Cabot Creamery

[1] The original plant had a total investment of $3,700 (equivalent to $65,000 in 2023), which was paid by 94 farmers in proportion to the number of cattle which each owned.

The cooperative started out making butter with the excess milk produced, and began shipping its products south.

Established in 1876 by William McCadam in the small community of Heuvelton, New York, the company first gained national recognition winning the first medal at the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1894.

Faced with a multitude of challenges ranging from low milk pricing, labor shortages and increased operating costs over the past decade, the cooperative lost nearly 400 farms.

[14] In 2007, Cabot also pleaded guilty to violating the Clean Water Act after an ammonia spill killed thousands of fish in the Winooski River, in July 2005.

[15] In 2011, the Vermont Attorney General's office alleged that some Cabot products made in 2009 and 2010 could not be certified as free of rBST, a hormone that causes cows to produce more milk.

Cabot settled with the state, agreeing not to make such representations, to pay a $65,000 fine, and to donate $75,000 worth of dairy products to local food banks.