In her timely new book, Teresa M. Mares explores the intersections of structural vulnerability and food insecurity experienced by migrant farmworkers in the northeastern borderlands of the United States. Through ethnographic portraits of Latinx farmworkers who labor in Vermont’s dairy industry, Mares powerfully illuminates the complex and resilient ways workers sustain themselves and their families while also serving as the backbone of the state’s agricultural economy. In doing so, Life on the Other Border exposes how broader movements for food justice and labor rights play out in the agricultural sector, and powerfully points to the misaligned agriculture and immigration policies impacting our food system today.

About the Author

Teresa M. Mares is Associate Professor of Anthropology at the University of Vermont.

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List of Tables and Illustrations
Acknowledgments

Introduction
Bordering Visible Bodies
A Distinctive Rural Place?
Farmworker Injustice Grows in Every Field
Harvesting a Different Product: What Makes Dairy
Work Unique
It’s Not Just about the Numbers
Migrating through the Chapters to Come

1 • Vulnerability and Visibility in the Northern Borderlands
Border Violence and Vulnerability
“There’s No Mexicans in Vermont!”
There Are Indeed Mexicans in Vermont
Encerrado
The Trump Effect

2 • More than Money: Extending the Meanings and
Methodologies of Farmworker Food Security
Living with Food Insecurity on Both Sides of the Border
Feeding the Nation but Not Being Fed
Measuring the Immeasurable? Assessing Dairy Worker Food Insecurity
with the (Quantitative) Tools at Hand
Telling the Stories of Food Insecurity When Numbers Fall Short
Food Insecurity Crosses All Borders

3 • Cultivating Food Sovereignty Where There Are Few Choices
Growing a Project from Seed
Immigrant Gardens as Fertile Ground for Food Sovereignty
They Tried to Bury Us—They Didn’t Know We Were Seeds
Challenging Cultural Borders through Experiential Learning

4 • They Are Out, They Are Looking: Providing Goods and
Services under Surveillance
WIC: From Door-to-Door Delivery to EBT
Doing a Lot with Very Little in the Field of Public Health
Trunks Full of Banana Leaves and Phone Cards: The Individuals
Serving the Farmworker Community

5 • Resilience and Resistance in the Movement for Just Food and Work
Navigating the Roles of Researcher and Activist
A Timeline of Accomplishments—and Setbacks
Immigrant Rights Are Human Rights!
(Something Other than) Reform or Revolution?

Conclusion
The Promise and Complications of Doing Ethnography at Home
The Politics of Visibility in the Borderlands
The Everyday Meanings of Food Sovereignty
The Transformative Potential of Worker-Led Food Movements
Some Final Thoughts

Appendix 1: Semi-Structured Interview Guide for Farmworkers
Appendix 2: Semi-Structured Interview Guide for Service Providers
Notes
Bibliography
Index

Reviews

"Mares’s book contributes enormously to the fields of critical ethnography, borderland studies, and immigration studies,
and would be an excellent addition to any classroom or public discussion of labor rights and food justice."
— Gastronomica

"[Mares] successfully conveys the importance and value that agricultural laborers bring to our food system, and how their identities are often erased from the consumer experience further down the value chain."
— Journal of Agriculture, Food Systems, and Community Development

"The most significant contribution of the book is its artful balance of structural vulnerability and agency. . . . This is not just another tale of im/migrant worker woe—rather, we see how farmworker-led activism, and university-community partner-
ships, can make progress toward food justice, even in the oppressive context of the 'other' borderlands."
— Anthropology of Work Review

“Life on the Other Border is at once a critical analysis of the inequities, fear, and invisibility experienced by dairy farmworkers in the picturesque landscape of Vermont and a compelling tribute to them. The individuals and families Teresa M. Mares introduces in this book inspire us toward a more truly just and equal society as they care for one another, advocate for fair treatment and policy, and provide us with the food that nourishes us.”––Seth M. Holmes, author of Fresh Fruit, Broken Bodies

"Mares reveals the multiple borders that Vermont immigrants contend with, applying border theory well beyond the familiar US–Mexico border. Life on the Other Border will be a revelation to many readers who think that border surveillance primarily affects the US–Mexico borderlands or who associate Vermont with a bucolic landscape full of family farmers and happy cows. Ultimately, she shows how Latinx immigrants have suffered for the dairy industry and why, against all odds, they have become the new leaders of farm worker justice in the United States."––Matt Garcia, author of From the Jaws of Victory: The Triumph and Tragedy of Cesar Chavez and the Farm Worker Movement

"This book breaks new ground by examining the intersections of the global food system, migration, gender, and food practices of resistance and resilience among Mexican and Central American farmworkers in Vermont. Most are undocumented workers and have to contend with their proximity to the Canadian border and the dangers of being arrested or even deported. This is a timely and highly significant ethnography."––Ellen Oxfeld, author of Bitter and Sweet: Food, Meaning, and Modernity in Rural China

About the Book

About the Author

From Our Blog

National Hispanic Heritage Month Reading List

Table of Contents

Reviews