Fair Food Program set to expand to 27 more farms, 13 more states with support from United States Department of Agriculture

USDA announcement marks latest instance of CIW/FFP innovations adopted as policy by the public sector 

USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack: “Improving working conditions and quality of life for farmworkers, both U.S. based workers and those that come to our country to work, is one key step in building a stronger, more resilient food supply chain.”

Cruz Salucio, CIW, Fair Food Program: “We are very happy to join with the USDA today in launching this project and providing this incentive to growers who want to bring H2-A workers with stronger protections so that workers can enjoy a safe and fair workplace as they contribute not just to their own families’ wellbeing, but to that of the country as well.”

Gwen Cameron, grower in the Fair Food Program: “The USDA took a similar approach (to the Fair Food Program) in creating the Farm Labor Stabilization and Protection Pilot, providing accountability and meaningful financial support to farms working to make significant improvements in the lives of their workers.”

Last week, the United States Department of Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack traveled to Rancho Durazno, a Fair Food Program Participating Grower in Colorado, to officially announce the launch of an historic public/private collaboration to protect farmworkers’ fundamental human rights in the US agricultural industry, including the announcement of millions of dollars in grants to farms that commit to joining the FFP to protect workers brought to this country through the agricultural work visa program known as the H2-A, or “guestworker” program.  Cruz Salucio of the Coalition of Immokalee Workers and Judge Laura Safer Espinoza of the Fair Food Program were invited to join the Secretary for the press event, as well as for a private roundtable to discuss farm labor dynamics that preceded the public portion of the morning’s agenda.

Secretary Vilsack’s announcement comes after the USDA recognized the Fair Food Program as the highest level (“Platinum”) of human rights protection in agriculture, and offered farms willing to join the FFP a window of time to apply for grants – in effect offering financial incentives for farms to become a part of the solution to the myriad farm labor abuses that have long been endemic in the agricultural industry.

In a statement to the press, Secretary Vilsack said, “Farmworkers make an incredibly important contribution to food and agriculture and ensure we have food on our tables every day. Improving working conditions and quality of life for farmworkers, both U.S. based workers and those that come to our country to work, is one key step in building a stronger, more resilient food supply chain.”

In the department’s official press release accompanying the announcement, the USDA called the Fair Food Program “a proven model for improving workplace environments.”  A total of 27 new farms answered the call to join the FFP through the exciting new project, nearly doubling the current number of participating growers and introducing the life-saving provisions of the Program to 13 new states and thousands more farmworkers harvesting countless new crops.

The expansion comes at a crucial time for farmworkers as the H-2A, or “guestworker” program has undergone a massive expansion in recent years, while simultaneously farm labor advocates and federal prosecutors have seen a surge in forced labor rings operating on farms employing H-2A workers.  The USDA has tapped the Fair Food Program in this exciting new collaboration as a means to provide workers a voice and the proven power of the Program to protect their own rights in the fields in order to mitigate the potential impact of the continued expansion of the guestworker program on farmworkers’ working conditions and livelihoods.

At its heart, the unprecedented success of the FFP comes down to the two fundamental pillars of the Worker-driven Social Responsibility model: 1) farmworkers themselves are best situated to be the frontline monitors of their own rights, and, 2) protected from retaliation by the market power of the retail brands, workers are able to utilize the program’s complaint mechanism and comprehensive audits to identify, remedy, and ultimately prevent long-pervasive abuses with a proven effectiveness unique to the FFP and WSR model. 

The FFP is distinguished by a series of interlaced mechanisms that act together to empower farmworkers. Each and every harvest season, farmworkers protected by the FFP attend an on-the-clock, worker-to-worker education session on their rights under the Program, and for each farm, independent auditors with the Fair Food Standards Council interview a majority of the workforce to gain a comprehensive look at the working and living conditions of the farmworkers. Workers also have a 24/7 free and confidential complaint line to report violations of the FFP’s worker-drafted Code of Conduct. The FFP includes rigorous anti-retaliation and harassment provisions as well as timekeeping and harvesting rules to prevent wage theft, in addition heat stress protections that were recently heralded as “America’s strongest workplace heat rules” on the front page of the Washington Post. Farmworkers also receive a significant bonus in the form of the Fair Food Premium, which is paid by the 14 major corporations that have signed legally binding commitments to participate in the FFP. 

