April 9, 2012
2012 Northeast Tour to launch this week... Stop & Shop, Giant, and Chipotle on the hotseat!
Tour to return to Northeast cities of epic
2011 Do the Right Thing Tour...
The Campaign for Fair Food is returning to familiar ground this week, as workers from Immokalee and their allies from student and faith communities head north up I-95 to the great cities of the Northeast -- with stops in Washington and Philadelphia, New York, and Boston -- to keep the heat on supermarket chains Stop & Shop and Giant and food movement darling Chipotle for their refusal to partner with farmworkers and support the CIW's Fair Food Program.
The 2012 Tour will be returning to the scene of some of the most exciting actions of last year's Do the Right Thing Tour, including the incredible march on Stop & Shop of nearly 1,000 Boston area Fair Food activists in freezing temperatures and snow (pictured above).
The action starts this Thursday, April 12, so be sure to check in as the launch of the Tour approaches, and to check out the details for the dates, times, places and contact people for all the key actions here! If you're in the Northeast and are reading this, you are not going to want to miss the 2012 Tour!
April 6, 2012
USDA Passover celebration puts a tomato on the Seder plate!...
USDA blog: "The second part of the seder connected the Israelites’ experience with slavery to modern struggles of farm workers and others in the food industry."
United States Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack hosted the USDA's second "Food and Justice Passover Seder" this past Wednesday -- at the Secretary's Executive Dining Room, no less -- with this year's event, "centered on the themes of hunger, access to healthy food, sustainable food production, and fair treatment for farm workers."
The Secretary (show here above, standing, immediately following his speech at Wednesday night's dinner) invited the CIW and Student/Farmworker Alliance to attend, and, in keeping with this week's call by the Rabbis for Human Rights -- North America, added a tomato to the Seder plate!
The USDA blog has a great write up from the event. Here's an excerpt:
Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack provided opening thoughts about the evening mentioning the ‘Golden Rule’ which has its roots in the book of Leviticus. “Seder means ‘order.’ To take one meaning of the word – to command – I think we can look at the ‘Golden Rule’ as an order. If I were hungry, there is nothing that would be more important to me than to have others work to make sure I could eat. We try to put that into practice through our work here at USDA.” “This is another example of how the Obama Administration is engaging various partners on a wide range of issues. The issues of food and justice are a priority – from the First Lady’s Let’s Move! campaign for kids to the President’s strong support for providing families in need a bridge to opportunity through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program,” stated Jon Carson, Director of the White House Office of Public Engagement." read more (in photo, from left to right, Rabbi Jill Jacobs, Executive Director of RHR-NA , Santiago Reyes of the CIW, and Joe Parker of the Student/Farmworker Alliance outside the USDA's Food and Justice Passover Seder) |
"Just ahead of the official start of Passover this Friday at sunset, the U.S. Department of Agriculture hosted its second Food and Justice Passover Seder. The traditional Jewish seder commemorates the Passover holiday and the Exodus of the Israelites from Egypt. USDA’s symbolic seder, held in partnership with Bend the Arc: A Jewish Partnership for Justice, highlighted the intersection of food and justice issues in the modern world. This year’s event centered on the themes of hunger, access to healthy food, sustainable food production, and fair treatment for farm workers.There is no better way to celebrate these holiest of days than to connect the message of liberation at the heart of the Passover story to the ongoing fight for human rights in the fields today. The CIW congratulates Sec. Vilsack and the Administration for their vision and courage in making this powerful statement of support for fundamental human rights in our food system.
April 4, 2012
A tomato on the Seder plate this year, next year an end to slavery in the fields!
Rabbis for Human Rights calls for reflection on modern-day slavery in this year's Passover celebrations across the US...
With a full court press in Jewish community media from New York to LA, the ever-inspiring Rabbis for Human Rights-North America(RHR-NA) have put the issue of slavery in our food system front and center on holiday tables across the country this Passover.
April 2, 2012
Florida Council of Churches calls on congregants this Holy Week to "Fast for Fair Food"
Inspired by the participation of Florida faith leaders and congregants in last months' Fast for Fair Food, the Florida Council of Churches has issued a call for people of good will to choose a day during this Holy Week to fast and pray "that Publix will affirm its better self to 'do the right thing.'" They have even set up a page for people to send letters to Publix CEO Ed Crenshaw explaining why they are fasting this week for Fair Food!
March 30, 2012
Letters to the editor, letters to Publix CEO Ed Crenshaw, piling up in wake of Fast...
The Fast for Fair Food touched many people -- across the state of Florida and around the country -- very, very deeply. And it didn't just move those observing the Fast from the outside. Its effect was so powerful that it knocked some longtime CIW veterans off their feet, too. In the words of CIW member Nely Rodriguez, "We set out to transform Publix, and in the process we transformed ourselves."
So it's hardly surprising that such an intense action led many a Fair Food activist to take pen in hand (or keyboard, as the case may be), and put his or her feelings about Publix and the grocery giant's refusal to meet with the CIW about the Fair Food Program into words. We've received quite a number of such letters, one of which we shared at the end of the recent post on continuing violence against farmworkers. Today we've chosen a few more recent letters to share with you, to give you a sense of what the mailbag at Publix must be looking like these days. Enjoy:
March 28, 2012
Food blogosphere starting to pick up scent of Chipotle's Fair Food fail...
Food blogs theperennialplate.com and treehugger.com latest to take Chipotle to task for refusal to work with
CIW
to ensure highest standards in tomato supply chain
Since the public dust-up two weeks ago at a national food writers' conference -- where Chipotle Communications Director Chris Arnold was called out for the company's inexplicable refusal to sign a Fair Food agreement -- more and more food movement writers are demanding an explanation as to why Chipotle is turning its back on a partnership with farmworkers.
March 22, 2012
Lost in the Flood...
