Dairy Industry

Host Mikaela Lefrak talks with Vermont's labor commissioner and advocates about child labor practices on dairies and elsewhere in the state.

A Vermont Senate committee has advanced legislation that would give domestic and agricultural workers the right to collectively bargain.

Ben & Jerry’s has released a statement promising to take decisive action when it learns of child labor on dairy farms supplying milk for its products.That's in response to a story from the New York Times about migrant children working in conditions in violation of labor laws across the U.S.

The Legislature has removed a $9.2 million appropriation in emergency aid for organic dairy farmers from legislation updating this year's budget. But lawmakers, the Agency of Agriculture and Northeast Organic Farmers Association of Vermont all say that they're working to get help to farmers.

The FDA says they found consumers "generally understand" that plant-based milk alternatives do not actually contain milk. Sen. Peter Welch, D-Vt., says it's false advertising.

Migrant Justice says farmworkers have filed complaints about nine farms through Hannaford’s Speak Up Line, and none of the conditions have been improved as a result.

Employees at the Dairy Farmers of America plant have set March 5 as the day they'll walk off the job if they're unable to reach a tentative agreement.

Multiple Vermont organic dairy farmers, some through tears, asked lawmakers on Thursday for a one-time $9.2 million appropriation to keep them in business. The industry is currently experiencing high costs of production and a stagnant pay price.

Last February, Vermont Public’s Anna Van Dine spoke with a farmer who’d suffered a catastrophic barn fire. Almost a year later, she followed up with him to see how things have gone since.

Around a long table — and over bottles of milk and maple cookies — at the Dairy Farmers of America cooperative in St. Albans on Wednesday, U.S. Sen. Peter Welch listened to how Congress might support Vermont's dairy industry.