As it often does, this year's national celebration of Labor Day prompted some excellent reporting on the many ways the Fair Food Program changes the lives of farmworkers across the U.S. agricultural industry — and how the FFP's unparalleled success has become the source of inspiration for low-wage workers in other industries to take up the fight for their own fundamental human rights! Today, we've put together highlights from three such articles from national and local media that you won't want to miss.
The Hill: "Consumers can do good every time we step into a grocery store by buying Fair Food-certified produce and other products. And we can each do our part to push food companies to buy fruits and vegetables from certified farms that care about their labor force."
On Labor Day, a powerful article penned by Sara Polon, CEO of the brand new Fair Food Program partner Soupergirl, hit the opinion pages of The Hill, one of the nation's most-read political newspapers. The piece documents the deeply troubling reality of farmworkers outside the Fair Food Program today, and makes the case for consumers to encourage other CPG and retail brands to invest in partnering with the Fair Food Program because, as Sara so eloquently puts it, "There’s no virtue in buying pesticide-free produce grown on farms that abuse their workers for profit."
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This Labor Day, buy produce grown only on farms that respect workers’ rights by SARA POLON, OPINION CONTRIBUTOR - 09/05/22
Forced labor, sexual assault and abuse are not normal dinner-table topics for the relaxing Labor Day weekend. But, sadly, this is often part of the story behind so much of the produce that winds up on our plates in America. As Justice Department prosecutors noted this spring when three defendants in Georgia were sentenced to federal prison for human trafficking on U.S. farms, “These men engaged in facilitating modern-day slavery.”
As the co-founder and CEO of a values-focused soup company, I have preached endlessly about the need to know the “story of our food.” And although we’ve made strides in drawing awareness to sustainability in the agricultural industry, we have not paid as much attention, perhaps, to the vulnerable and often unprotected laborers who do the actual work. [...] |
