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There\u2019s an idyllic, pastoral image that runs through dairy marketing. Green hills, red barns, black and white cows: that\u2019s the image that the new \u201cFair Trade Dairy\u201d label is selling. But that label papers over a long history of exploitation. 

This episode, we talk to Crispin Hernandez of the Workers\u2019 Center of Central New York. He\u2019s milked cows and put in long hours on farms selling to Chobani and he knows that the conditions are far from \u201cfair.\u201d He describes the real victories that farmworkers and human rights activists have won through organizing - and why Fair Trade USA\u2019s new \u201cFair Trade Dairy\u201d label is being opposed by the very people it claims to benefit.

Topics covered include:

• Chobani and Fair Trade USA\u2019s new partnership in the \u201cFair Trade Dairy\u201d label that claims to promote \u201cWorker Wellbeing.\u201d
• What a typical day looks like from the perspective of someone who has milked cows on farms selling to Chobani.
• Just because the pay is low, doesn\u2019t mean it\u2019s low skilled work - the skill and care that goes into working in a dairy barn. 
• Crispin and his fellow farm workers organize for better working conditions and recognition of their fundamental rights.
• \u201cNo Blood in Milk,\u201d how farmworkers and allies take action against workplace abuses.
• How plantation agriculture and outdated laws leave farmworkers vulnerable to exploitation. 
• Crispin and the Workers' Center of Central New York win a historic case that grants new protections for all farmworkers in New York State.

Do you work on a farm participating in the \u201cFair Trade Dairy\u201d program? We want to hear about your experiences. Send a message to info@fairworldproject.org or call (800) 631-9980.

Resources

Learn more about Crispin\u2019s work and the Workers\u2019 Center of Central New York at https://www.workerscny.org/en/home/

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