CAS Scholar-Teacher Lecture

Consumers are increasingly concerned with what goes into their food and are demanding a healthier and more ecologically focused food system. However, labor is rarely part of the so-called sustainable food discussion. This talk examines the legal, social, and political contexts of labor in the food system, highlighting themes of migration, agrarian exceptionalism, and racial and gendered inequality. Stretching from dairy farms in Vermont to superstores around the country, today’s food and farmworkers are on the frontlines. Given that their work is essential to the food security of the nation, what will it take to bring dignity to their lives and labor?

Teresa Mares is an Associate Professor of Anthropology at the University of Vermont, where she has been a faculty member since 2011. She is also affiliated faculty with the Graduate Program in Food Systems. For the past two decades, Dr. Mares has been conducting ethnographic research on topics related to food security, immigration, labor, and food justice, both in the Pacific Northwest and in New England. She is the author of Life on the Other Border: Farmworkers and Food Justice in Vermont (UC Press 2019) and co-author of Will Work for Food: Labor Across the Food Chain (UC Press 2025).