August 31, 2011
With a little help from their friends...
... cyclists make their way north toward Publix HQ, stopping to refuel with food for body and soul at local churches from Punta Gorda to Venice!
Check out the bike tour's second dispatch from the road, with photos and a first-hand report, by clicking here!
The tour is catching the attention of Florida media, as papers across the state are taking notice. Here's a nice video from Southwest Florida's SSN6 news team:
And here are some links to recent stories from newspapers across the state:
- "Guest Op/Ed: The 'Publix Guarantee' is at Risk," Bradenton Times, 8/31/11
"... The leaders of the fast-food and foodservice industries are on board to do this, resulting in landmark gains for the workers. Yet, in the words of Reggie Brown of the Florida Tomato Growers Exchange, 'Everybody in the system has to be invested for it to work' and Publix’s continued rejection of these advances truly threatens to undermine them, setting a dangerous example for the rest of the supermarket industry. Which is why 'The Publix Guarantee' is at risk, the famous vow to customers that, 'we will never knowingly disappoint you.' The company’s indefensible refusal to support the best hope for more ethical standards in Florida’s tomato fields is nothing if not disappointing. I am praying for Mr. Crenshaw – not only that he hospitably welcomes the farmworkers’ invitation to Immokalee to learn how his company can support their noble cause, but indeed that he embraces the opportunity for Publix to improve the lives of Florida’s tomato-picking families..." read more |
- "Farmworkers' Plight," (letter to editor) Lakeland Ledger, 8/31/11
"... I would encourage Mr. Crenshaw to accept their invitation. For too long, the Coalition of Immokalee Workers' efforts have been fielded by Publix's PR team, resulting in a lot of misinformation about what the farmworkers are asking. Direct communication between Mr. Crenshaw and the workers could be beneficial because Publix's position is increasingly disappointing more and more customers who otherwise enjoy shopping there... ... The Fair Food program, supported by most leading fast-food and food-service retailers, closely resembles Publix's backing for fair-trade coffee. It is time for Mr. Crenshaw to stop deferring to Publix's PR team on this issue, and instead he should exhibit the leadership we know he possesses by involving Publix in the best hope for more ethical labor standards in our state's tomato industry." MAYRA HIDALGO SALAZAR |
- "Activists push Publix to pay penny more for tomatoes," Orlando Sentinel, 8/31/11
- "'Penny a Pound' Protestors to Bike 200 Miles to Confront Publix CEO," Bradenton Times, 8/30/11
"... So far, large corporations like McDonald's, Subway, Burger King, Whole Foods, and most famously, Taco Bell have signed on to the extra penny pledge. Publix however, has continued to resist pledging the extra penny and tomato pickers have had no luck getting face time with the giant corporation... ... However, it is hoped that [the bike tour] might continue to raise awareness among customers who have the power to take much more than pennies from the Publix coffers, if they boycott the store in protest of its stubborn refusal to do so little for people to whom it would mean so much." read more |
- "Brant Copeland: A mere penny a pound can ensure a fair wage," op/ed Tallahassee Democrat, 8/30/11 (behind pay-wall, subscription only)
The bike tour continues tomorrow, set to arrive in Sarasota. So, click on the links below to keep up with the tour:
And check back again soon for more news as the Pilgrimage to Publix approaches its goal of Lakeland, Florida, and the Publix corporate headquarters!
August 25, 2011
Cycling to Crenshaw...
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Pilgrimage to Publix ready to roll! With the 200-mile trek from Immokalee to Publix corporate headquarters in Lakeland just around the corner, bike tour members practice earlier this week in Naples. (photo Naples Daily News) |
Plus... Check out the final photo report from the Trader Joe's Northeast Tour!
A special team of bike messengers is ready to hit the road this Saturday morning in Ft. Myers.
Their destination: Publix corporate headquarters, Lakeland, Florida.
Their mission: To deliver an invitation from farmworkers in Immokalee to Publix CEO Ed Crenshaw asking Mr. Crenshaw to visit Immokalee in person, to walk with workers in the streets of their community, and to learn first-hand about farmworker poverty and why it is so crucial that Publix participate in the Fair Food Program.
If you'd like to learn more about the upcoming "Pilgrimage to Publix," visit the Interfaith Action website today for all the details, including the day-by-day itinerary and schedule of major events along the route. You can also click on the links below to read some of the great coverage of the tour:
- Naples Daily News
- Ft. Myers News-Press
- Op/Ed by Rabbi Bruce Diamond
- Lakeland Ledger
- Brian McLaren's blog
Last week more than a dozen local clergy gathered in the sanctuary of Naples United Church of Christ to pray for the safety of the riders as well as for Mr. Crenshaw. They, like Brian McLaren in a great new opinion piece that ran in Huffington Post today ("Dirty Tomatoes: A Spiritual and Dietary Proposal), prayed that Publix's rejection of the Fair Food program is due to a deep disconnect between the company's public relations department and its top decision maker:
"I like Publix. I think they are a good and decent company -- apart from their dirty tomatoes. Perhaps their CEO, Ed Crenshaw, doesn't fully understand what's being requested. Perhaps the Public Relations department has shielded him from CIW's requests. That's why we decided to go into a Publix to pray: We wanted to do our part to help the message get through." read more |
Interestingly, as revealed in the company's hometown paper, the Lakeland Ledger, Publix has indicated that Mr. Crenshaw is yet undecided about whether to accept the CIW's invitation to Immokalee:
"Publix spokeswoman Shannon Patten said Crenshaw is aware of the coalition's plans, but it's not clear if Crenshaw would accept the invitation to visit Immokalee. |
In the meantime, the bicycle delegation will continue to solicit prayers for Mr. Crenshaw at every stop of their ride, as well as for their own safety along the road, with the hope that on September 6th, the first workday back after Labor Day weekend, Publix's CEO will exhibit the kind of leadership that made his grandfather so well-known and well-loved, leadership captured in the motto: "Never let making a profit stand in the way of doing the right thing."
