Fair Food Program

Vox takes a deep dive into the Fair Food Program, Worker-driven Social Responsibility’s global rise As Worker-driven Social Responsibility (WSR) programs come online across the world — from the farm fields of the US to the textile factories of Asia and the fishing fleets of the North Sea — the innovative model is winning increasing recognition as the new paradigm for protecting human rights in global supply chains. Born in the tomato fields of Immokalee, Florida, WSR programs now protect workers on five continents, and the model is expanding to new industries and new countries with each passing year. The widely-read online journal Vox published a feature-length article this past week documenting the remarkable story of the WSR model’s emergence and growth since its inception with the launch of the Fair Food Program in 2010. Written for the outlet’s solutions-oriented vertical, Future Perfect, the piece contextualizes the urgent need for WSR in the 21st century against the backdrop of the ongoing human rights crisis in global supply chains and the 30-year long, documented failure of the top-down Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) model. We’re excited to share a condensed version of the piece on our website, though you can — and truly should — read the piece in its entirety on Vox’ site. https://lnkd.in/gzkuMnZK As the Vox story illustrates, WSR programs are quickly becoming a crucial means for workers around the globe to protect and expand their own essential human rights at work, often working hand in hand with unions to attack stubborn labor abuses from a new direction, with a new and additional source of power — the power of the billion-dollar brands’ volume purchasing, harnessed by workers themselves through the binding legal agreements that undergird the WSR model. Read more here: https://lnkd.in/g59pgtYx

Fair Food Program set to expand to 27 more farms, 13 more states with support from United States Department of Agriculture USDA announcement marks latest instance of CIW/FFP innovations adopted as policy by the public sector USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack: “Improving working conditions and quality of life for farmworkers, both U.S. based workers and those that come to our country to work, is one key step in building a stronger, more resilient food supply chain.” Cruz Salucio, CIW, Fair Food Program: “We are very happy to join with the USDA today in launching this project and providing this incentive to growers who want to bring H2-A workers with stronger protections so that workers can enjoy a safe and fair workplace as they contribute not just to their own families’ wellbeing, but to that of the country as well.” Gwen Cameron, grower in the Fair Food Program: “The USDA took a similar approach (to the Fair Food Program) in creating the Farm Labor Stabilization and Protection Pilot, providing accountability and meaningful financial support to farms working to make significant improvements in the lives of their workers.” Last week, the United States Department of Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack traveled to Rancho Durazno, a Fair Food Program Participating Grower in Colorado, to officially announce the launch of an historic public/private collaboration to protect farmworkers’ fundamental human rights in the US agricultural industry, including the announcement of millions of dollars in grants to farms that commit to joining the FFP to protect workers brought to this country through the agricultural work visa program known as the H2-A, or “guestworker” program. Cruz Salucio of the Coalition of Immokalee Workers and Judge Laura Safer Espinoza of the Fair Food Program were invited to join the Secretary for the press event, as well as for a private roundtable to discuss farm labor dynamics that preceded the public portion of the morning’s agenda. Secretary Vilsack’s announcement comes after the USDA recognized the Fair Food Program as the highest level (“Platinum”) of human rights protection in agriculture, and offered farms willing to join the FFP a window of time to apply for grants – in effect offering financial incentives for farms to become a part of the solution to the myriad farm labor abuses that have long been endemic in the agricultural industry.

The Washington Post heralds Fair Food Program's groundbreaking heat illness prevention standards! https://lnkd.in/gnkQedUu "Leonel Pérez remembers when conditions on tomato farms were very different. He started picking tomatoes when he was 20. Summers were hot and humid. Workers sometimes fainted or ended up in the hospital with heatstroke. But even when the heat reached dangerous levels, Pérez said he and his co-workers couldn’t always take basic steps to protect themselves. “You couldn’t just say, ‘I’m going to stop and drink water,’” Pérez, now 35, said. “You’d ask [the boss] for water and they’d say, ‘Don’t worry, it’s going to rain soon. Just wait.’” * “There are no federal workplace heat safety rules, although the Labor Department is slowly working to create some... But at a time when companies are resisting government efforts to regulate heat safety, the FFP has convinced many businesses to voluntarily follow even stricter standards.” “So far, dozens of farms in 10 states have joined the program, protecting 20,000 workers. At least 30 more farms, from an additional 11 states, applied to join this year after the Agriculture Department began offering up to $2 million in subsidies to farms that follow safe labor standards and participate in worker-led monitoring programs like the FFP.” In an extraordinary feature-length article, The Washington Post reported this past weekend on the latest advancement in farm labor conditions under the CIW's Presidential Medal-winning Fair Food Program: the Program's comprehensive and enforceable heat illness prevention standards, an innovative mix of health and safety regulations deemed in the Post's report to be "the strongest set of workplace heat protections in the United States." These requirements were fashioned in a remarkable collaboration among the CIW, the Fair Food Standards Council and FFP Participating Growers who worked together to create new, effective standards in response to the dangers presented by rising temperatures and prolonged heat waves. The detailed article -- which also contains many stunning portraits of the men and women behind the Fair Food Program, including workers and staff at Pacific Tomato Growers/Sunripe Certified Brands, the first major tomato grower to sign a Fair Food agreement in 2010 and an invaluable partner in the development and success of the Fair Food Program ever since -- provides an up-close look at the FFP in action and vividly illustrates what has quickly become a critical model for adapting workplaces and saving workers' lives in a world of rapidly accelerating climate change.

