Halton Peters, Co-founder and President of Hardee Fresh: “We want to be the best steward of the environment in the agricultural industry and the best citizen in the communities in which we live and work. Participation in the Fair Food Program furthers our pursuit of our goals and is just the most recent expression of our longstanding core beliefs.”
Leonel Perez, CIW: “We’re excited to welcome Hardee Fresh into the Program, and to show once again that, when there is mutual commitment, the Fair Food Program can be successfully adapted to nearly any crop and farming environment.”
Today, we’re excited to announce a groundbreaking agreement with a first-of-its-kind farm: Hardee Fresh, an innovative indoor, organic vertical farming company based in Wauchula, Florida, has joined the Fair Food Program! This new partnership establishes the Fair Food Program in the burgeoning vertical farming industry, adding leafy greens and herbs to the growing list of Fair Food-certified crops and ushering in verifiable human rights protections for farmworkers in Hardee Fresh’s rapidly expanding operations. Read all about the latest farm to join the ranks of Participating Growers in the Fair Food Program with the joint press release below:
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Yaissy Solis
Fair Food Program
[email protected]
(239) 692-1492
Hardee Fresh Becomes First Vertical Farm to Join Fair Food Program
Florida-based indoor farm brings organic leafy greens and herbs into award-winning human rights initiative
Wauchula, FL, September 27, 2022 – Hardee Fresh, the company that disrupted the organic food landscape when it was launched in 2017 and has since become the country’s leading indoor, organic vertical farming company, has joined the Coalition of Immokalee Workers’ (CIW) Fair Food Program (FFP), the Presidential Medal-winning human rights initiative widely recognized today as the gold standard for monitoring and enforcing workplace protections on US farms.
The partnership between CIW and Hardee Fresh marks the entry of the Fair Food Program, launched in 2011 in Florida’s $500 million tomato industry, into the country’s growing leafy greens market. The new partnership also makes Hardee Fresh, whose flagship farm is located in Wauchula, Florida, the Fair Food Program’s first Participating Grower from the rapidly-expanding vertical farming sector.
By joining the Fair Food Program, Hardee Fresh is reaffirming its commitment to a safe and fair environment for its farmworker staff. The FFP’s unique mix of monitoring tools — including a 24/7 trilingual complaint hotline, worker-to-worker rights education, comprehensive field and farm office audits, and market consequences for violations of its human rights-based code of conduct — has been praised by human rights observers from the White House to the United Nations. The Fair Food Program works as a partnership among farmworkers, Participating Growers like Hardee Fresh, and Participating Buyers – including organic food leader Whole Foods Market – who agree to pay growers a premium that is passed on to workers as a bonus on their regular paychecks. Participating Buyers also preferentially purchase from growers certified to be in good standing with the Program’s human rights-based code of conduct by the Fair Food Standards Council, the FFP’s independent monitor.
Hardee Fresh’s goal is to be the most innovative company in the vertical farming industry, including the use of novel energy-efficiency technologies, powering its farms with onsite solar energy, and sustainability initiatives that save 99% of the fertilizer and water required for traditional farming. The company views participation in the Fair Food Program as a natural extension of these efforts. Halton Peters, Co-Founder and President of Hardee Fresh, lauded the new partnership: “At Hardee Fresh we want to provide the best produce for our customers and the best working conditions and opportunities for advancement for our workers. We want to be the best steward of the environment in the agricultural industry and the best citizen in the communities in which we live and work. Participation in the Fair Food Program furthers our pursuit of our goal and just the most recent expression of our longstanding core beliefs.”
The CIW’s Leonel Perez, who helps lead the Fair Food Program’s worker-to-worker education efforts, celebrated the announcement, saying, “The world of agriculture is changing, and the rise of vertical farming is a key example of that shifting landscape. We’re excited to welcome Hardee Fresh into the Program, and to show once again that, when there is mutual commitment, the Fair Food Program can be successfully adapted to nearly any crop and farming environment. With the dedication of all the partners, and the leadership of farmworkers themselves, together we can ensure that these jobs, whether indoors or outdoors, are fair and dignified.”
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Hardee Fresh
Founded in 2017, Hardee Fresh is dedicated to selling premium leafy greens without the premium price, Hardee Fresh produce is pesticide free, herbicide free, and USDA-certified organic. The company’s flagship farm in Wauchula, Florida is the only organic vertical farm in the United States. The company is committed to promoting sustainability in the environment, among its employees, and among the communities that it serves. For more information, contact Hardee Fresh by phone at 863-445-1536 or via email at [email protected], or visit www.hardeefresh.com.
Coalition of Immokalee Workers’ Fair Food Program
The Coalition of Immokalee Workers is a human rights organization and Presidential Medal recipient internationally recognized for its achievements in the fields of social responsibility, anti-sexual violence efforts, community organizing, and ending slavery. The CIW’s Fair Food Program is a groundbreaking partnership among farmworkers, growers in eight states and multiple crops, and fourteen major food retailers that buy Fair Food produce. Those Fair Food Participating Buyers agree to purchase from suppliers who meet a worker-drafted code of conduct, which includes a zero-tolerance policy for slavery and sexual harassment. Buyers also pay a “penny-per-pound” premium, which is passed down through the supply chain and paid out directly to workers by their employers to address longstanding farmworker poverty. Since the program’s inception in 2011, Buyers have made nearly $39 million in FFP premium payments. For more information, visit www.fairfoodprogram.org and www.ciw-online.org
