Economic Hardship Reporting Project | A Watts
As Vermont’s $5.4bn dairy industry has consolidated and farm family labor has disappeared, workers without permanent legal status have become indispensable to the dairy business, which comprises more than half of the state’s agricultural economy. More than nine in 10 Vermont dairies surveyed in a 2025 state report employed a migrant workforce. Above: Workers, community members and activists with the Migrant Justice organization protest outside a Hannaford supermarket to call on the grocery store chain to join the Milk With Dignity program in November in South Burlington, Vermont.