And finally... The Trader Joe's Northeast Tour wrapped up last week with actions in Portland, Maine, and Northampton, Mass. Click here to see the exciting report!
August 23, 2011
New video from the Pray-in at Publix!...
Plus: Trader Joe's Northeast Tour ends with spectacular visits, actions in Portland, Maine and Northampton, Massachusetts...
Courtesy of Brian McLaren's blog, we have a great new video from Friday's Pray-in at Publix to share with you today (click on the image above to go to the youtube page for the video). Brian is a nationally known author, activist for social justice, and public theologian whom Time magazine called one of "the 25 most influential Evangelicals in America". You can also find the text of Friday's prayer in the produce aisle at Brian's blog, which ends with these words:
You are the God of compassion and fairness. Guide Ed Crenshaw to be a man of compassion and fairness like his grandfather. Guide the associates of Publix not to disappoint us customers who feel connected by the food we eat both to them and to the hard workers of Immokalee. And guide the Immokalee workers who are going to visit Mr. Crenshaw soon, traveling by bicycle to Lakeland. Give them good success in their visit. We pray with faith, hope, and love in our hearts, Lord, remembering Jesus’ words that your will would be done on earth as in heaven. And all God’s people said, “Amen.” read more |
The video not only captures the pray-in, but also includes a report on the remainder of the day, during which workers from Immokalee and several Southwest Florida faith allies joined to announce the upcoming bike ride to Publix headquarters in Lakeland and reflect on the future of the Campaign for Fair Food with the picking season set to begin anew in November. We are pleased to announce that Brian McLaren will also be joining us on Sept 6th for the 10 AM brunch at Barnett Family Park in Lakeland and for the ride's culmination at Publix headquarters.
Speaking of the bike tour, Bruce Diamond, rabbi of the Community Free Synagogue in Ft. Myers, FL, wrote a nice opinion piece for the Ft. Myers News-Press this past Thursday, entitled, "Support farmworkers' bike ride for better treatment," (8/18/11). His op/ed begins:
"You don't have to be a bicycling enthusiast to enthusiastically support the historic 200-mile bike trek that will end up on Tuesday, Sept. 6 at Publix's headquarters in Lakeland. Organized by the Coalition of Immokalee Workers, the purpose of this "Pilgrimage to Publix" is to extend a personal invitation to Publix CEO Ed Crenshaw to visit Immokalee so that he can learn firsthand about the Campaign for Fair Food. Crenshaw is a grandson of Publix founder George Jenkins, whose photo graces the front of all of its supermarkets. Crenshaw's motto is "Do the Right Thing," and it is hoped that after he sees the real-life conditions of the men and women who pick the tomatoes he sells, his company will do the right thing and join the highly successful "Penny a Pound" program endorsed by 90 percent of Florida tomato growers and national restaurant chains like Subway, Taco Bell, McDonald's and Burger King..." read more |
You can read more about the "Pilgrimage to Publix" in the Lakeland Ledger article here.
And last, but most definitely not least, the Trader Joe's Northeast Tour wrapped up last week with spectacular stops in Portland, Maine and Northampton, MA. We'll have a full report from the tour's final actions soon, but in the meantime, here's a little sneak peek, from Portland:
Check back soon for the full photo report from Maine and Northampton, MA!
August 20, 2011
Fair Food Pray-in at Publix!
Losing patience with Publix, faith leaders take action in the produce aisle, call on CEO Ed Crenshaw to "be a man of compassion and fairness"
On February 1, 1960, four students took seats at the segregated lunch counter (below) of the Woolworth's department store in Greensboro, North Carolina. They ordered coffee, but because they were African-American, they were denied service and were asked to leave. They refused, staying in their seats until closing time.
The next day, more than twenty students returned to the same whites-only lunch counter. On the third day, more than sixty students joined the "sit-in," suffering the taunts and unprovoked violence of mobs of young men who gathered to defend the dying system of legal segregation.
The Greensboro sit-ins continued to grow, spreading through North Carolina and ultimately expanding to department stores throughout the South. By the time the sit-in movement reached its apex, Congress passed the Civil Rights Act of 1964, ending legally-sanctioned segregation in the United States.
Yesterday, in Naples, Florida, several local clergy joined with farmworkers from Immokalee for the first-ever Fair Food "pray-in," held in the produce aisle of a Publix supermarket, in protest of Publix's ongoing refusal to support fairer wages and more humane working conditions for the workers who pick their tomatoes. Here's an account of the action, from the Ft. Myers News-Press ("Immokalee coalition to pedal to Lakeland," 8/20/11):
| "Surrounded by heaps of red tomatoes, a handful of Immokalee farmworkers’ advocates bowed their heads Friday in the produce aisle of Publix and prayed.
The religious leaders spoke of Publix CEO Ed Crenshaw as grocery carts rolled across the cold linoleum. 'Guide Ed Crenshaw to be a man of compassion and fairness,' they prayed. 'Guide the employees of Publix not to disappoint us customers who feel connected by the food we eat both to them and to the hard workers of Immokalee...” read more |
The pray-in was a simple, but remarkably moving, action. It cast a stark light on the contrast between the workers' timeless call for justice and Publix's indefensible decision to turn its back on the first real solution to generations of exploitation and human rights violations in Florida's fields. It was the first action of its kind, but it will not be the last.