A truly insightful reflection and two great videos from the Fast for Fair Food...
The Fast for Fair Food generated such a flood of unforgettable coverage -- both by the traditional media and by the fasters and their allies themselves -- that some very good stuff got lost in the process of reporting it all on this site.
[Editor's Note: Of course, we are partial to these three extraordinary videos -- one, two, three -- from the CIW media team, which definitely merit a re-watching if you haven't seen them in a while!]
Today we wanted to highlight a few of those things lost in the flood of Fast coverage, including two more fun, and well-made, videos that convey some of the unique spirit and pageantry of Day Six of the Fast (one of which is above and the other at the end of this post)...
March 18, 2012
And in other news.... Food writers put spotlight back on "the fly in Chipotle's kitchen!"
Last Sunday, as participants in the Fast for Fair Food were making their way back home, an event was taking place in Santa Barbara, California, that would once again highlight the contradiction between the carefully crafted public image and on-the-ground practice of one longtime Fair Food hold-out: Chipotle Mexican Grill.
The event was the Edible Institute 2012, "a two-day gathering with some of the local food movements most influential thinkers, writers and producers," and it included speakers such as Barry Estabrook (author of "Tomatoland"), Tracy McMillan (author of "The American Way of Eating"), Helene Yorke (an executive at Fair Food partner Bon Appetit Management Company), and none other than Chipotle's very own Communications Director, Chris Arnold. The Twitter record helps establish the events of the day:
"Truth crushed to earth shall rise again"...
On morning of Day Six, News-Press article belies Publix disinformation campaign against CIW's Fair Food Program
"‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.” (Mark 12:30-31).
*****
"You may well ask: ‘Why direct action?’ Why sit-ins, marches and so forth? Isn’t negotiation a better path? You are quite right in calling for negotiation. Indeed, this is the very purpose of direct action. Nonviolent direct action seeks to create such a crisis and foster such a tension that a community that has consistently refused to negotiate is forced to confront the issue. It seeks so to dramatize the issue so that it can no longer be ignored…
Nonviolent action brings to the surface the hidden tension that is already alive. We bring it out in the open, where it can be seen and dealt with. Like a boil that can never be cured so long as it is covered up but must be opened with all its ugliness to the natural medicines of air and light, injustice must be exposed, with all the tension its exposure creates, to the light of human conscience and the air of national opinion before it can be cured…" (Martin Luther King, Letter from a Birmingham Jail)
*****
As workers and their allies prepare to end their week-long fast outside Publix corporate headquarters in Lakeland, an article in today's edition of the Ft. Myers News-Press, "Publix protesters set to end six-day fast," takes a closer look at Publix's stated reasons for not joining the CIW's Fair Food Program. And what it finds effectively shreds the company's public relations talking points, leaving Publix with nowhere to hide from the swelling consumer demand that Florida's largest company stop stalling and start doing its part to end the state's Harvest of Shame. Here's an extended excerpt:
March 10, 2012
Fast for Fair Food: Day Five
Day Five of the Fast for Fair Food was another day full of news and surprises -- including the first rain of the week -- capped off by the arrival of allies and families of the fasters ahead of Saturday's huge procession and celebration to break the Fast.
Support for the fasters and their call for a partnership with Publix, based on mutual respect, to advance human rights in the fields has grown exponentially over the week. Clergy and lay people, students and families, people from all walks of life have heard the fasters' call and rallied to their side, laying the foundation for a powerful movement to break through Publix's resistance and bring Florida's largest corporation into the Fair Food Program.
Go to the Fast for Fair Food website to see "Postcards from the Fast" (photos and portraits from today's action without description), a full media round-up from Day Five, and more. Then check back tomorrow for updates from Day Six!
March 9, 2012
More video from the Fast site...
Ethel Kennedy, Robert Kennedy Jr., Latin Artist Jose Jose joining workers to break fast tomorrow!
As Day Five winds down, and workers and their allies prepare for tomorrow's big procession and ceremony to break the Fast, we have some wonderful, breaking news to share: Mrs. Ethel Kennedy, widow of the late Sen. Robert F. Kennedy, and her son, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., himself a staunch defender of the environment and activist for social justice, will be joining Kerry Kennedy in Lakeland to be with workers as they break their six-day fast!
Also, Latin artist Jose Jose -- with 35 albums, and over 40 million records sold, to his credit -- will also be joining workers for the fast-breaking ceremony. Click here if you are interested in attending tomorrow's big action, and check back soon for more from Day Five, including a Photo Report, media round-up, and more!
March 9, 2012
Fast for Fair Food: Day Four
A poll taken this week by Tampa Bay's Channel 10 News shows that the
Campaign for Fair Food wins over Publix's intransigence in a landslide!
Go to the Fast website to see the Photo Report and all the news and CIW media from Day Four!
The fasters celebrated International Women's Day at the Fast site today, received still more words of support from around the country, and welcomed more friends to the Fast ahead of Saturday's big procession and celebration of the breaking of the Fast.
