the history of Middlebury College's involvement with Goodrich Farm and the students seeking justice in our 'climate solutions'
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Middlebury College forms a relationship with Goodrich Farm in Salisbury, VT, exploring a biomethane gas plant to fuel campus. Read about it here.
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Formation of Migrant Justice sparked by the tragic death of farmworker José Obeth Santiz Cruz. Read more about it here. -
Read more about it here. -
Goodrich Family Farm files a request to build a renewable natural gas plant on its farm in Salisbury, VT, which will supply Middlebury College with energy. Read more about it here.
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Read more about it here. -
The partnership between Middlebury College, Goodrich Farm, Vanguard Renewables, and Vermont Gas Systems announced to build an anaerobic digester at Goodrich supplying “Renewable Natural Gas (RNG)” to Middlebury College and Vermont Gas customers. Read more about it here. -
Read more about it here. -
Representatives of Middlebury College, Vermont Gas, Vanguard Renewables, and Goodrich Family Farm are in attendance. It is the largest anaerobic gas digester in the Northeast. The RNG plant at Goodrich is celebrated as a technology that will get Middlebury one step closer to its Energy2028 goals. Read more about it here. -
Middlebury announces Energy2028 plan to transition to 100% renewables, reduce energy consumption, divest from fossil fuels, and commit to educational opportunities. This announcement is the culmination of work by Divest Middlebury, a seven-year campaign on campus for the College to divest from fossil fuels. Read more about it here and here. -
José Ramos is physically and verbally attacked and denied wages at Goodrich Farm, returns a few days later with a Migrant Justice organizer, and receives the same reaction. Read more about it here. -
50+ protestors (20 students) stood in solidarity with José. Goodriches were aggressive / violent. They charged into the crowd, pushed people, + shouted obscenities. They sent MJ a No Trespassing order. José does not receive his wages for over a year after a Dep of Labor complaint. Read more here. (Image: student protestors photo by Alex Dobin). -
Students meet with Dean of Sustainability and Enviro. Affairs Jack Byrne. Emphasizes that the partnership was non-negotiable and the College would not be involved in the farm’s ‘internal labor disputes.’ A second meeting occurred with Byrne, students, and Sharrow and Canedo of MJ. MJ offered to help the College renegotiate their contracts to incorporate farmworkers’ rights, which the College declines. Not long after, Byrne breaks all communication with the collective of student organizers.
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Students begin planning the next steps including consciousness-raising on campus and confronting Vanguard Renewables about the labor abuses. They allegedly did their “due diligence” in investigating the farm before constructing the digester. Communication is broken by Jack Byrne.
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Students Jaden H., Liv P., Alex C., Connor W., and Hannah E. outraged by lack of response from Middlebury write an op-ed in the Middlebury Campus and reach out to Migrant Justice and administrators. Read it here. -
Onset of Covid-19 pandemic in the US sends students home and stifles organizing efforts and the op-ed gets buried in the chaos.
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Environmental Justice subcommittee of the Middlebury Environmental Council (EC), in partnership with Middlebury’s Climate Action Capacity Project is tasked with developing recommendations toward a justice and equity framework for Energy2028. Recommendation can be read here. Presented to Byrne, Patton, Provost, etc. No follow-up is given and no actions are taken.
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Middlebury’s Sunday Night Environmental Group (SNEG) begins a working group to address Middlebury College’s greenwashing. These students, meeting remotely due to Covid-19, begin by researching into Renewable Natural Gas, Vermont Gas Systems, VGS’s greenwashing, the relationships between Middlebury, VGS, and Goodrich Farm, state regulation of fossil fuel infrastructure, Energy2028, and potential allies and barriers.
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Julie Macuga, former Co-Director and Fossil Fuel Resistance Organizer for 350VT, chats with SNEG and Middlebury Students about Vermont Gas' greenwashing and how Middlebury College is involved. The chat focused on harms of renewable natural gas and how the College is missing the mark on a Just Energy Transition. -
This brought the project A LOT of press. This article was written in VT Digger that reflects the prevailing apolitical slant. In the photo Left to Right: Erin Goodrich, Chase Goodrich, Nealle Lunderville (CEO of Vermont Gas), Gov. Phil Scott, former Lt. Gov. Molly Gray, David Provost (Midddlebury VP of Finance and Administration) -
Sunrise Middlebury, a hub for the national Sunrise Movement and an unofficial student organization on campus, sets a goal of pushing Middlebury to join the Milk with Dignity program or to hold suppliers to MD standards
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The Student Government Association (SGA) Environmental Sustainability Committee sends out an email to various student organizations including SNEG, Sunrise, and Juntos hoping to connect these organizations and some individuals to work together towards the goal of pushing the College to hold its suppliers to Milk with Dignity standards
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Now with in-person meetings and an influx of new members, brainstorming occurs around raising awareness within the student body regarding RNG and Goodrich Farm so that a larger mobilization can occur and pressure the administration into action
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Sophie Chalfin-Jacobs '22 and Molly Babbin '23 begin class projects for Theories of Change with Professor Dan Suarez focusing on Migrant Justice’s Milk with Dignity campaign and student organizing efforts to support Migrant Justice and expand Milk with Dignity
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Middlebury Center for Community Engagement (CCE) cancels the Dignity Tour stop on campus set for October 21st for Covid safety reasons, rudely providing only one day’s notice. Students organize a screening of the virtual Dignity Tour event on October 22.