Friday's pray-in came in advance of next week's planned "Pilgrimage to Publix," a 200-mile, ten-day bike tour from Immokalee to Lakeland, Publix's hometown, where CIW members and their allies will seek a meeting with Publix CEO Ed Crenshaw. The workers hope to invite Mr. Crenshaw to visit Immokalee and learn first-hand -- away from the confines of the corporate headquarters and the misguided counsel of his public relations department -- about the harsh and degrading poverty faced by tens of thousands of Florida farmworkers, including those who pick tomatoes for Publix.
As part of Friday's announcement, the same clergy bought 32 pounds of tomatoes from the Publix store where they held the pray-in. From the Naples Daily News coverage of the event ("Pedaling for pennies: Farmworkers want Publix to pay more for tomatoes," 8/20/11):
 "... CIW is organizing the ride, which will last until Labor Day, as part of its campaign to raise the wages of field workers by encouraging increased pay from the top-down. If Publix were to accept the conditions, the Florida-based company would pay 1 cent per pound purchased from growers.
This would translate to approximately a 64 percent increase in pay for field workers, who earn 50 cents per 32-pound bucket. The extra cent would go directly to workers’ paychecks. To earn the state’s minimum wage of $7.31 per hour in a typical 10-hour workday, field workers have to pick, de-stem, and haul more than 4,600 pounds of tomatoes in a day... ... Otzoy, Perez, and their supporters held a prayer session inside the Publix, in front of a display of tomatoes and avocados, before purchasing enough tomatoes to fill the same bucket that growers pay pickers 50 cents to fill. That bucket cost $79.63 at the supermarket that day..." read more |
Do the math: .50 divided by 79.63 equals, rounding up, 0.0063. That means that farmworkers earn roughly one half of one percent (0.63%) of the final price of a pound of tomatoes at the checkout counter.
One half of one percent... for the people who sweat until they can't sweat any more under the Florida sun to get the tomatoes out of the field and onto trucks headed to supermarkets and restaurants across the country. Without their labor the tomatoes rot in the fields, yet 99.5% of the final price of tomatoes goes to everyone else in the supply chain, with the lion's share going to Publix.
Some day -- maybe the day when Mr. Crenshaw finally walks the streets of Immokalee with CIW members to see the world through their eyes -- that will change. Until then, pilgrimages, pray-ins, and protests will continue. Check back soon for coverage from the road of the Pilgrimage to Publix, beginning next Saturday...
July 20, 2011
Trader Joe's Truth Tour wraps up with powerful actions in Bay Area!
Fair Food Activists Hit the Streets: In a preview of things to come in the campaign, the CIW tour crew spent Days Six and Seven in the East Bay and San Francisco for the two largest actions of the Trader Joe's California Truth Tour!
Click on the links below for a recap of the entire tour, and stay tuned in the weeks ahead for details about the major Trader Joe's action going down in the Golden State this September!
- A photo report from Days Six and Seven (Berkeley and San Francisco)
- A photo report from Days Four and Five (Santa Cruz and San Jose)
- A photo report from Days Two and Three (Irvine and UCLA)
- A photo report from Day One: "A love story" (Santa Ana)
- Trader Joe's CA Truth Tour calendar of actions (dates, times and locations for actions throughout the week)
July 5, 2011
4th of July Farmworker Freedom Fest!...
UCC leads more than 450 Fair Food activists in huge march on Tampa Publix
Ten years ago at its General Synod, in 2001, the United Church of Christ approved a resolution to endorse the Taco Bell boycott, making the UCC one of the Campaign for Fair Food's earliest, and staunchest, allies in the faith community.
Yesterday, ten years later, at its General Synod in Tampa, the UCC put its faith into action in support of the Campaign for Fair Food once again, this time leading a truly inspirational march on a Tampa Publix store of over 450 people, including several van loads of CIW members who drove up from Immokalee to join in the action. We have a great gallery of pictures from the protest -- like this one below, highlighting one of the many imaginative signs whipped up for the march -- along with a brief report, which you can find by clicking here:
The UCC has also posted a video on its website, which you can watch by clicking here. While there, you can learn more about all the news from the UCC's 28th General Synod (with the theme "Imagine What's Possible," as in imagine what's possible when the supermarket industry does its part for Fair Food, for example!)
One final note on yesterday's action... The 4th of July reminds us of the great promise on which this country was founded, a promise captured in these words:
"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights..." |
This notion of universal human rights, while the cornerstone of our democracy, has also been the great unfulfilled promise that has driven protest -- and progress -- in our country since its declaration 235 years ago. Dr. Martin Luther King, during the 1963 March on Washington, made note of that special covenant and its role in the Civil Rights Movement in his timeless "I Have Dream" speech:
"... In a sense we have come to our nation's capital to cash a check. When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men, yes, black men as well as white men, would be guaranteed the unalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness..." |
Yesterday's march on Publix was one more link in that long chain of patriotic protest, a chain that connects our unwavering friends and allies at the United Church of Christ with their predecessors and heroes of the Civil Rights Movement, the Suffragette Movement, the Abolitionist Movement, and more down through the years.
The UCC delegates gathered in Tampa from across the country for the General Synod made it clear that they were determined to return to their communities and engage their local congregations in the struggle for Fair Food, and in the Supermarket Campaign in particular. The commitment, and excitement, evident in yesterday's action left little doubt that they will make good on their promise. We look forward to building on the spirit -- and energy -- of yesterday's march to continue expanding the promise of universal human rights to all men and women who contribute to the wealth and strength of this country, including those whose labor in our fields has been so cruelly undervalued since the very days of our Independence.
June 29, 2011
Trader Joe's reveals its inner WalMart...