Among the well wishers was Frances Moore Lappe, author of Diet for a Small Planet, who wrote:
"You all are my heroes! Thank you, thank you for your courage and determination and the dignity you embody. You WILL succeed because your cause is just and your spirit is powerful. I want to continue to be supportive of CIW in any way that I can. May basic decency prevail and your goals be achieved NOW!" |
Arielle Rosenberg, the Rabbinical Student at Hebrew College in Boston who has been fasting in solidarity all week, sent this news:
"Just so you know, the Taanit Esther fast being dedicated to the Fast for Fair Food was a huge success! A bunch of students dedicated their fast today, as did rabbis in Boston, a synagogue in NY, and a Jewish community in Portland, Oregon. The CIW network is so impressive, and it's been an amazing experience to make that manifest by fasting together. It was nice to have solidarity with people today, I'll say that!" |
And speaking of the Taanit Esther fast, 85 rabbis, cantors, and Jewish community members signed an open letter to Publix pledging their fast to be "in support of the members of the Coalition of Immokalee Workers currently fasting outside of your Lakeland headquarters in the Fast for Fair Food." Here's the letter:
"We, the undersigned rabbis, cantors, and Jewish community members, urge Publix to work with the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW) and the Florida tomato industry to address the sub-poverty wages and human rights abuses faced by farmworkers who pick tomatoes sold at Publix. Today, the Jewish community observes Ta'anit Esther, the Fast of Esther. In the Torah, before Queen Esther approaches the King of Persia to ask for the safety of her people, she fasts and asks the Jewish people to fast in solidarity with her. We continue her fast today. We have pledged our fasts today to be in support of the members of the Coalition of Immokalee Workers currently fasting outside of your Lakeland headquarters in the Fast for Fair Food. Jews across the country applaud this fast and urge you to begin negotiations with the CIW. By working with the CIW to enforce a code of conduct for basic rights for farmworkers, including zero tolerance for slavery, Publix can ensure that the tomatoes you sell are not the product of slave labor and exploitative working conditions. Will you be a leader in the grocery industry by agreeing to the CIW's Fair Food Campaign." |
So, go to the Fast for Fair Food website to see the full Photo Report and media round-up from Day Four, and check back soon for more news from the Fast site!
March 8, 2012
This video says it all...
Last night's vigil outside the Grove Park Publix in Lakeland was an experience that captured virtually every aspect of the Fast for Fair Food to this point:
* the soul force of the fasters and their allies up against the brute economic force of a $27 billion company based in a small Central Florida city;
* the remarkable eloquence of those who are foregoing food for justice against the mute disdain of those Publix executives who sell food and have refused, since 2007, to afford workers calling for more humane working conditions at the base of the food industry the simple courtesy of a response;
* the genuine humanity of people coming together for change, a perfect example of Dr. King's "beloved community", encountering the cold resistance of a corporation that defines community as it sees fit and claims, in its corporate mission statement, to be "Involved as Responsible Citizens in our Communities."
But rather than go on, we'll just share with you the reflections of the Rev. Bernice Powell Jackson, First United Church of Tampa, President, World Council of Churches from North America, who was present at the vigil and was left standing in the parking lot with a small delegation of faith leaders, workers, and students, refused even a brief face-to-face meeting with the store manager:
As we get stronger…Publix gets weaker. That’s what was so evident tonight as we held a candlelight vigil outside the Publix in Lakeland. After singing, lighting candles, reading scripture, listening to testimonies by fasters and praying, a small delegation went to meet with the Publix store manager, as has happened at almost every Publix vigil or march throughout FL over the past few years. The managers always come out and talk. Some are more open than others to hearing the story about why we are there and why the workers want to sit down and talk with Publix leaders. But just having the conversation, usually led by farm workers and faith leaders, establishes our common humanity. Tonight, however, the Publix store manager refused to come out and talk. He refused to come and look us in the eye. He sent someone out to say he won’t talk to us and the sheriff to tell us this was private property. So since we couldn’t talk with him, we prayed for him and for all the workers inside the store. Just as we had done earlier, we prayed for Ed Crenshaw, for George Jenkins’ family members and all the Publix corporate leaders that God might soften their hearts. A couple of weeks ago I wrote to my congregation that I believed that the reason that Publix will not sit down with CIW leaders is that they would have to look the workers in the eye and they know that they have a morally indefensible position. After tonight, I know that in the very core of my being. And the fact that they would not allow the Lakeland store manager to even talk with us says to me that the moral power of the workers and the fasters is wearing down the corporate power of Publix. Dr. King once said, “The arc of the moral universe is long but it bends towards justice.” One of the signs which the workers are holding up outside the Publix headquarters says, “I go hungry today so my children won’t have to tomorrow.” That’s moral power. And that’s the power which overturned segregation and apartheid. Moral power ended those systems of oppression despite the economic, political and military power which supported them. Fasting is a way of connecting to that moral universe and its power. I believe tonight showed us it’s working…. Rev. Bernice Powell Jackson, pastor, First United Church of Tampa |
March 7, 2012
Fast for Fair Food: Day Three
Go to the Fast website to see the Photo Report and all the news and CIW media from Day Three!
Day Three saw visits to the Fast site by clergy from Lakeland and around the state - including a United Methodist pastor from Lakeland who floored the fasters with his MC skills (don't miss the video below!) - as well as the arrival of still more new fasters and still more heartwarming expressions of solidarity.
So, be sure to visit the Fast for Fair Food website to see the Photo Report and all the media from Day Three. But before you go, we have two things we just have to share with you from today.
First, check out the video here below for a sense of the scene at the Fast site, a scene that is growing ever more vibrant, despite the increasing difficulty of the fast, every day:
And second, we received several deeply moving emails today from a group of 30 students at the River City Science Academy in Jacksonville, FL. They sent a statement they drafted together expressing their support for the Campaign for Fair Food, photos capturing their own sacrifices they are making solidarity with the fasters, and pictures of a mural they made to celebrate the Fast. They also promised to send a video tomorrow and to join the fasters at Saturday's march and celebration here in Lakeland. We were, quite simply, blown away.
