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Dear John,
The CIW has been fighting to eradicate human rights violations in U.S. agriculture — and beyond — for the last 30 years. And for tens of thousands of farmworkers seeking to forge a new world of dignity and respect in fields where forced labor and sexual harassment have been commonplace for generations, no tool has been more valuable than the Fair Food Program.
On Fair Food Program farms, workers are protected from longstanding abuses through several interlacing mechanisms designed to monitor and enforce the Program’s standards, including: worker-to-worker education on their rights under the FFP’s code of conduct; a 24/7 complaint investigation and resolution process where workers can report violations free from the fear of retaliation; regular and substantial farm audits; and legally-binding agreements with 14 of the world’s largest buyers of produce that serve to hold growers accountable for violations through swift market consequences for abuse. If a zero-tolerance violation such as forced labor were to be found on an FFP participating farm, for example, the grower would be automatically barred from selling its produce to Fair Food Participating Buyers, creating a powerful market incentive for compliance with the Fair Food Program’s industry-leading human rights standards.
Data shows that the CIW’s Fair Food Program works: zero-tolerance violations like forced labor, child labor, and sexual assault have been virtually eradicated on Fair Food farms, and through thousands of complaint investigations, audits findings, and corrective actions, less egregious abuses from wage theft to health and safety violations have dropped dramatically. With over a decade of proven success, the Fair Food Program’s Code of Conduct has become woven into the daily operations of many farms, and farmworkers on FFP farms have seen unprecedented improvements in both wages and working conditions.
At the same time, the Fair Food Program’s protections continue to expand to respond to the ever-changing challenges of our world today. In 2020, we instituted the only enforceable COVID-19 safety protocols in the US agricultural industry, protecting countless lives in the vulnerable farmworker community throughout the pandemic. And in 2021 we took action again, this time to protect workers from heat illness in a warming world by adopting industry-leading heat stress protections, including heat safety training, shade, water, and mandatory rest breaks every two hours.
At its heart, the Fair Food Program rests on this self-evident truth: farmworkers are human beings and deserve to be treated that way. To accomplish this, the Fair Food Program enables farmworkers to serve as the frontline monitors of their own rights, backed by the purchasing power of the program’s 14 retail food giants, from Aramark to Whole Foods. Guided by that simple principle, and driven by that power, we have come a long way, expanding from tomatoes in Florida to over a dozen crops in ten states and three countries. But it is clear more work needs to be done, as working conditions continue to deteriorate on farms outside the FFP, and farmworkers’ rights are threatened every single day on those farms without the power of the program to protect them.
It is imperative that the Fair Food Program spread to cover as many farmworkers as possible, as quickly as possible, so that, one day, all farmworkers might receive the human rights protections they so urgently need and deserve. With your financial support, we can make that happen.
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!
So, please, help us unlock their generous pledge and make a gift today to the program that prevents modern-day slavery, sexual assault, child labor, and physical abuses in the fields. Your donation today will help change the lives of countless workers who put food on our tables every day.
Thank you!
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Coalition of Immokalee Workers
110 S 2nd St
Immokalee, FL 34142
United States
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