Milk with Dignity: Real Change Takes Time

11/02/21 • 42 min

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The products you see at the grocery store with labels that promise to protect people and the planet don’t tell the full story. And oftentimes those labels are full of empty promises. But what if there was another way to ensure products are sourced from farms that put workers’ rights ahead of marketing?

The Vermont-based and worker-led organization Migrant Justice is doing just that. They call their Milk with Dignity program a “new day for human rights in dairy,” and in this episode we talk with organizer Marita Canedo.

Topics covered include:

How the struggle for human rights and against corporate exploitation spans the globe.
How Migrant Justice was formed and grew to focus on fundamental rights and protections, including freedom of movement, dignified work and safe housing, and freedom from discrimination.
Migrant Justice’s successful campaign for driver’s licenses for all people in Vermont, regardless of their immigration status.
What Worker-driven Social Responsibility means and what it looks like for workers to lead in developing standards for enforceable human rights protections on dairy farms.
How programs like Milk with Dignity tackle the root causes of exploitation in the food system by addressing the power dynamics.
How the Milk with Dignity program protected essential workers throughout the pandemic.
How Milk with Dignity compares to the “Fair Trade Dairy” discussed in Episode 2.
Migrant Justice’s current campaign calling on Hannafords to join the Milk with Dignity program.

Resources:

Learn more about Migrant Justice: https://migrantjustice.net/ and see their impact reporting here.

On November 8th after a 3 week “Dignity Tour” around Northeast states, Migrant Justice is hosting a big action at Hannaford headquarters to call on them to join the Milk with Dignity program. Join them to show them that farmworkers are not alone, and that there is a national movement for dignity and economic justice in the dairy supply chains. For more information, go to their website, or https://www.facebook.com/events/441419114257654.

Outside the Northeastern U.S., you can still take action: Call on Hannafords to join Milk with Dignity online: https://migrantjustice.net/Hannaford-action-toolkit.

Fair World Project’s report, Label Before Labor compares Milk with Dignity to Fair Trade USA’s “Fair Trade Dairy” label: fairworld.info/labelbeforelabor.

Topics covered include:

How the struggle for human rights and against corporate exploitation spans the globe.
How Migrant Justice was formed and grew to focus on fundamental rights and protections, including freedom of movement, dignified work and safe housing, and freedom from discrimination.
Migrant Justice’s successful campaign for driver’s licenses for all people in Vermont, regardless of their immigration status.
What Worker-driven Social Responsibility means and what it looks like for workers to lead in developing standards for enforceable human rights protections on dairy farms.
How programs like Milk with Dignity tackle the root causes of exploitation in the food system by addressing the power dynamics.
How the Milk with Dignity program protected essential workers throughout the pandemic.
How Milk with Dignity compares to the “Fair Trade Dairy” discussed in Episode 2.
Migrant Justice’s current campaign calling on Hannafords to join the Milk with Dignity program.

Resources:

Learn more about Migrant Justice: https://migrantjustice.net/ and see their impact reporting here.

Outside the Northeastern U.S., you can still take action: Call on Hannafords to join Milk with Dignity online: https://migrantjustice.net/Hannaford-action-toolkit.

Fair World Project’s report, Label Before Labor compares Milk with Dignity to Fair Trade USA’s “Fair Trade Dairy” label: fairworld.info/labelbeforelabor.

Previous Episode

Fair Trade Dairy: A False Solution

Crispin Hernandez and the Workers' Center of Central New York won historic legal protections for farmworkers in Episode 1. Now they take their demands to Chobani’s doorstep, backed by a detailed report.

But instead of negotiating with workers, Chobani chose a different path. They partnered with Fair Trade USA to develop a new “Fair Trade Dairy” standard, and rolled out a “Milk Matters” platform. But they aren’t engaging with workers.

Topics covered include:

The massive growth of the industrial dairy industry at the expense of farm workers’ health and wellbeing.
Workers’ Center of Central New York’s research into conditions on dairy farms in New York State, including those selling to Chobani.
Crispin and organizers deliver their demands straight to Chobani’s doorstep, calling for recognition of their rights and negotiations.
Farm workers’ demand for an alternative to Chobai and Fair Trade USA’s “Fair Trade Dairy” label that requires Chobani to work with dairy farms that respect workers’ rights
How Fair Trade USA’s “Fair Trade Dairy” label was developed without farmworkers, a clear contrast from the farmworkers’ demands of Chobani
What has (and hasn’t) changed since Workers Center of Central New York brought their demands to Chobani’s door.

Do you work on a farm participating in the “Fair Trade Dairy” program? We want to hear about your experiences. Send a message to [email protected] or call (800) 631-9980.

Resources:

Learn more about Crispin’s work and the Workers’ Center of Central New York at https://www.workerscny.org/en/home/

Read the Milked report, detailing conditions on New York dairy farms written by Workers Center of Central New York and allies and presented to Chobani: https://milkedny.wordpress.com/

See the open letter to Chobani from New York worker groups detailing their demands and opposition to “Fair Trade Dairy”: https://www.workerscny.org/en/chobani-respect-workers-organizing-rights/

Find out where farm workers are organizing around the country and learn more about the work of Food Chain Workers’ Alliance: https://foodchainworkers.org/

Subscribe to For a Better World and be the first to know when new episodes drop: https://forabetterworld.captivate.fm/

Join Fair World Project’s email list to stay in the loop about efforts big and small you can be a part of to create a better world: https://fairworldproject.salsalabs.org/subscribe/index.html

Next Episode

Squeezed Out: Small Dairy Farmers in Crisis

There’s a crisis in the dairy industry – shrinking family farms, growing corporate consolidation, and low milk prices. And while the new “fair trade dairy” label depicts rolling green hills and picturesque red barns – that imagery is nothing more than a feel good marketing tactic.

In this episode, we hear how Jim Goodman – one of the hundreds of dairy farmers impacted by the dairy crisis – struggled to keep his family farm afloat and compete with the big dairy companies. Jim talks about how generations of failed farm policy motivated his current work with the National Family Farm Coalition’s Disparity to Parity project, an effort dedicated to mandating fair pricing and building “a racially just, economically empowered, and climate resilient food system.”

Topics covered include:

Corporate consolidation in the dairy industry and the explosion of mega dairies that are squeezing small dairy farmers out of business.
The “get big or get out” approach to U.S. farm policy and how it shaped the current state of the dairy industry in the U.S.
Organic dairy was originally a solution to match farmers with markets that would pay fairly for milk--what’s changed since the 1990s.
Family Farm Defenders’ idea of domestic fair trade encompassing “worker rights, food sovereignty, and global justice.”
Behind the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA)’s big promises for dairy farmers.
National Family Farm Coalition’s Disparity to Parity project and their vision for fair pricing and “a racially just, economically empowered, and climate resilient food system.”
The long history of global opposition to free trade deals and the commodification of food.
How the new “fair trade dairy” label is just another marketing scheme.

Resources

National Family Farm Coalition: https://nffc.net/

Disparity to Parity: https://disparitytoparity.org/

Family Farm Defenders: https://familyfarmers.org/

Bringing Fair Trade Home to the U.S., written by John Peck: https://familyfarmers.org/?page_id=653