Trader Joe’s Northeast Tour gets off to a great start in Washington, DC…

Trader Joe’s Northeast Tour gets off to a great start in Washington, DC…

and Baltimore, MD!

Fresh off a strong showing on the west coast, farmworkers from Immokalee and their allies in the Campaign for Fair Food are taking the fight to Trader Joe’s again over the next ten days, this time visiting the great cities of the northeast coast, from Washington, DC, to Portland, ME. Both Tours are designed to lay the groundwork for larger regional actions this fall, turning up the heat on the self-styled “progressive” grocer for its refusal to sign an agreement with the CIW to implement verifiable, lasting reforms in its Florida tomato supply chain.

The Tour got off to a great start with actions in Washington and Baltimore (click here for a photo report), spreading the word of Trader Joe’s inexplicable intransigence through meetings with consumers, lively pickets, and coverage in the local media. Here below is an excerpt from a story in the Georgetown Dish on the DC action (“Protesters target Trader Joe’s tomatoes,” 8/4/11):

“… Edward R. Murrow’s, Harvest of Shame was filmed in part in Immokalee — revealing on a national scale the brutal reality facing farmworkers in the South.

Since then CIW has worked with Yum Brands, McDonald’s, Burger King, Subway, Whole Foods, Compass Group, Bon Appetit Management Co., Aramark and Sodexo to demand more humane labor standards from their Florida suppliers, to pay slightly more for more fairly produced tomatoes, and to buy only from growers who meet those higher st

andards.

But Trader Joe’s — otherwise considered a progressive company — is a holdout. On Wednesday, tomato picker Oscar Otzoy and a regular Trader Joe’s customer approached store managers with a letter asking the company to stop buying tomatoes from noncompliant growers in Florida.

Trader Joe’s managers told the Otzoy the company doesn’t buy tomatoes in Florida in the summer.

‘No one grows tomatoes commercially in Florida in the summer,’ said Brigitte Gynther of Interfaith Action. ‘It’s too hot — the harvest happens in states further north. Trader Joe’s statement is disingenuous.'” read more

Photo report from Days 1 and 2 of the Tour (Baltimore, DC)Click on the links below for more on the first days of the Trader Joe’s Northeast Tour:

And, of course, check back soon for more updates from the road!