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Sign in the produce section of an Atlanta area Trader Joe's store |
In a recent piece for zester.com, entitled "The Profound Impact of a Penny," Barry Estabrook wrote:
"Would you pay one penny more per pound to buy a tomato if you knew it would go a long way toward alleviating labor abuse in the fields? When asked that question, not a single supermarket chain in the country, with the notable exception of Whole Foods Market, said yes. No grocery giant has a legitimate excuse to pinch that extra penny, but of all the holdouts, the most perplexing is Trader Joe's, which promotes itself as a cheerful bastion of all things ethical..." read more |
Trader Joe's stubborn refusal to commit -- in an enforceable and verifiable agreement -- to the Fair Food principles has perplexed many an observer of the Campaign for Fair Food, among them many Trader Joe's customers, who are disgusted by the company's inexplicable hard line against collaborating with workers in Immokalee and Florida tomato growers in the Fair Food program.
But now, thanks to its own in-store promotion (above), we may have gained a little more insight into our purportedly ethical friends at Trader Joe's. As the old saying goes, a picture is worth a thousand words, and the photo above -- sent to us from an Atlanta area Trader Joe's store just yesterday by the ever-vigilant Fair Food activist Emiko Soltis -- is no exception.
The WalMart -- and Trader Joe's -- Model: "Bargaining hard for the best prices"...
The photo, and the philosophy it proudly touts, place Trader Joe's squarely in the WalMart camp of supply chain management. In the "WalMart model," large national chains leverage the combined purchasing power of their hundreds -- or thousands -- of stores to demand and secure the lowest possible prices for produce. While Trader Joe's likes to call it "hard bargaining," in reality it's the exertion of brute market force, the exploitation of a massively unequal bargaining relationship to demand ever-lower prices.
Sounds like a great deal for the consumer. But the model has a problem: The low prices are in fact artificially low, which is to say that the growers cannot sustain a necessary profit selling their produce for those prices without drastically cutting their own costs. So, inevitably, those cost cuts are ultimately passed on to the weakest link in the supply chain, the farmworker.
In other words, WalMart -- and Trader Joe's -- make farmworkers poor by refusing to pay a fair price for the produce they buy...
June 26, 2011
Ohio Fair Food to Kroger: We will not be moved...
... by half-measures and corporate double-talk!
This past Thursday, Kroger executives and shareholders gathered in Cincinnati, Ohio, for what was supposed to be a light-hearted, festive affair celebrating the company's economic success, marked by 30 consecutive quarters of sales growth. But the party was crashed (figuratively, mind you) by an exciting new Fair Food committee, Ohio Fair Food, whose members were determined to remind Kroger and its shareholders that those exciting profits come, in part, at the cost of unconscionable farmworker poverty and exploitation in Florida's tomato fields.
Here below is a quick photo report from the event which, by the way, was Ohio Fair Food's inaugural action (what a way to start!):
June 15, 2011
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NY Times' columnist Mark Bittman challenges his considerable readership to demand supermarkets support Campaign for Fair Food!
"Bit by bit, things have improved... We can actually help them get better"...
Following his visit to Immokalee in May, widely-read New York Times food writer and opinion columnist Mark Bittman penned a quick reflection for his blog, and promised to return to the topic of Fair Food with a longer column before too long. Well, he has kept his promise, and in spades!
In a detailed, intelligent, and strongly-worded column published yesterday, Bittman takes a realistic look at the Florida tomato industry -- with a tip of the hat to Barry Estabrook and his great new book "Tomatoland" -- and describes the changes beginning to take place in the fortunes of Florida's long-suffering farmworkers thanks to the Campaign for Fair Food.
He then sets his sites squarely on the supermarket industry -- naming, "Ahold (the parent company of Stop & Shop and Giant); Publix (the dominant chain in Florida); Kroger (next to Wal-Mart the biggest food retailer in the country); and Trader Joe’s..." -- and launches a call to his readers to support the growing Campaign for Fair Food and to demand that their local supermarket chains do the same. Here's an extended excerpt from the hard-hitting piece, entitled "The True Cost of Tomatoes" (7/14/11):
"One of the bright spots, discussed in Estabrook’s book is the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW), founded in 1993. The CIW has two major goals: the first is to put the last nail in the coffin of slavery, a condition that sadly still exists not only among farmworkers but others. “And this,” Laura Germino, who has worked on the campaign since its inception, said to me when I visited last month, “is not ‘slavery-like,’ or ‘exploitation’ — it’s actual slavery, as defined by federal law.” (There are super links around this issue on the anti-slavery campaign’s Web site, and reading them is eye-popping.) You’ve probably heard of the other goal, which is the CIW’s Campaign for Fair Food; it’s garnered as much attention as any labor struggle in the country in recent years, and more on the farmworker front than anything since the early work of Cesar Chavez and the United Farm Workers. These outrages have been the CIW’s focus, and the agreement they signed last November with the Florida Tomato Growers Exchange begins to address them: through the core “penny-a-pound” increase in the price wholesale purchasers pay, workers’ incomes could go up thousands of dollars per year. The agreement also provides for a time-clock system in the fields, which has led to a shorter workday and less (unpaid) waiting time; portable shade tents for breaks (unbelievable that this didn’t exist previously — I spent a half-hour in the open fields and began to melt); reduced exposure to pesticides; worker-to-worker education on rights; a new code of conduct for growers with real market consequences if workers’ rights are violated; and more. The breakthrough for the CIW came in 2005, when after enormous consumer pressure Yum! Brands, which controls Taco Bell, Pizza Hut and KFC, signed the agreement. (And you know what? Good for them.) Since then, Subway, McDonald’s, Burger King, the country’s largest food service operators (Sodexo, Aramark and Compass Group) and Whole Foods have signed as well. Progress, clearly. What’s missing are traditional supermarket chains, and the CIW has targeted — largely for geographical reasons — Ahold (the parent company of Stop & Shop and Giant); Publix (the dominant chain in Florida); Kroger (next to Wal-Mart the biggest food retailer in the country); and Trader Joe’s, which, in an attempt at “transparency” (odd for a chain known for its secrecy), published a letter explaining why it was refusing to sign the agreement. Really, guys? If McDonald’s and Burger King can sign a labor agreement, it can’t be that onerous; you should do it just for karma’s sake. (The CIW’s response is here.) Most of us eat or buy industrially produced tomatoes, and it doesn’t seem too much to ask that the people who pick them for us be treated a little more fairly. Speak to your supermarket manager or write to the head of the chain you patronize (the easiest way to do this is to visit this page on the CIW site). Supermarkets, I expect, are as susceptible to public pressure as fast-food chains. There are few places in the country where migrant and immigrant farmworkers are treated well; in Immokalee, at least, they’re being treated better. Bit by bit." read more |
Check out the column in its entirety here!
