In a first for the dairy industry, the ice cream company Ben & Jerry’s has signed an agreement to eventually buy all of its milk from Vermont dairies that uphold rigorous standards for treatment and pay of employees. The standards, known as Milk with Dignity, were devised by the workers themselves and based on the Fair Food Program established by tomato workers in Florida under the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW).
“Under Milk with Dignity, workers who earn less than Vermont’s official living wage (which works out to between $10.60 and $12.41 an hour, depending on the county) will receive bonuses of $50 a month,” says Civil Eats. “The program will also assure that they get five paid sick days each year, adequate breaks during work hours, and at least eight consecutive hours off each day. It guarantees workers adequate housing, and does not allow rents deducted for lodging to cause workers’ take-home pay to fall below the state minimum wage of $10 per hour.”
Milk with Dignity relies on a third-party monitoring system, paid for by Ben & Jerry’s.
While the Vermont dairy industry often paints a bucolic picture of itself, with green pastures and picturesque family-owned farms, the reality is far more industrial. “The state’s $2.2 billion dairy industry is dominated by 800 large farms, most of which keep hundreds of cows in small, individual stalls inside warehouse-like structures with no access to pasture,” says Civil Eats. Most of the state’s 1,500 dairy workers are Latino and undocumented.
“A survey conducted in 2014 revealed that 40 percent of workers had no days off and were paid less than minimum wage,” says Civil Eats. “One-third put in seven hours or more at a time without a break, even to eat. One-fifth had their pay illegally withheld.”
Presently, Ben & Jerry’s purchases 80 percent of its milk from Vermont. The ice-cream maker has said it intends to source all of that milk from Milk with Dignity farms in the coming years.