Here below are two of the photos and their statement:
Statement for the CIW Teenagers and young people in general have never been known for their willingness to sacrifice, especially in America. We decided to disprove this stereotype by standing in solidarity with the Immokalee workers. To stand in solidarity we are giving up something that we normally indulge in and are abstaining from for the whole week, so we may experience just a little bit of what the Immokalee workers go through every day. For most of us, the idea of going without food, water, or electricity, is horrifying, but also an abstract concept that none of us have ever experienced. By refraining from something that we normally use every day, we can realize the hardships felt by the Immokalee workers, and better realize the injustices being committed, and how critical it is that the suffering and abuses come to an end. Our club of over 30 students has worked on numerous projects to commemorate the fasting farm workers, and have been studying their plight since the beginning of the year. To demonstrate their solidarity, our entire club is giving up something in their lives for the week, three of whom are fasting food from sun-up to sundown and three of whom are fasting all food for the six days. The more artistic members of our group have painted a mural about the Immokalee workers, in order to serve as a reminder of what is happening and how we demand change. We have presented workshops for around 500 students covering every grade at our school about the atrocities happening in Immokalee. We have gotten over 500 people to write and send letters to Publix managers and completed and sent over 30 post cards to local Publix stores. We will be bringing around 30 people to march on Saturday, to show Publix that we care about the farm workers. We believe in fair wages. We believe in doing the right thing. We believe in the words of Publix founder George W. Jenkins that, “Making a profit should never get in the way of doing the right thing.” We believe that the abuses must come to an end. We believe that injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. |
The future is in very good hands...
See the rest of the Day Three Report at the Fast for Fair Food website and check back tomorrow for more!
March 6, 2012
Fast for Fair Food: Day Two
Go to the Fast website to see the Photo Report and all the news and CIW media from Day Two!
Day Two of the Fast for Fair Food has come and gone, and in the course of the day the fasters received a powerful letter of support from Congressman Luis Gutierrez, watched a warm video greeting from solidarity fasters with Mountain Justice in West Virginia, received dozens of visitors at the Fast site, and welcomed five new fasters, students at Polk State College right here in Lakeland, all while holding things down -- sometimes quite literally, with wind gusts up to 30 miles an hour all day long! -- at the site outside Publix headquarters.
But before we get to the news of the day, we have to share the great new video from Day One with you. Have a look:
Day One was truly memorable, and Day Two only added to the momentum. The fasters started the day with an unexpected message of support from Washington, DC, specifically from US Congressman Luis Gutierrez, representative from Illinois:
Then, throughout the day, as the fasters held their vigil outside Publix, more messages of support poured in, as did more visitors and even a team of new fasters! Here below is a great, heartfelt video from people with Mountain Justice, fighting mountaintop removal in West Virginia and fasting in solidarity with the CIW at the same time:
And pictured here are five students from Polk State College in Lakeland who learned about the Fast and decided to join for the remainder the week (they join their fellow student Pablo, third from left, who joined the fast himself yesterday!):
Go to the Fast for Fair Food website for much more on Day Two, including the full Photo Report and press coverage.
March 5, 2012
"Why We Are Fasting"...
150 people gathered this morning at Publix headquarters in Lakeland, Florida -- including 61 workers from Immokalee and their allies who started their fast last night at midnight -- for the launch of the Fast for Fair Food. After a moving opening ceremony and a couple of hours spent setting up camp, the fasters settled into what will be their daily routine for the coming week -- morning medical check-ups, music, presentations, and standing in witness to the daily struggle for survival of their fellow farmworkers in the fields of Florida.
At the final meeting last night before today's launch of the fast, a CIW member read a statement entitled "Why We Are Fasting". We are including it here below in its entirety.
[You can follow the fast during the day on facebook and twitter (using the hashtag #fairfoodfast) and check back here this afternoon for a full report from Day One of the Fast for Fair Food!]:
Why We Are Fasting
Farmworkers have, for generations, been denied a fair wage for the arduous work we do in the fields. In return for the vital contributions we make to this country's economy and society we have received decades of stagnant wages and abuses of our basic rights. The just wages we merit have instead been taken from us by corporations like Publix and others at the top of the food system who have used their unprecedented power to demand artificially cheap tomatoes from their suppliers. These purchasing practices rob workers of much of their fairly earned compensation and contribute mightily to the profit margins of these giant food retailers, representing a massive transfer of money up the supply chain. This is why, for generations, hundreds of thousands of farmworkers and their families have been impoverished while over the course of generations Publix has become unimaginably wealthy. While, for decades, there was no alternative to this structural farm labor exploitation, Publix could wash its hands of any direct accountability for the brutal working and living conditions faced by Florida's farmworkers. But that has changed. With the CIW's historic agreement with the Florida Tomato Growers Exchange in 2010, and the subsequent implementation of the Fair Food Program on over 90% of Florida's tomato farms, the opportunity exists today to right a wrong that has plagued the food industry for generations, to finally end Florida's Harvest of Shame. Yet, despite this opportunity to do the right thing – to support a proven model for social responsibility that is already backed by ten other retail food giants – Publix has refused to do its part, turning its back on farmworkers and on its customers who, in massive numbers, have demonstrated their support for farm labor justice. Our struggle is for respect and a fair wage but Publix treats our dignity like a commodity. Our struggle is for all actors the Fair Food Program so that abuses can no longer be committed with impunity or tolerated without consequence. And Publix responds, “If there are some atrocities going on, it's not our business.” This, while it profits from the humiliation and abuses that make possible the cheap tomatoes that it purchases. Our struggle is for justice and so that our community does not have to go hungry despite being some of the hardest working people in our nation. But Publix hides behind its mask of excuses and cold public relations to evade responsibility. Our struggle is a moral struggle that will not be resolved under the dark clouds of greed and dishonesty, but rather under the purifying light of a commitment to work together. We call on Publix to live up to the words of its own founder, George Jenkins, who declared “never let profit get in the way of doing the right thing.” Today we fast so that we may bring an end to a conflict we never wanted – and sit at the table together with Publix to construct a reality in which no one's prosperity is based on the blood, sweat, tears and humiliation of another human being. For a future where food is produced with dignity, we fast. |
March 3, 2012
Solidarity actions, words of support, media continue to flood in on eve of the Fast for Fair Food!
Tampa Bay Times op/ed: Publix "disingenuous"...
Solidarity faster in Boston (right): "It is a stony strength that allows people to gather, in Florida and across the country, and insist that Publix take notice and commit to honoring the work of those who make their business possible."