May 26, 2011
Trader Joe's customers talk back...
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Fair Food activists talk with customers at a recent protest in New York City. On the right, a Trader Joe's representative stands by.
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"Note to Trader Joe's from its customers, via the CIW" puts the exclamation point on the Trader Joe's trilogy
With its recent "Note to our Customers on Florida tomatoes and the CIW," Trader Joe's tried to reassure its customers that the company's decision to stiff-arm the Campaign for Fair Food was the right one. It did so in response to a rising wave of discontent, in response, as Trader Joe's says, to the "many customers [who] ask why we would not just sign on to a cause that is a simple “Fair Food” approach to selling tomatoes."
Well, no conversation on social responsibility and human rights for farmworkers in our food system can -- or ever will again -- be as one-sided as Trader Joe's and its communications department would have it...
May 25, 2011
Debunking -- and decoding -- Trader Joe's
TJ's: We'll endorse the Fair Food Code of Conduct,
we just won't enforce it...
In our last update, we took a first look at Trader Joe's recent "Note to Our Customers," a two-page treatise on why Trader Joe's is refusing to put its purchasing power behind the growing Campaign for Fair Food. In that post we touched on how Trader Joe's had taken some pretty impressive liberties with the facts, and we gave a brief preview of a point-by-point debunking of the company's remarkably weak (and disappointingly unprincipled) communique.
Today we are posting our full point-by-point response, so the record can be set straight.
But first... Before debunking, a bit of decoding is in order. Beyond getting the facts right, we'd be remiss if we didn't share our broader analysis of Trader Joe's latest statement on the Campaign for Fair Food -- just what it all really means once you boil off the froth of misinformation and baseless insinuations.
And that is this: While Trader Joe's may not understand exactly how the penny-per-pound Fair Food premium works at this point, paying the surcharge certainly doesn't seem to be the principal barrier to the company's participation in the Fair Food program.
Rather, Trader Joe's problem is with the Fair Food Code of Conduct, and, specifically, with adhering to the Fair Food Code of Conduct. In its latest statement, Trader Joe's flatly refuses to allow anyone -- not even an independent third-party tasked with verifying whether or not growers are in compliance with the Code -- to influence its purchasing decisions.
And that, as they say in the negotiating business, is a deal-breaker, since it is the Code of Conduct, and the new market incentives it has established in the Florida tomato industry, that are driving real change in the fields today.
May 18, 2011
Say it ain't so, Trader Joe's!
Trader Joe's latest communiques on Campaign for Fair Food play fast and loose with the facts, show disturbing willingness to resort to innuendo, echoing darkest days of Burger King campaign...
It seems that the longer Trader Joe's resists the Fair Food movement, the more its leadership -- from the CEO to the public relations department -- is determined to tarnish the company's reputation as an ethical, progressive grocer.
The latest public communications from Trader Joe's on the Campaign for Fair Food show a growing tendency to play fast and loose with the facts in a way that should be beneath a company that has won its loyal following on the basis of its ethical public image. Trader Joe's latest "Note to Our Customers," posted on its website, is full of head-scratching assertions of "facts" that are almost too easily debunked. To wit:
Trader Joe's statement: "We purchase (Florida tomatoes) through wholesalers who aggregate the product and package the tomatoes for shipment to our warehouses that supply our stores. These wholesalers have indicated to us that they have agreed to pass along an extra “penny per pound” to the workers who harvest these tomatoes." Fact check: Trader Joe’s wholesalers have not agreed with the CIW to do anything. Over a month ago, two of Trader Joe's wholesalers called us, and we discussed various ways in which we might work together to achieve the purposes of the Fair Food Program. They indicated they would discuss each of the alternatives with Trader Joe’s, and get back to us. They never called again. Trader Joe's statement: "Additionally, these wholesalers are willing to provide reasonable “audit” rights to the CIW or their agents to verify the pass through for all of their purchases." Fact check: Again, Trader Joe’s wholesalers have not agreed with the CIW to do anything. |
Given that an agreement requires two parties, and that in this case one of those parties is the CIW, it's almost unfathomable that a multi-billion dollar company like Trader Joe's would assert that agreements exist that -- and there's no other way to put it -- don't exist.
May 10, 2011
Schlosser: "A food system based on poverty and exploitation will never be sustainable" ...
Standing room only crowd fills storied Gaston Hall on Georgetown University campus for exciting conversation on future of food!
With a line-up including Prince Charles, Eric Schlosser, Wendell Berry, Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack, Senator Jon Tester, Will Allen, Vandana Shiva, Panera Bread founder Ron Shaich, and the CIW, there was little room for doubt that the Future of Food Conference, put on by Washington Post Live, would be a lively conversation about the problems of the current food system and the many solutions proposed or already underway to build a better, cleaner, fairer food industry.
But it was the crowd -- most of whom came first and foremost to hear the man pictured here on the right, Britain's Prince Charles, who is a lifelong defender of the sustainable food movement and a highly respected organic farmer in his own right -- that made the day-long event as exciting as it was.