30 years ago, in 1993, the CIW was born in a Catholic Church in Immokalee, when a small group of farmworkers began gathering to ask why conditions were so brutal for people who left their families behind at home to feed the world and to discuss how to better our community. We drew upon social movement experiences in Haiti, Mexico, and Guatemala in developing our strategy, and through work stoppages, hunger strikes, and marches, won modest wage increases for Florida tomato pickers. Now, in 2023, we celebrate the Fair Food Program’s power of prevention — the prevention of forced labor, sexual assault, physical abuses, wage theft, and much more! As I look back at the last 30 years, I am amazed by how much progress we have made — together. A penny more per pound does, indeed, buy progress — $44,070,697 to date, to be exact — and so much more. The CIW’s Fair Food Program now protects tens of thousands of workers on fields producing 15 products in 10 states and 3 countries. 30 years from now, my hope is that the CIW’s work through the Fair Food Program, and the Worker-driven Social Responsibility model the FFP gave rise to, will have touched everyone on the planet in some way — consumers, buyers, growers, sponsors, sustainers. And I am optimistic that we will achieve that goal, too, just as we have achieved all our goals over the years — together. Thank you for advocating on our behalf around the world. As CIW turns 31 years old, if you have not already done so, we hope you will consider making a gift of any size in honor of the incredible transformations that have been made over the last thirty years. Your gift ensures that we can grow the program’s impact to tens of thousands more farmworkers around the world. We couldn’t do any of this extraordinary, life-changing work without you. -Lucas Benitez, CIW Co-Founder https://lnkd.in/eCftUfdp

Thirty years ago farmworkers toiling in the tomato fields of Immokalee, FL rose up and began the fight for dignity on the job and freedom from forced labor. Now thanks to those efforts, the fields once known as ground-zero for modern-day slavery, are now called the “best work environment in U.S. agriculture” by the New York Times. Today the CIW operates the Fair Food Program which prevents the worst of human rights abuses — modern-day slavery, sexual assault, child labor, and physical abuses — in the fields of over a dozen crops in ten states and three countries, and we continue to expand. Over the last week, the Fair Food Program received gifts from over 300 donors totaling over $45,000 — not counting checks that may not have arrived yet — and unlocking an additional $30,000 in unrestricted support. This money is critical to ensuring we can continue the fight for dignity for all farmworkers. From the bottom of our hearts, thank you for defending the human rights of farmworkers this holiday season! And if you have not yet made your gift, it is not too late. While we hit our initial goal, each and every dollar provided to the Fair Food Program helps to secure the basic rights and dignity of farmworkers across this nation, and indeed, the rest of the world.

"On the farms, there have been many changes. We have bathrooms, that’s one of the things we really needed. There is more respect on the farm, there are no more abuses. Before, the crewleaders and the fieldwalkers, they would say disgusting things to us and we just had to remain silent. But thanks to the Fair Food Program, we are ending these situations. These changes are now in many farms, but there are many more farms out there yet to be covered." -Reina (Farmworker) Since farmworkers first started organizing in Immokalee in 1993, the Coalition of Immokalee Workers has been fighting for the human rights of farmworkers and low wage workers everywhere. Over the last 30 years, through the CIW’s work, farmworkers have secured major gains— from significant wage increases and forced labor prevention, to enforceable COVID protocols and rigorous heat stress protections. In the process, farmworkers forged a model for guaranteeing human rights for low-wage workers across the globe, and collaborated with workers in multiple industries on five continents to expand that model. Those victories would not have been possible without the support of our incredibly generous network of allies and supporters: the Fair Food Nation. As the CIW’s 30-year anniversary wraps up and the Fair Food Program continues to rapidly expand Fair Food Program donors Travis McConnell, Cheryl Queen, Brent Probinsky, Mary P. Pautz, Heal the Planet Foundation, and an anonymous donor have issued a challenge to Fair Food Nation: If 300 individuals make a gift this week (regardless of the gift size) they would give $30,000 to the Fair Food Program. In 6 days, 270 Fair Food allies have become human rights defenders by giving to the Fair Food Program. We have 1 day left to unlock $30,000 to support the program that has achieved unprecedented transformations in the fields, like those Reina describes above.

Since its creation in 1993, the Coalition of Immokalee Workers has been fighting for the human rights of farmworkers. Farmworkers in Immokalee, like Lucas, have worked tirelessly to transform the agricultural industry, and – together with consumers like you across the country – they have developed a unique program that harnesses the purchasing power of some of the world’s largest corporations to ensure that the most egregious human rights violations – like modern-day slavery – do not occur on Fair Food Program farms. We call it “The Power of Prevention.” In honor of Human Rights Day, Fair Food Program donors Travis McConnell, Cheryl Queen, Brent Probinsky, Mary P. Pautz, Heal the Planet Foundation, and an anonymous donor have issued a challenge to Fair Food Nation: If 300 individuals make a gift this week (regardless of the gift size) they will give $30,000 to the Fair Food Program. Make a gift to unlock $30,000 to the program that prevents modern-day slavery, sexual assault, child labor, and physical abuses in the fields. Be a human rights defender today! #PowerofPrevention