On the eve of the Fast for Fair Food, an op/ed by Bill Maxwell -- one of Florida's most respected journalists and a former farmworker himself -- flatly debunks Publix's stale and, in his words, "disingenuous", public relations responses to the CIW's Campaign for Fair Food. Here's an excerpt:
... As much as I appreciate Publix's response to my questions, I believe the company is disingenuous when it accuses the CIW of asking it to pay the employees of other employers directly. Gerardo Reyes, the CIW's spokesman, said more than $4 million has been distributed to workers since Jan. 11 through the Fair Food program, and none of the money has been paid in any transaction between retail purchasers and the workers. He said Publix officials know that. "Not only does the Fair Food program not require what Publix is claiming, it does not allow it," Reyes said. "The fair food premium works like a fair trade premium does. And Publix pays and promotes that on every bag of its Greenwise Fair Trade Coffee. Tomato retail buyers pay a small premium to the grower on every pound of tomatoes they buy through the Fair Food program. The growers then distribute that money to their workers through their regular payroll as a line item on each worker's paycheck. "Publix says they would pay the fair food premium if the growers would only 'put it in the price.' Well, they should consider their bluff called. The growers will put the premium in the price for any retailer who wants that, and we would sign a fair food agreement today with Publix stating they can pay that way if that is what they want." read more |
"Still fighting for a penny per pound" We can only hope that, as the coverage of the Fast continues, other members of the media show the same willingness to question Publix's patently false statements on the Fair Food Program and hold Florida's largest corporation (with $27 billion in sales last year and $1.5 billion in profits) to the truth when it explains why it can't pay a penny more per pound for Florida tomatoes and do its part to end decades of farmworker poverty and degradation.
Meanwhile, as workers in Immokalee and allies around the country make their final preparations for Day One of the Fast, the volume of messages of encouragement and pledges to fast in solidarity continues to grow so large it has become truly humbling.
And so, once again, we bring you a sample of the support -- so eloquently expressed -- from across the country:
From Arielle Rosenberg (pictured at the top of this post), a Rabbinical Student at Hebrew College who visited Immokalee on a Rabbis for Human Rights (RHR) delegation this fall, has committed to a six-day solidarity fast in Boston. She's also working with RHR to encourage people across the country to dedicate their Purim fast on Wednesday to the farmworker struggle. Here are her words:
The Coalition of Immokalee Workers has issued an invitation to consumers again and again over the last twenty years to recognize that what enables the comfortable stupor of consumption are abusive working conditions, low wages, and environmental havoc. It has invited us to remember that we are not just individuals, mired in comfort, but instead form a grand network of people who share a common reality, common struggles. Not only does the CIW invite us to recognize this, but it asks us to take action. The Fast for Fair Food is a chance for workers and allies to come together, to refuse the comfort of food for six days, and to grow strong together. There is a power in strength, in clarity of vision, in living into a reality that holds that those who harvest the food for this nation should not go hungry, that those whose labors form the foundation of this society should be recognized and work with dignity. It is a stony strength that allows people to gather, in Florida and across the country, and insist that Publix take notice and commit to honoring the work of those who make their business possible. I will be fasting this week in Boston, and I stand with the CIW and all those who will be gathering in Lakeland. There is nothing comfortable about denying the body food, there is nothing comfortable about missing work for a week, or spending a week telling Publix what they should have recognized long ago. The Fast for Fair Food cannot be comfortable, but it will be transformative. That transformation will bring about a change at Publix, that's for certain. It will also bring about a change in how we see each other, and what we know to be possible." |
"And I returned and considered all the oppressions that were done under the sun and beheld the tears of those that were oppressed and they had no comforter, but on the side of their oppressor there was power, but they had no comforter." (Ecclesiastes 4:1)From Boston we travel clear across the country where Lucy Butte, California Director of National Farm Workers Ministry, sends these words on the eve of the fast:
"I am in prayer for you as you begin this very beautiful experience seeking The church stands with you as you fast for justice. My prayers are that each of the fasters may know that there are many who are joining them in prayer, some fasting and all in solidarity asking our God to break through Publix leadership's hearts and minds that they may do what is just, moral and responsible. And that is to come to the table with farm workers and Immokalee to address farm worker issues." |
And finally, we return right back home to Florida, for these words from Professor Eric Castillo,
Assistant Director and Multicultural & Diversity Affairs Director of the Institute for Hispanic-Latino Cultures -- aka "La Casita" -- at the University of Florida:
"On behalf of the Institute of Hispanic-Latino Cultures "La Casita," I want to express to you all our wholehearted support for your brave and valiant efforts. We are moved by your willingness to sacrifice so much of yourselves for such a worthy cause. While your bodies may grow weary from hunger, we are praying for your good health and success in bringing Publix to the table. We stand in solidarity with you and want you to know that your sacrifice reminds us of our responsibility to advocate for equity, parity, inclusion, and social justice for everyone." |
He adds this PS, about two of the UF students joining the fasters in Lakeland: "Please take care of my students Juliette and Victor! They are remarkable young folks and we miss them!"
Tomorrow the Fast for Fair Food begins. Check back soon for a report from the workers' departure from Immokalee and news from Day One in Lakeland!
March 2, 2012
Flood waters rising... Statements of support, solidarity actions, media coverage come rushing in ahead of Monday's Fast for Fair Food!
Eric Schlosser: "It's a disgrace that a Florida company refuses to take responsibility for abuses occurring within miles of its stores."
(Long update alert!)...
With the Fast for Fair Food just a weekend away, awareness of the coming fast and of Publix's refusal to work with the CIW for human rights and justice in the fields is spreading like wildfire.