Audience participation livened up panel discussions and even created some heated exchanges, including the extended back and forth between Secretary Vilsack and the well-informed, feisty crowd of sustainable food enthusiasts, which was one of the day's many high points.
The highest point of all, of course, was the Prince's keynote speech, a thorough critique of the ills and shortcomings of the food system today and a clarion call for a more honest economic analysis of the true costs and benefits of conventional agricultural production. Here's an excerpt:
"... Ladies and gentlemen, I am a historian, not an economist, but what I am hinting at here is that it is surely time to grasp one of the biggest nettles of all and re-assess what has become a fundamental aspect of our entire economic model. As far as I can see, responding to the problems we have with a “business as usual” approach towards the way in which we measure G.D.P. offers us only short-term relief. It does not promise a long-term cure. Why? Because we cannot possibly maintain the approach in the long-term if we continue to consume our planet as rapaciously as we are doing. Capitalism depends upon capital, but our capital ultimately depends upon the health of Nature’s capital. Whether we like it or not, the two are in fact inseparable... ... We need to include in the bottom line the true costs of food production – the true financial costs and the true costs to the Earth. It is what I suppose you could call “Accounting for Sustainability,” a name I gave to a project I set up six years ago, initially to encourage businesses to expand their accounting process so that it incorporates the interconnected impact of financial, environmental and social elements on their long-term performance. What if Accounting for Sustainability was applied to the agricultural sector? This was certainly the implicit suggestion in a recent and very important study by the U.N. The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity, or T.E.E.B., assessed the multi-trillion dollar importance to the world’s economy of the natural world and concluded that the present system of national accounts needs to be upgraded rapidly so they include the health of natural capital, and thereby accurately reflect how the services offered by natural ecosystems are performing – let alone are paid for. Incidentally, to create a genuine market for such services – in the same way as a carbon market has been created – could conceivably make a substantial contribution to reducing poverty in the developing world." read more |
You can find the text of Prince Charles' speech in its entirety here.
You can also find a four-minute video excerpt of his speech here ("Prince Charles on what makes farming sustainable"), along with several other video excerpts from the day's events (including a brief snippet of the CIW's participation in the panel entitled, "Impact on Ordinary People").
The CIW -- represented by two of its co-founders, Lucas Benitez and Greg Asbed -- held its own in the stellar setting, picking up on the final words of Eric Schlosser's stirring introductory speech ("A food system based on poverty and exploitation will never be sustainable"), and driving home the point that any discussion of a sustainable food "movement" is incomplete if it does not demand unqualified respect for human rights of the farmworkers who plant, cultivate, and harvest our food.
Here is an excerpt of comments prepared by the CIW for the conference:
"... Today, if you are looking for the most immediate cause of farmworkers’ increasing poverty -- and the most correctable -- your search is best directed to the marketplace. Farmworkers toil at the very bottom of a food supply chain that is every day more and more top-heavy, and this unprecedented consolidation of market power at the top of the retail food industry has created an unrelenting downward pressure on prices -- and therefore wages and working conditions -- at the bottom. And the bottom of the “bottom” in the food supply chain is the person picking fruit in the fields. The retail food giants today – companies like, but not limited to, WalMart -- buy tens of millions of pounds of tomatoes a year. At those historically unprecedented volumes, they are buying an ever-bigger share of any single grower’s production and are therefore able to leverage that tremendous market power to demand ever-lower prices from their suppliers. Yet those suppliers, at the same time, are faced with rising input costs for diesel fuel, tractors, land, and pesticides. Caught in this cost/price squeeze, the only place growers can turn to maintain shrinking margins is to labor. In 1992, according to USDA statistics, the farm share of the US consumer dollar spent on tomatoes was 40.8%. 40 cents of every dollar spent at the cash register on tomatoes went back to the farmer in 1992. By the end of the decade, that number had fallen to 20.5%. Farms lost fully half of their share of the retail price to the retailers themselves. Today, while growers have managed to stop the bleeding and recover some of their lost share, the overall picture is the same: Increasingly unequal bargaining relations mean that, when farmers bring their crops to market, the buyers almost always win. And the farmworkers pay the price. In its excellent working paper entitled, “Ending Walmart’s Rural Stranglehold,” the United Food and Commercial Workers quoted none other than John Tyson of Tyson foods who, when confronted by an activist farmer on the untenably low price paid for meat to the farm, said, “Walmart’s the problem. They dictate the price to us and we have no choice but to pay you less.” That exact same dynamic – that exact same unequal bargaining relationship – exists at the next level down the chain, between the farmer, or grower, and his labor. And so the cut in pay is passed along to the last person, the picker, after whom there is no one left to turn to in the chain. As a result, tomato picking piece rates have remained stagnant -- and in real terms, wages have steadily fallen -- over the past thirty years. This parallels exactly the rise of corporate food giants like WalMart, Kroger, Giant, Stop & Shop, and Publix (Florida’s largest privately held corporation), not to mention the fast-food industry where single chains combine the purchasing power of tens of thousands of restaurants. So, in short, WalMart makes farmworkers poor. But not just WalMart – all the major retail food brands that have grown at meteoric rates over the past 30 years have used the same volume purchasing strategy to drive their profits and growth at the expense of the workers who make that growth possible. That’s the problem. Now, what can be done? Well, here’s what we believe: What the retail food giants taketh away, they can giveth, too, … if properly motivated. If the cause of farmworker poverty lies, in significant part, in the overwhelming market power of the highly consolidated retail food chains, then the solution to farmworker poverty can be found there too..." read more |
You can read the CIW's comments in their entirety here.
And you can find the complete Washington Post Live coverage of the conference here.
