Farmworker on an FFP participating farm: “More important than the money, which I need, was the feeling of dignity when my labor – the buckets I harvested – was recognized.”

The CEO of Bloomia, a FFP Participating Grower, Werner Jansen: “If a company as large and successful as Bloomia can partner with a worker-driven social responsibility program like the Fair Food Program, there is no reason why the rest of the industry shouldn’t be able to meet that same gold standard for human rights protections in their supply chains as well.”

For part 3 of our series highlighting key sections of the Fair Food Program’s recently released 2024 “State of the Program” report, we want to hone in on one of the features of the FFP model that sets it apart as the “new gold standard” in human rights enforcement today.

The FFP’s market-based enforcement mechanisms have, over the course of 15 years since the program’s inception in 2010, proven themselves to be both rigorous and dynamic, transforming farm labor practices on participating farms across the country and earning the trust of workers, growers, and buyers alike in the process. But what exactly does ‘market-based enforcement’ mean, and how does it generate the documented win-win-win results among the partners participating in the Program?

To answer these questions, we are sharing the excerpt below from the SOTP’s description of the Program’s market-based enforcement model, followed by a second excerpt from the report’s conclusion on the CIW site, which describes how the same market-based enforcement helps fuel the Program’s evolution, expansion, and growing influence as the new paradigm for enforcing human rights in global supply chains. 

To read the SOTP in full, you can download it by clicking here! 

Market-based Enforcement

The FFP is an enforcement-focused approach to social accountability. Market-based consequences, built into the Program by CIW’s Fair Food Agreements with Participating Buyers, provide the enforcement power necessary to create real change. In the event that a grower is suspended, Participating Buyers are required to suspend purchases from the Participating Grower until that grower is returned to good standing.

For buyers, benefits of FFP participation include transparency and elimination of supply chain risks at a time when consumers – with access to instant information – are increasingly aware of the conditions under which their products are produced and expecting corporations to do their part in addressing the pressing social problems of the day, from climate change to sexual harassment.

For growers, FFP benefits include (but are not limited to): becoming employers of choice; reducing turnover and increasing productivity; preventing risks, including lawsuits and administrative fines and penalties; improving management systems; reducing workers’ compensation costs; and obtaining verification of ethical labor practices, thereby giving them a competitive edge with buyers and consumers.

Lucas Benitez with John Esformes, CEO of Pacific Tomato Growers DBA Sunripe Certified Brands

With the exception of zero tolerance offenses, Participating Growers are given multiple opportunities to address Code violations through the Program’s collaborative complaint resolution and corrective action procedures. Failure to address Code violations through agreed-upon corrective actions may result in probationary status, and continued failure to address those violations results in suspension from the Program. Together, the promise of preferred purchasing and the legitimate threat of diminished market access have worked as powerful drivers of compliance. Over the life of the Program, most growers have reacted to market consequences by substantially and continuously improving their compliance with the Code of Conduct.

Coalition of Immokalee Workers
110 S 2nd St
Immokalee, FL 34142
United States

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