Utterly Hazardous: California Dairy Workers and Rising Industry Concentration, Production, and Risks

• In Event: Labor and Labor Movements Section Refereed Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable (60 minute): Roundtable 1: Environmental Hazards, Rural Labor, and Ecological Inequality

Abstract

Global forces that emphasize free market competition and minimal state intervention (i.e. neoliberal globalization) has reshaped U.S. dairy farming through consolidation, industrialization, and mounting competitive pressures. California is perhaps the best case in point. Over the past 20 years, California has experienced a rise in dairy farm industry concentration and production, shaping the experiences of largely immigrant and often undocumented dairy workers. Dairy workers are among the most vulnerable laborers, facing multiple health and safety hazards, a limited economic safety net, and exclusion from key federal labor protections. Dairy work is around the clock unlike other farmwork, though similar in that workers face work risks that deprioritize workers’ humanity and health (Brownwen Horton 2016). Like other farmworkers, dairy workers find themselves with limited protections created in part by global forces that required them to leave their homelands in the first place (Holmes 2013). This paper shares findings from 31 semi-structured interviews with dairy workers conducted from October 2024 to February 2025 in California’s Central Valley, where most California dairy farms exist. Interviews provide firsthand narratives of workers who have labored in the dairy industry, often before and during COVID-19 and the recent bird flu outbreak. Interview findings delineate the prioritization of production over health, the persistence of employer standards noncompliance, and the limited economic safety net of workers shaping their reporting of illness. We also presents data from the USDA Census of Agriculture (2002- 2022) and the National Agricultural Statistics Quick Stats (2002- 2024), showing steady increases in California's milk production, milk sales, and the percent of dairy farms in the state with a cow inventory of 1,000 or more. We suggest industry concentration and the increased demand for production shape the scope of dairy workers’ exposures to new and or persistent work hazards and risks. We end with a call to action to ameliorate these risks and expand the rights of workers.

Authors

• Jennifer Elena Cossyleon, University of California-Merced

• Andres Arias, University of California-Merced