Milked

Ruth Conniff, a longtime journalist who once served as editor-in-chief of The Progressive, looks at dairy farming in western Wisconsin, where migrant laborers, most of them from Mexico and many without legal status, are estimated to make up about 80 percent of the workforce. Across rural towns and farming regions, workers from Mexico have grown indispensable, and the farmers who hire them rely on that labor just as much as the workers rely on the jobs.

Conniff focuses on the people at the center of this arrangement: the migrants who milk cows and keep the farms running, and the employers who depend on them. Those employers include many white voters who helped put Donald Trump in office in 2016. The book also follows the friendships that have developed between these two groups, which cut against the hostility that often defines debates about immigration.

The book examines two converging crises. Farm bankruptcies in the Upper Midwest have reached record levels, and immigration has become one of the most heated subjects in American politics. Conniff traces how policy changes over recent decades, on both sides of the border, have shaped this landscape, and she ties the story to labor, race, food, economics, and the relationship between the United States and Mexico. She shows how both groups are buffeted by the same global economic pressures.

Written for readers interested in rural life, immigration, and the economics of American food, the book argues that the connections forged between these communities could point toward a more constructive politics and a better future.