Cornell Cooperative Extension has organized a trip to Mexico for the state’s dairy farmers. I know a producer who took a similar trip last year, and the experience changed their daily lives.

Upstate New York dairy farmers are heading to Mexico to better understand what drives their workers thousands of miles to find jobs in our neighborhood. The farmers will spend a week in Mexico, learning about traditional farming, customs and life in their workers’ home villages.

John Mueller went last year, he said, in order “to try and understand about their culture and understand why they are the people that they are, and why they come here to help us milk cows and farm the way we do.” One of the ironies is that Mueller’s trip to Mexico is something his workers dream about. They’ll be in New York for two, three years at a time before they’re able to go home and see their families.