AbstractGeorgia Vegetable Company (GVC) announced its intention to bring in Mexican migrant labour to work fields in Clark County, Kentucky, USA, in 1987. The entire episode provides a case study for better understanding of local response to changes in farm labour practices and to alterations within a community. Many residents responded to the announcement emotionally and in terms of prejudice and anti-immigrant attitudes. Citizens voiced their concern through more than 100 letters to the editor of the local newspaper. Public rallies and meetings were organized by a citizens' group that arose in the turmoil. When local government officials failed to respond as the opposition force insisted, a referendum campaign was carried out to change the form of government to a more responsive one. However, the cause of the controversy was not entirely the result of prejudice, because the immigrants also became a symbol of a bitter struggle against GVC. Many citizens resented the control of local resources, such as water and land rights, by an outside agricultural firm. They were enraged at the potential damage to both the environment and human life that actions such as aerial spraying would produce. There was also an undercurrent of struggle between large and small landowners and perceived attacks on traditional farming practices. This case study of the GVC's introduction of Hispanic migrant labourers into Clark County, Kentucky, provides a lesson for: white and predominately white communities in Kentucky and elsewhere that are encountering an influx of Hispanics for the first time; and those firms contemplating the use of migrant labourers in areas where they have not been previously introduced.