All of these protections are guaranteed by those legally binding agreements, which require buyers to preferentially source from farms in compliance with the FFP, and to cease purchasing from farms suspended from the Program. In turn, this gives growers a market incentive to quickly resolve any and all violations of the code to maintain their good standing with those buyers. 

The Fair Food Program is a worker-led human rights program, and the USDA’s announcement is the latest instance of the FFP shaping best practices in the agricultural industry that are then adopted by the government and the public sector as official policy. From the earliest years of worker organizing in Immokalee, during which the CIW’s anti-slavery efforts became the basis for the widely-adopted “victim-centered” approach to ending forced labor, to the recent US Department of Labor $2.5 million grant to the Fair Food Standards Council in order to fuel the international expansion of the FFP, the USDA’s embrace of the FFP and the Worker-driven Social Responsibility model as a “platinum” level approach to enforcing farm labor rights in US agriculture last week in Colorado is just the latest example of how the CIW’s work has informed federal government policy on both philosophical and practical levels. 

To learn more about the USDA’s announcement, check out their press release here. We also want to share with you a piece of local coverage of the announcement, which profiles the owner of Rancho Durazno, Gwen Cameron. In the piece, Cameron voices the case to join the FFP from a grower’s perspective, illustrating how the rising tide of the Fair Food Program lifts all boats! To read the full piece, click here.

 

Agriculture Secretary Vilsack visits Palisade, announces awards for farms

PALISADE — When Thomas Cameron began farming as a seasonal peach picker in Palisade, he worked alongside crews primarily composed of Spanish-speaking migrants from Mexico and Central America. That’s why, when he started his own farm, he named it Rancho Durazno, which is Spanish for “peach farm.”

“(Spanish-speaking migrants) continue today to do the majority of that hard labor to produce the peaches here in our valley and across the United States,” said Rancho Durazno co-owner Gwen Cameron, Thomas’ daughter.

Rancho Durazno on Friday hosted U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack, who spoke about U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) efforts and programs to improve the working conditions and treatment of migrant farm workers across the nation.

Vilsack announced that the USDA was awarding $50 million to 141 farms in 40 states and Puerto Rico through the Farm Labor Stabilization and Protection Pilot Program (FLSP Program), which aims to improve the country’s food supply chain by addressing agricultural labor challenges and instability, strengthening protection for farm workers and expanding legal pathways for labor migration.

“I think I can make the case that this is a day in celebration of nutrition security because of the fruits and vegetables that are being produced and other farm products that are being produced through the hard work of farm workers and farmers across the country,” Vilsack said. “I think this is a day that acknowledges the important role of the USDA working in partnership with farmers to address the challenges of climate change and to ensure there is ample fruit and vegetable production in this country. I think it’s a day where we acknowledge the equity that’s at stake here.”

The USDA and Rancho Durazno share the same mission, as Rancho Durazno last summer became the first Colorado farm to join the Fair Food Program, a human rights movement that emphasizes accountability and cooperation to raise the bar for the treatment of farm workers who drive the nation’s fruit, vegetable and dairy production.

PROGRAM REWARDS

Rancho Durazno received $100,000 from the USDA on Friday for its participation in the FLSP Program, which will only further encourage the farm to pay close attention to the needs of its workers. Multiple Spanish-speaking farm workers with the ranch provided their own testimonies before Vilsack spoke.

“The USDA took a similar approach (to the Fair Food Program) in creating the Farm Labor Stabilization and Protection Pilot, providing accountability and meaningful financial support to farms working to make significant improvements in the lives of their workers,” Gwen said.

Vilsack said a common theme in his conversations with farmers around the country is a shortage of available labor. He said Friday’s announcement “adds to the toolbox” of opportunities for farming families, even if he acknowledged that there is “much, much, much more” that needs to be done to address labor in U.S. agriculture and maintain the nation’s status as a food-secure country…

“(Migrant farm workers) come here for one very simple reason: because they want to take care of their families,” Vilsack said. “They want to make sure that their families are well-cared for, which is really an amazing thing when you consider that they’re often separated from their families in the work that they do. … They work for and with American farmers, who themselves are an amazing set of people…”

Check back soon for much more from the Fair Food Program front, as the FFP and the WSR model continue their extraordinary expansion in the months ahead!