The Campaign for Fair Food makes the NBC Today Show, The Economist, a new book out by the producers of the PBS show “Now” (right), and an in-depth special report in the Ft. Myers News-Press…

The Campaign for Fair Food has gotten some much-needed attention from the mainstream media in recent days, and with the stories piling up, it is time for a quick media round-up;

• On July 3rd, the NBC’s Today Show interviewed John Siceloff, co-author of a new book entitled, “Your America: Democracy’s Local Heroes.” You can see the video of the Today Show interview and read an excerpt from the book by clicking here. Here’s what the authors had to say about the subject of their book:“The folks you’ll read about in “Your America” told us they didn’t become activists just to plug holes in an ever-more-leaky safety net. They went to work to help build a better way of doing things, to create an America where ideas, priorities and solutions percolate up from the grassroots.” read more here
• On July 6th, the Ft. Myers News-Press ran as the top story in its Sunday paper an in-depth look at the CIW and the Campaign for Fair Food, entitled, “They’re ripe to fight.” The accompanying story, entitled, “Oppressed group vows to fight on,” is chock-full of resources for understanding the trajectory of the CIW’s work over the past 15 years and the future of the Campaign. The report concludes with a quotation by the CIW’s Gerardo Reyes, in response to a question about the continued resistance to change posed by the Florida Tomato Growers Exchange:

“As for the growers’ continued opposition, coalition member Gerardo Reyes Chavez said in the short-term it will keep working with the major buyers of Florida tomatoes and with the Senate, but in the long term, ordinary people will be the key to real change.

The goal, Reyes Chavez said, is to work with consumers to press the people at the top of the industry to respect the people at the bottom until, for the growers, “the incentive to do the right thing finally outweighs the instinct to do what’s been done for decades — pay and treat farmworkers like we were disposable human beings.” read more here

• Finally, on June 26th, a story on the Burger King agreement and the future of the Campaign for Fair Food was published in the august pages of The Economist, the British news journal first published in 1843. The article, “The price of a tomato: Next stop, Subway,” concludes, “The coalition is still on the warpath. It wants other big buyers to pay the extra cent. It is targeting Wal-Mart, as well as the Subway sandwich store chain, Chipotle restaurants, and Whole Foods supermarkets. But most of all it wants people to think about what goes into… their burgers.” read more here