Finally, here and here are a couple of examples of the extensive blog coverage of the event.
April 22, 2011
Royally screwed...
"Royal" Ahold sticks to company line at 2011 shareholders meeting in Amsterdam;
CIW responds...
The CIW's Lucas Benitez crossed the Atlantic this week to attend Ahold's 2011 shareholders meeting in Amsterdam. He went in the hope that, given a chance to make his case to the company's board and the gathered shareholders, a more sincere dialogue might be sparked and Ahold could finally bring its US chains (Stop & Shop, Giant, Martin's, and Peapod) in line with the Fair Food principles...
April 3, 2011
CIW response to Publix's "Put it in
the Price" defense
Point-by-point rebuttal leaves Publix nowhere to hide...
Since the CIW first began to press Publix to support the Campaign for Fair Food, the supermarket giant's efforts at communicating its reasons for refusing to participate have been, to put it charitably, inartful.
March 29, 2011
"Whether you win or lose, you stand up"...
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) files a lawsuit against Florida tomato giant DiMare for sexual harassment
News broke last Thursday of a major lawsuit filed in federal court by the EEOC, the federal agency empowered to protect workers against discrimination and harassment on the job ("Suit against Immokalee agricultural firm alleges harassment," Ft. Myers News-Press, 3/24/11). The News-Press article describes the suit:
March 19, 2011
More pics and a report from President Carter's vist to the CIW's Modern-Day Slavery Museum...
For a modest little grassroots museum, the CIW's Modern-Day Slavery Museum has seen its share of high-profile visitors and historic locations. But Thursday's visit by President Jimmy Carter to the museum stop on Emory University campus in Atlanta topped them all.
As promised, we have more pictures and a brief report from the visit, which you can see by clicking here. Check out the pics and share a wonderful moment in the history of the CIW's Campaign for Fair Food.
March 17, 2011
President Jimmy Carter visits CIW's
Modern-Day Slavery Museum in Atlanta!
CIW members Oscar Otzoy (left) and Cruz Salucio present former President Jimmy Carter with an original photo during his visit to the CIW's Modern Day Slavery Museum in Atlanta yesterday. The caption of the photo reads: "Lucas Benitez of the Coalition of Immokalee Workers and Reggie Brown of the Florida Tomato Growers Exchange sign their historic agreement on November 16th, 2010, ending 15 years of conflict between Florida farmworkers and the state's tomato industry." A similar photo is part of the museum's permanent collection.
In an moving and remarkably personal visit, former President Jimmy Carter toured the CIW's Modern-Day Slavery Museum yesterday in Atlanta...
March 15, 2011
"It is a sword that heals"...
Do the Right Thing Tour media page now complete, see the full story of the unforgettable tour in videos, photos, and first-hand reports!
"It is a sword that heals." We came across those words midway through the Do the Right Thing Tour, during our stop in Atlanta.
On our second day in the city, we received a tour of Atlanta's many Civil Rights movement landmarks -- churches, schools, and other places involved in the city's rich and inspirational history of struggle against legalized segregation. The tour took us to Morehouse College (Dr. Martin Luther King's alma mater), where Mr. Charles Black (our tour guide and himself a distinguished veteran of many battles for civil rights in Atlanta), read aloud Dr. King's words from a statue erected in his honor on the campus. The quote reads:
"Non-violence is a powerful and just weapon. It is a weapon unique in history which cuts without wounding and ennobles the man who wields it. It is a sword that heals." |
This quote -- and the tour of which it was a part -- had a powerful impact on the crew from Immokalee. It filled us with renewed energy and enthusiasm after a week on the road, cast our struggle with Publix in a penetrating new light, and provided a stark new outline for our reports from the road the rest of the way.
Following our stay in Atlanta -- and from the new perspective provided by standing, however briefly, on the shoulders of the great heroes of this country's Civil Rights movement -- we came to understand our own movement in a more profound way. This new insight was captured in the words of Lucas Benitez from the stage during the final rally in Tampa:
"It is not a question of whether we will win, but when. And when we do win, we will not only help free workers from oppressive conditions in the fields, but we will also free Publix from the impossible burden of supporting and justifying that oppression." read more |
We have finally put the finishing touches on the media page from the tour, and by going there you can see the full story of the unforgettable tour in videos, photos, and first-hand reports. So, visit the Do the Right Thing Media Page today!
And to get you started that way, here is a collection of some of the incredible and inspiring videos from the tour:
January 19, 2011
New York Times: "After Long Fight, Farmworkers in Florida Win Increase in Pay"
Article details "extraordinary agreement with local tomato growers and several big-name buyers" ...
Following its strongly positive December editorial on the CIW's agreement with the Florida Tomato Growers Exchange ("One Penny More a Pound," 12/5/11), The New York Times today ran a more in-depth article on the new accord. Here below are two extended excerpts, but you can find the article in its entirety here:
January 13, 2011
Human Trafficking Day turns spotlight on slavery in the fields, supermarket industry refusal to work with CIW, Campaign for Fair Food!
As was the case with Andy Marlette, a widely-circulated cartoonist with the Pensacola News Journal who penned the above cartoon in honor of Human Trafficking Day, many an editorial writer had Florida farm slavery on their mind this past January 11th.
NY Times editorial celebrates CIW agreement with FTGE, Campaign for Fair Food!
An editorial published in Saturday's New York Times begins:
"Fair trade is finally coming to the tomato fields of Florida, where farmworkers have won a remarkable victory in a 15-year struggle for better pay and working conditions. Last month, they struck a deal with growers to raise workers? pay and to create an industry code of conduct, a health and safety program and a system to resolve worker complaints..." read more |
The editorial goes on to give a brief primer on the history of the campaign, reminds the reader that the supermarket industry has yet to do its part to support the Fair Food movement, and concludes, "The Immokalee victory won?t impose fairness overnight, but after generations of exploitation, part of the farm industry is pointing in the right direction."
