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Last night, John Oliver’s HBO show Last Week Tonight, took an in-depth look at the historic and ongoing exploitation of farmworkers in this country... outside the Fair Food Program. Beginning his analysis of farm labor exploitation and abuse with its roots in chattel slavery to sharecropping and now the H-2A visa program — which he correctly pointed out creates a "massive power imbalance" that can lead to modern-day slavery -- John Oliver's depiction of farm labor conditions provided an unflinching look at the human rights crisis on farms today.
It was an excellent, highly informative episode of a very high-profile, widely-viewed program (the video from lsat night’s show has only been online for a few hours and it already has 400,000 views and over 2,000 comments, and counting!) for anyone who cares about the humane treatment of the workers who put food on tables across the country.
But what truly made it MUST-SEE TV for the ever expanding Fair Food Nation is the fact that Oliver took several minutes to clearly identify, without qualification, the one proven solution to this historic problem: the Fair Food Program.
In his segment, Oliver describes the efforts of the Coalition of Immokalee Workers to forge the Fair Food Program, and then delves into its best-in-class features — including binding agreements with major food companies, thorough field audits, and a 24/7 free and confidential hotline for workers to identify abuses and abusers — that set it apart as a truly unparalleled human rights protection program. He also has some very choice words for the holdout corporations, Wendy's, Publix, and Kroger that have yet to sign onto the Fair Food Program!
Don’t miss this exciting new video! Check out the segment here:
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While you are here, we are also calling on allies in the Fair Food Nation to sign a petition in support of farmworkers in their fight for dignity and to help expand the Fair Food Program!
Read the letter and sign on by clicking on the button with the words "sign the petition" below or by clicking here [[link removed]] :
"From the fields once dubbed “Ground Zero for modern-day slavery” by federal prosecutors, the Coalition of Immokalee Workers has pioneered a proven solution to forced labor in agriculture with the Fair Food Program (FFP), and in the process turned those fields into what one expert called “the best working environment in American agriculture,” on the front page of the New York Times.
Under the Fair Food Program, workers are protected against human rights violations ranging from sexual harassment and assault, to wage theft, dangerous working conditions, and retaliation for speaking up for their rights. Participating farms follow a worker-developed code of conduct, which is backed by the purchasing power of large retail corporations like Taco Bell, McDonald's and Walmart. Participating buyers sign binding agreements committing them to suspend purchases from farms that are suspended from the Program for failure to comply with the rights set forth in the code. Along the way, the Program has received recognition, including a Presidential Medal and a MacArthur “Genius” Award, from a wide range of human rights experts for its unique success. Farmworkers on FFP farms are frontline monitors of their own rights, and this worker-led initiative is expanding rapidly.
But holdout corporations like Wendy's, Publix, and Kroger have refused to join for over a decade, even as their supply chains remain hidden from the “gold standard” scrutiny of of the Fair Food Program. In the worst cases, this has led to large corporations buying produce harvested by workers trapped in forced labor operations. Earlier this year it was revealed that in the latest federal slavery prosecution to come out of Florida, US v. Moreno, Kroger did just that.
Now is the time to take a stand for human rights. Now is the time to champion the only proven solution to systemic forced labor in agriculture, the Fair Food Program.
As a consumer who believes in fundamental human rights and an ally of farmworkers who demand dignity and respect in the fields, I call on Wendy's, Publix, and Kroger to join the Fair Food Program without further delay, because justice delayed is justice denied."
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Coalition of Immokalee Workers
110 S 2nd St
Immokalee, FL 34142
United States
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