Statements of Support
Several new statements of support for the fasters made their way to Immokalee in the past two days, including the following note from best-selling author and producer ("Fast Food Nation", "Food, Inc."), Eric Schlosser:
|
"Publix claims, in its corporate mission statement, to be 'Involved as Responsible Citizens in our Communities.' Now it has an opportunity to give real meaning to those words--by helping to end the exploitation of farm workers whose backbreaking labor fills the shelves at Publix supermarkets with good food. It's a disgrace that a Florida company refuses to take responsibility for abuses occurring within miles of its stores. If McDonald's and Burger King and Taco Bell can commit to ending slavery and wage theft and sexual harassment in the tomato fields of Florida, then one of the state's largest supermarket chains can easily do the same. I'm sorry that I can't be in Lakeland to support the Fast for Fair Food. But I applaud the great courage and dedication to social justice that drives the Coalition of Immokalee Workers."He was far from alone. Dr. Patrick Mason, Professor of Economics at Florida State University and Director of the African American Studies Program there, sent these words of encouragement along and pledged to join the fasters on March 10th:
February 29, 2012
Press Release:
Kerry Kennedy (right), daughter of the late Robert F. Kennedy, to take part in March 10th ceremony breaking the Fast for Fair Food!
Ms. Kennedy: "On March 10th... we rededicate ourselves to bringing dignity to US agriculture and real, lasting respect for human rights to our food system."
Martin Sheen: "... tomato pickers will, once again, teach Publix and actually all of us a vital lesson in courage, of how to transform inequality and upend injustice through the sacred power of non-violence."
The official Press Release for the Fast for Fair Food is online now. Here is an excerpt:
For generations, farmworkers in Florida have been among the country’s worst paid, least protected workers. That exploitation has been driven, in large part, by companies like Publix. Retail food giants have wielded their unprecedented market power to demand artificially cheap tomatoes from their suppliers. At the farm level, this downward pressure on prices has resulted in a thirty-year, downward spiral of farmworker wages and working conditions. “While, for decades, there was no alternative to this structural farm labor exploitation, Publix could wash its hands of any direct accountability for the brutal working and living conditions faced by Florida's farmworkers,” said Gerardo Reyes of the CIW. “But that has changed. With the CIW's historic agreement with the Florida Tomato Growers Exchange in 2010, and the subsequent implementation of the Fair Food Program on over 90% of Florida's tomato farms, the opportunity exists today to right a wrong that has plagued the food industry for generations, to end Florida's Harvest of Shame.” “Yet, despite this opportunity to do the right thing -- to support a proven model for social responsibility that is already backed by ten other retail food giants just like Publix -- Publix has refused to do its part, turning its back on farmworkers and on its customers who, in massive numbers, have demonstrated their support for farm labor justice,” continued Reyes. “Instead, Publix is deliberately choosing to continue to do business as if it were the last century, continuing to enrich itself at the expense of the state's most exploited workers. In other words, by turning its back on the Fair Food Program, Publix has moved from passively profiting from farmworker poverty to affirmatively perpetuating it. This is an amoral and fundamentally indefensible choice. As workers we cannot allow that choice to stand. And that is why we will be going without food." |
Background:
February 28, 2012
Food movement leaders, Washington DC clergy latest to offer powerful words of encouragement to farmworkers, allies preparing to fast!
Raj Patel: "... And that is the great strength of this fast: it works... by reminding the people who work [at Publix] that they too are human, are capable of compassion, and of making change that is life-affirming."
Rabbi Charles Feinberg: "the farmworkers need to... push for what is due to them, but at the same time, they should know that they have many friends and supporters throughout the country"
Words of support continue to pour into CIW headquarters from across the country for the Fast for Fair Food, set to begin next week, Monday, March 5th.
This week, statements have come in from two distinct, yet deeply supportive, camps: the food justice movement and clergy, in this case clergy from the Nation's Capital.
On the food justice side, Raj Patel -- the British-born American academic, journalist, and author of the two widely read books, "Stuffed and Starved" and "The Value of Nothing" -- sent this moving message in support of the fasters:
How do you confront an organization as morally numb as this? With compassion. The fast can’t succeed unless Publix recognizes the humanity of the workers in Immokalee. And that is the great strength of this fast: it works not by embarrassing a shameless Fortune 500 company, but by reminding the people who work there that they too are human, are capable of compassion, and of making change that is life-affirming." |
"I confess that I couldn’t quite believe the Publix response to news that the tomatoes in their stores may involve modern-day slavery: 'If there are some atrocities going on, it's not our business.'
February 26, 2012
"Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny."
- Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., Letter from a Birmingham Jail
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This past Wednesday, CIW members used twine to create a visible network reflecting Martin Luther King's notion of "interconnectedness" that bounds up the fate of each person with the whole of the community. |
As Fast for Fair Food approaches, workers in Immokalee preparing to fast draw inspiration from human rights movement across the globe, the history of creative non-violence in forging social change, each other...
With the Fast for Fair Food just one week away, workers in Immokalee planning to join the fast have launched a series of meetings with a focus on the discipline and use of fasting as a tool for social change... and are taking a moment to party, too!
The past ten days in Immokalee have been a whirlwind of activity, and at the eye of that storm has been a quiet and deliberate process of reflection. Drawing on lessons from the giants of social justice throughout modern history -- from Mahatma Gandhi to Alice Paul and Martin Luther King -- CIW members have taken time over the past ten days to deepen their 
understanding of the mechanisms of social change and to share their own experiences of struggle. The Lenten season has added a profound seriousness to the discussions, and provided an example of the spiritual power of fasting for bringing about social justice familiar to all.
The reflections have been some of the most moving discussions in the long history of the CIW, touching on themes well beyond the specific question of the fast as "a sword that heals" to include explorations of the strength we derive from unity (above, right, workers step out from last week's meeting to demonstrate that, together, it is easy to do what it is impossible to do alone -- in this case, lift and move a truck across the parking lot through the air!), the universal nature of human rights, and the role of individuals and communities in making the world a fairer, better place...
