Citizen journalists examine the Campaign for Fair Food…

Articles in the Gainesville (FL) Iguana and Chicago’s Oakpark.com reflect growing grassroots conversation around Fair Food!

In communities around the country, Fair Food activists have organized pickets, marches, and all kinds of creative actions to call on supermarket giants to support human rights for Florida farmworkers.

But recently, more and more Fair Food activists are becoming citizen journalists to make their voices heard in ever wider circles. Two examples from this past week alone give a good idea of how individuals inspired by the Campaign for Fair Food are reaching out to people in their own communities to share that inspiration.

In Gainesville, Florida, Kimberly Hunter took to the pages of the local progressive newsletter, the Gainesville Iguana, to pen an in-depth reflection on the Campaign and the CIW’s history. The article begins:

If we hope to change corporate policies to benefit rather than exploit the 99 percent, we should study the Coalition of Immokalee Workers’ history and organizing model: Consciousness + Commitment = Change. They have discovered how to challenge giant corporations in the 21st century – and win!

Together with consumers, they are forging a hopeful reality, one where we are bound together not only through our objectification and exploitation but also through our liberation…” read more

Meanwhile, in Chicago, Tom Broderick started his own virtual conversation on the Campaign for Fair Food in the local blog oakpark.com, entitled, “Why we picketed Trader Joe’s”. You may remember the Chicago action for this eloquent bit of logic from their report back:

“Taco Bell, McDonald’s, Burger King, Subway, Aramark, Sodexo, Bon Apetit Management Company, Compass Group and Whole Foods have signed the agreement with the Coalition of Immokalee Workers. There has been no damage done to these companies. Trader Joe’s has no excuse for not coming to terms with the CIW.”

This encouraging new development will surely only grow as the Campaign gathers steam in the lead-up to the big supermarket action this spring. With organizing set to intensify, you can expect to see more and more buzz in the blogosphere about Trader Joe’s, Publix, Kroger, Stop & Shop and Giant and their refusal to work with the CIW in support of fairer wages and working conditions for the workers who pick their tomatoes.