You know something big is happening when events in Immokalee make it into the pages of, first, the Wall Street Journal and, now, the "Old Gray Lady". Don't miss the great editorial!
November 24, 2010
CBS Evening News: "Harvest of Shame" Revisited
The original "Harvest of Shame" was broadcast on the day after Thanksgiving, 1960. Fifty years later, CBS Evening News returned to Immokalee to revisit Florida's fields and, thanks to the recent advances in the Campaign for Fair Food, found reason for hope. Check out the video above, and then click here to see excerpts from the original documentary.
And when you're done, just take a moment to consider the inexplicable -- some might say infuriating -- refusal of companies like Publix, Ahold, and Kroger to support the process of change that is underway today in Florida's fields.
While the harvest itself may no longer be as shameful as it was when Edward R. Murrow first brought farm labor exploitation to the consciousness of the nation fifty years ago, the attitude of the major supermarket companies certainly is. And, ultimately, it is their attitude that will either hold this movement back -- and so hold farmworkers in continuing and unpardonable poverty and degradation -- or allow justice to truly flourish, and make real the dreams of farmworkers and Fair Food activists across the country of an agricultural industry where workers are paid a fair wage and treated with dignity.
This Thanksgiving, we give thanks for the huge steps forward this campaign has taken over the past year, and for the hope that progress gives us that, one day, the men and women who run our country's giant supermarket chains will find their way to doing the right thing by those people whose undervalued labor has built their riches for so very long.
But until they do, we will continue to fight for fundamental human rights in Florida's tomato fields. And you can join us -- click here for more on the CIW's Supermarket Campaign and plans for the big actions in Boston and Tampa this coming spring.
November 16, 2010
"A WATERSHED MOMENT..."
 |
From left to right, Julia Perkins and Lucas Benitez of the CIW, Reggie Brown of the Florida Tomato Growers Exchange, and Gerardo Reyes of the CIW share a laugh during the press conference announcing the CIW/FTGE agreement to implement the principles of Fair Food on nearly 90% of Florida's tomato fields. Photo by David Albers, Naples Daily News. See the rest of his great gallery from the press conference here. |
NEW!... Read statements of support for the CIW/FTGE agreement from Senator Dick Durbin, Senator Bernie Sanders, and the Presbyterian Church U.S.A.!
Media round-up on yesterday's big news!...
Yesterday, at a press conference in Immokalee, the CIW and the Florida Tomato Growers Exchange signed an agreement to extend the CIW's Fair Food principles ? including a strict code of conduct, a cooperative complaint resolution system, a participatory health and safety program, and a worker-to-worker education process ? to over 90% of the Florida tomato industry. You can see the press release from yesterday's event here.
Today, the media has weighed in on the news, and here is a quick round up:
October 21, 2010
MORE great news out of Immokalee!
Six L's -- Florida's largest tomato grower -- joins forces with CIW for Fair Food!
With the the 2010 tomato season just around the corner, momentum for the Campaign for Fair Food and its industry-changing standards for real social accountability just keeps growing!
Today, the CIW and Immokalee-based Six L's made it official: Florida's largest tomato grower is joining the Fair Food program.
Six L's has agreed to pass on the penny-per-pound and to adopt the Code of Conduct at the heart of the campaign, including a cooperative complaint resolution system, a participatory health and safety program, and a worker-to-worker education process aimed at insuring that farmworkers themselves are active participants in the social responsibility efforts.
Gerardo Reyes of the CIW said: "With this news, we take one giant step closer to a world where farmworkers and growers can work together in genuine partnership for an industry that we can all be proud of -- an industry that starts with fair wages and modern working conditions in the fields. When that new industry becomes a reality, we will be able to stand with our employers and proclaim that, together, we produce the best, and fairest, tomatoes in the market."
Kent Shoemaker, CEO of Six L's, said: "The workers of our company are the foundation of our success. We have a long tradition of mutual respect. We look forward to building upon this foundation with this new initiative."
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With Fair Food standards gaining ground by the day within Florida's tomato industry, it is now more important than ever that the retail food corporations that buy Florida tomatoes step up and support the Campaign. With every new supermarket and restaurant chain that joins the growing movement for Fair Food, wages for Florida tomato pickers on the participating farms will increase, and the purchasing power buttressing the new, more modern standards will grow.
Click here to see the excellent new Supermarket Campaign video and learn how you can help farmworkers fight for Fair Food.
October 21, 2010
BIG CIW/Pacific agreement news page now up!
News of CIW's breakthrough agreement with Pacific Tomato Growers so big that
it gets its very own news page...
Coverage of last week's announcement of the CIW's agreement with Pacific Tomato Growers -- the first direct agreement with a grower in the history of the Campaign for Fair Food and a major step forward on the road toward a more modern, more humane Florida tomato industry -- got so big that it threatened to take over the front page of our humble website.
So, as a service to our readers, we have gathered all the coverage -- from the Wall St. Journal story to the editorial round-up and the exclusive CIW photo gallery report -- and put it all on one convenient page.
A story this big needed its own page, and now it has it. Check it out today!
August 23, 2010
Sodexo signs Fair Food agreement
with CIW!
Big Three foodservice industry leaders now squarely behind growing movement for Fair Food!...
Saying, "Sodexo is committed to protecting and upholding the rights of all workers, whether employed directly by us or by our business partners and suppliers,? Arlin Wasserman, Sodexo vice president for sustainability and corporate social responsibility, announced today that his company has signed an agreement to work with the CIW to improve wages and working conditions in the fields of its Florida tomato suppliers.