February 24, 2012
"... theirs is a morally indefensible position and they can’t look the workers in the eye." Rev. Bernice Powell Jackson, First United Church of Tampa, President, World Council of Churches from North America
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Father Les Singleton, speaking at Wednesday's press conference in Gainesville, holds pennies from his change after buying a tomato from a local Publix store. He later tossed the change on the ground to dramatize the unconscionable nature of Publix's refusal to pay the penny-per-pound premium and support the CIW's Fair Food Program. |
Faith allies making their voices heard -- loud and clear -- in lead-up to Fast for Fair Food!
With strong words -- and deeds -- of support, the CIW's faith allies have stepped forward in a truly inspiring show of solidarity as the countdown to the Fast for Fair Food enters the final 10 days.
On the heels of the announcement that the Rev. Michael Livingston, former President of the National Council of Churches and current Director of the NCC's Poverty Initiative, would be joining the fasters, and this week's inter-faith press conference declaring support for the fast from the Gainesville area faith and student communities, three more Florida clergy have added their voices to the growing chorus calling on Publix to work with the CIW to defend human rights in the tomato fields of Florida...
February 23, 2012
Gainesville press conference: 3 UF students to join Fast for Fair Food!
Event brings together Gainesville faith, student, and civic leaders in united front for Fair Food...
With the Fast for Fair Food set to begin in just 11 days, people across the state and across the country are answering the call to action and declaring "I'll be there!" with the CIW at Publix headquarters in Lakeland, Florida.
Yesterday, at a moving press conference just across the street from the University of Florida campus in Gainesville, three UF students declared that they will be joining workers from Immokalee and other Fair Food allies in fasting all six days of the upcoming action. Further, dozens of UF students pledged to form a caravan to Lakeland for the Saturday, March 10th, picket and procession to Publix headquarters for the ceremony to break the week-long fast...
February 22, 2012
Rev. Michael Livingston, former President of the National Council of Churches, to join Fast for Fair Food!
Rev. Livingston, now Director of the NCC's Poverty Initiative, will be fasting all six days together with CIW members and other allies outside Publix headquarters in Lakeland...
Also: Fast for Fair Food Website now live!
Ash Wednesday is the beginning of the Christian season of Lent.
Rev. Noelle Damico of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) describes the significance of Lent:
"Lent is a time when Christians examine their lives and repent of the ways they have failed to love God and neighbor. In the gospels we read that Jesus was driven into the wilderness for 40 days by the Holy Spirit. There he fasted, turning aside from temptations to use his power for kingdoms or splendor, and pledging himself to God and God’s desire alone. What is that desire? The prophet Isaiah announces God’s desire in the biblical reading for Ash Wednesday, “is this not the fast that I choose, to loose the bonds of injustice…” (Isaiah 58:1-12). |
On this Ash Wednesday, we are honored to announce that the Rev. Michael Livingston, former president of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the U.S.A., now director of the NCC’s Poverty Initiative, will be fasting together with the CIW outside Publix headquarters from March 5-10th...
February 20, 2012
Girl Scouts of Gulf Coast Florida tour CIW Slavery Museum at conference against human trafficking...
... and step up to the plate in the battle
to end forced labor!
This past Saturday, the Girl Scout Council representing 10 counties across Southwest and Central Florida held a gathering in Sarasota for "an afternoon of community education and empowerment as we raise awareness of the growing epidemic of domestic human trafficking." The CIW was invited to bring the mobile Modern-Day Slavery Museum to the "Girls Protecting Girls Against Human Trafficking" event, and from all accounts the exchange between farmworkers from Immokalee and the young leaders gathered there was a huge success.
February 17, 2012
Publix Fast: More words of inspiration for the fasters, more press ahead of the fast...
Earlier this week we shared the words of allies -- Professor Carol Anderson of Emory University in Atlanta and Barry Estabrook, the widely respected food writer -- written in support of the upcoming Fast for Fair Food. Today, we have more words of inspiration for the fasters, this time from Marley Moynahan, a student ally at Georgetown University in Washington, DC, and the Rev. Noelle Damico of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).
Marley Moynahan (DC Fair Food):
Why Fast? A Reflection on the Fast for Fair Food "... Fasting as a form of non-violent action – the refusal to be compliant and silent in the face of profound injustice - is the tool of those who believe that every human being amounts to something more valuable than brick and mortar. Those who believe that the path of gross inequality and economic injustice is wholly and unequivocally unacceptable – primarily because it is deeply and morally wrong, and additionally because it is unsustainable in any realistic longer vision of our future. The Campaign for Fair Food is an amplified collection of voices of farmworkers, young people, people of faith, and many other community members who are breathing life into the possibility of an alternative future. Already, in two decades, the Coalition of Immokalee Workers and their allies have made enormous gains: increased pay for farmworkers in Florida, basic rights in the field such as shade, water, and freedom from violence, and a growing partnership of actors spread across the food chain who are shaping an entirely new, concrete system that fosters dialogue, respect, and accountability. Only last week, Trader Joe’s joined the Fair Food family, demonstrating, alongside Whole Foods, that supermarkets can join the fast food and food service industries in transforming U.S. agriculture from the soil to the kitchen. Even in the same moment that we congratulate Trader Joe’s and the nine other companies who have signed Fair Food Agreements with the CIW, there are still companies like Publix who are refusing to come to the table – who claim that their hands are clean and they have no role to play... ... That is why, as a young person profoundly invested in the future, as a Publix shopper, as a member of the human family, I am fasting for six days with the Coalition of Immokalee Workers in March. I will not concede to a future which requires routine violence in the name of Publix’s profit – or a future which marks someone else’s suffering as my “gain” in the form of an artificially cheap tomato. The sustainable path that I want to construct, that I am depending on requires dignity and respect for the whole human family – period." read more |
Rev. Noelle Damico (Presbyterian Church U.S.A., shown in the photo below breaking the bread that workers and allies ate to end the fast at Taco Bell, 2003):
February 15, 2012
“When people get caught up with that which is right and they are willing to sacrifice for it, there is no stopping point short of victory.” Martin Luther King, Jr., Memphis, April 3, 1968
With 20 days to go before the March 5th launch of the Fast for Fair Food, allies planning to join fasters are penning words of support, blog posts, and more...
