Like farms across the United States, Vermont’s farms have been deemed “essential businesses” as the COVID19 pandemic ravages the nation’s health and economy. By extension, those working on these farms—including the 1000–1200 Latinx immigrant farmworkers laboring in Vermont’s dairy economy—are classified as “essential workers.” The cruel irony of immigrant farmworkers being seen as essential while simultaneously facing further repression and exploitation is perhaps most blatant in Trump’s recent proposition (crafted by Chief of Staff Mark Meadows and Agriculture Secretary Perdue) to lower the pay for an estimated 250,000 guest workers in the food system as a supposed solution to the economic consequences of the pandemic. Indeed, as many labor advocates have postulated, perhaps a better classifier for these essential workers in the food systems during these harrowing times is “sacrificial.” In my 2019 book, Life on the Other Border, I described the forces—political, economic, and social—that have pushed Vermont’s farmworkers deep into the state’s shadow economy:

中文翻译：

---

“居家令对奶业农民工意味着什么”

与美国各地的农场一样，佛蒙特州的农场被视为“必不可少的企业”，因为 COVID19 大流行严重破坏了该国的健康和经济。通过扩展，在这些农场工作的人——包括在佛蒙特州乳制品经济中劳动的 1000 至 1200 名拉丁移民农场工人——被归类为“基本工人”。在特朗普最近的提议（由参谋长马克梅多斯和农业部长珀杜制定）中，移民农场工人被视为必不可少，同时又面临进一步的镇压和剥削，这一残酷的讽刺也许是最公然的，该提议降低了大约 250,000 名客工的工资。食品系统作为应对大流行的经济后果的假定解决方案。事实上，正如许多劳工倡导者所假设的那样，在这些悲惨的时期，对于食品系统中的这些基本工人来说，一个更好的分类可能是“牺牲”。在我 2019 年出版的《彼岸生活》一书中，我描述了推动佛蒙特州农场工人深入该州影子经济的政治、经济和社会力量：