can be part of this effort.
For more info on Migrant Justice, please visit their website: migrantjustice.net, to see info about the origin of the group, the injustices they work against, the awards they have received and the ongoing struggles they and their members face.