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SGA hosts meeting bringing organizers together, solidarity campaign/working group forms! Outreach begins for Portland march.
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Middlebury Campus article investigating Middlebury’s relationship with Goodrich Farm and history of labor misconduct at Goodrich sparks conversation across campus and among administrators. Read the article by Jake Gaughan ('22) here.
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16 Middlebury students join hundreds marching at the Hannafords headquarters in Portland, Maine, led by Migrant Justice farmworkers and organizers. This sparks the emergence of the Middlebury College Student Solidarity Network to support Migrant Justice actions and farmworkers. Read more here and here. -
Student collective begins weekly meetings (rotating facilitation), formation of slack channels, email list, and google drive.
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Read it here. -
Erin Goodrich (or Student Affairs at Middlebury and wife of Chase Goodrich, the owner of Goodrich Farm) joined the MD Solidarity Network Slack without comment or invitation (despite the Nov. Campus article noting she declined comment due to 'conflict of interest.') She joined via a (now removed) link on a poster without reaching out. Students quickly removed her, blocked any confidential information, and messaged her asking about the situation. She expressed no interest in further communication.
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Natalia Schwien gave advice for upcoming meeting with Jack, Mike, and Mez: set parameters, goals, intentions. Shared that conversations in FEC leadership about Goodrich have occurred daily since the Nov. article; the internal structure of FEC + Energy2028 Committee is unclear with lots of overlap; and her goal of setting up a due diligence process but named anxiety within FEC about using the MD specifically (is “politicized.”) Proposed a parallel structure despite noting personal MD support.
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The meeting was initiated by Jaden (present in previous convos with Jack.) Limit imposed by Jack on # of students present. Mez: ES fac, Jack turned to for advice following the article, also Sophies prof. Moser: Dir. of Facilities, Energy Subcommittee of Energy2028, last point of contact with Goodrich. There is a word limit here but important meeting details can be found here.
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Students support Migrant Justice phonebank fundraising event See @middmwd on Instagram here for details. Phonebanking becomes a consistent practice among students, with the last phonebanking event taking place on May 1, 2023 (updated May 17, 2023).
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Addie Mahler '23 creates an easy-to-use guide for students who want to set up a phone-banking drive in front of Proctor or Ross dining halls. In the document, there are also instructions for how to set-up a tabling event at the local Middlebury Hannaford's, where people can share with shoppers information about the Milk with Dignity Program... until you get kicked out of course. GUIDE HERE.
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Discuss how students can support the campaign for Hannafords to join Milk with Dignity. This marks the official forming of the Middlebury Milk with Dignity Student Solidarity Network!
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Molly Babbin '23, Sophie Chalfin-Jacobs '22, Jaden Hill '22, Addie Mahler '23, and Andrés Oyaga '23 set up an independent study class with Linus Owens (Sociology) so that they can have class time to focus on MJ organizing. Highly recommend students connect with allied teachers to do a similar thing, if it feels right.
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Following the op-ed, individual staff and administrators at the College threaten legal action against Andrés; what follows is email confrontations/exchanges and mediation between Andrés and staff/administrators. Most staff are incredibly supportive of Andrés. Renee Wells and Mez advise Andrés, acting as conflict mediators.
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Molly Babbin ('23) and Andrés Oyaga ('23) meet for a 2-hour conversation with legendary climate organizer, Bill McKibben, to discuss the divest movement at Middlebury, how to navigate institutions, legal rights for organizers and activists, and general strategy ideas.
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Molly Babbin ('23) continues working with Migrant Justice throughout the summer, building off of work that began the previous few months. Addie Mahler ('23) continues tabling efforts at the beginning of summer 2022
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The Juntos Board for 2022-2023 begin planning an event with Migrant Justice in April, as a part of their "Milk with Dignity Tour."
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