“Food Chains” and The Hands that Feed US

“Food Chains” and The Hands that Feed US

Organic. Non-GMO. Gluten-free. Lactose-free.

All of these labels are easily recognizable in supermarkets and familiar to the everyday shopper.

Last month, a new label was nationally released. Shoppers will soon see the Fair Food label in stores that purchase tomatoes from farms that participate in the Fair Food Program, such as Whole Foods, Walmart and Trader Joe’s.

This label not only ensures buyers that their purchase promotes and protects farmworkers’ rights and helps increase farmworkers’ wages.

It also represents the more than twenty years of work by the Coalition of Immokalee Workers, a Southwest Florida grassroots, worker-based organization, created to end modern-day slavery, human-trafficking and forced labor.

The United Nations Working Group on Business and Human Rights has dubbed Fair Food Program a “smart mix of tools” that “could serve as a model elsewhere in the world.”

Simply, the Fair Food Program is a system of accountability and social responsibility in which everyone in the food industry wins.

This program implements a human-rights based code of conduct, health and safety committees and audits and a space where workers can file complaints.

Also, the Coalition of Immokalee Workers leads worker-to-worker education sessions to guarantee that workers know their rights.

Since January 2011, buyers have contributed $15 million to the program through the “penny more per pound” price premiums, which have lead to wage increases for farmworkers.

One of the major elements in the Fair Food Program, the “penny more per pound” is a pay increase paid by participating buyers.

Retailers agree to pay a penny more for Florida tomatoes and refuse to purchase produce from growers who exploit workers.

Today, the Fair Food Program reaches over 90% of Florida tomato industry.

Other participating buyers include Yum Brands, McDonald’s, Burger King, Subway, Compass Group, Aramark, Sodexo, Taco Bell, Bon Appetit and Chipotle.

Since 2009, the Coalition of Immokalee Workers have been campaigning to bring Publix, the 8th largest privately-owned corporation in the U.S., to the Fair Food Program table.

Publix has supermarkets in Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, Atlanta, and Tennessee.

The recently released documentary Food Chains chronicles the farmworker hunger strike that began at the Publix headquarters.

The documentary engineered by executive producers Eva Longoria and writer Eric Schlosser reveals the system of large supermarkets and how their power in profits leads to the exploitation of farm workers and the poverty they live in.

Through consumer-awareness of conditions in the fields and public pressure, U.S. food corporations are taking social responsibility in their industries.

The Coalition of Immokalee Workers proves that the people have the power to make change in an unjust system.