In an unprecedented show of support ahead of a major Fair Food action, CIW allies from across the country are sending in expressions of solidarity for next month's Fast for Fair Food.
We will be posting a sample of those words of support from time to time as we approach March 5th and the launch of the six-day fast. Here below is our first installment, a wonderful note from Carol Anderson, a longtime ally and professor of African American Studies at Emory University in Atlanta, GA, and a short article by Barry Estabrook, food writer and author of the widely-acclaimed book on the Florida tomato industry, Tomatoland. Both will be visiting the fasters over the course of their week-long stay outside Publix headquarters in Lakeland.
From Professor Anderson:
The Campaign for Fair Food is in the same spirit. Martin Luther King, Jr. summarized it best. In his journey to shine a klieg light on the horrific labor conditions endured by the sanitation workers in Memphis, King observed, in the last speech of his life, that “When people get caught up with that which is right and they are willing to sacrifice for it, there is no stopping point short of victory.” That is the core essence of the Campaign for Fair Food and the Coalition of Immokalee Workers." |
"The decision to fast, to deny one’s body essential nourishment, to turn away from the very sustenance that gives life, can only happen when faced with a soul-crushing oppression that has rendered that very life precarious in the first place. Freedom fighters from Mahatma Gandhi to Anatoly Marchenko fasted to expose brutal systems of oppression. They fasted to make clear that there were no chains, no jails, no retribution strong enough to shackle the quest for dignity and human rights.
February 13, 2012
200 turn out to turn up the heat on Publix!
Momentum building
ahead of next month's
Fast for Fair Food...
Yesterday's impromptu protest at a Naples area Publix turned out to be part massive picket, part joyous celebration. Over 200 Southwest Florida Fair Food activists -- a remarkably diverse 
and festive crowd -- switched tracks in the wake of last week's announcement of the CIW's agreement with Trader Joe's and moved their protest down Hwy 41 to a nearby Publix "Greenwise" store.
And after a vibrant, 2-hr action, the crowd gathered round to celebrate the Trader Joe's agreement with a custom-made Publix cake, inscription and all (on right, the cake, still in its box, reads: "Thank you Trader Joe's for signing the Fair Food Agreement")! It was the best money ever spent at Publix...
Click here for pictures from yesterday's high-spirited action, or here for the local CBS affiliate's report on yesterday's protest.
And check back soon for much more on the upcoming Fast for Fair Food!
TJ's Florida debut on Immokalee Road sparks dozens of national actions in solidarity with Fair Food protests Feb 10-12!
33 cities and counting ready to call on Trader Joe's to be the company it says it is...
Earlier this month, plans were announced for two days of protest in Naples, where Trader Joe's is readying for the grand opening of its first-ever Florida store. And where, exactly, might this flagship Florida store be located? Why, right on the corner of Immokalee Road and 41, just 35 miles from the farmworker community that has courageously led a decade-long battle for respect, dignity, and fair wages in the fields.
Well, a message like that is hard to miss, and it seems that Fair Food supporters in dozens of cities around the country are rallying to show their solidarity with workers in Immokalee and to send Trader Joe's a message of their own: It's time to sign a Fair Food agreement and advance farm labor justice in your supply chain!
Here below is the list of cities where solidarity actions will be taking place between Feb. 10-12, complete with contacts so that you can join in at a Trader Joe's near you:
Northeast Boston, MA Hyannis Port, MA Millburn, NJ Hartsdale, NY New York City New York City (second action) Hartford, CT Orange, CT Philadelphia, PA Pittsburgh, PA Pittsburgh, PA (second action) Towson, MD Washington, D.C. Jenkintown, PA Warwick, RI South Athens, GA Atlanta, GA Louisville, KY Nashville, TN |
Midwest Ann Arbor, MI Greater Chicago Columbus, OH Cincinnati, OH Kansas City, MO Madison, WI Milwaukee, WI Lincoln, NE Omaha, NE St. Louis, MO Southwest Albuquerque, NM West Coast Berkeley, CA Costa Mesa, CA Huntington Beach, CA Monrovia, CA Oakland, CA Pasadena, CA San Jose, CA Santa Ana, CA Tustin, CA Seattle, WA |
Meanwhile... More than 50,000 Nearly 62,000 people have sent emails to Trader Joe's over the past two weeks since the social media/movement website sumofus.org launched an e-action in support of the Campaign for Fair Food. Since then, moveon.org and others have picked up the action, too! If you haven't sent your own email yet, you can make your voice heard by clicking here.
January 26, 2012
In Sarasota, one student's tragic sacrifice for farm labor justice 40 years ago inspires a new generation of student activists for Fair Food today...
Dozens of students, community members hold vigil in memory of Nan Freeman, New College student killed in 1972 farmworker protest, vow to "carry her torch onward" in struggle to bring Publix "onto the right side of history"
In a moving tribute to an 18-year old New College freshman, Nan Freeman, who was fatally struck by a farm truck hauling sugar cane during a farmworker protest in Belle Glade forty years ago yesterday, New College students and Sarasota human rights activists gathered last night to honor Nan's memory and to send a message to Florida's largest grocer, Publix, pledging to "recommit ourselves with greater tenacity and dedication than ever before" to the Campaign for Fair Food.
The student organizers of last night's vigil circulated a letter to Publix CEO Ed Crenshaw, which read, in part:
January 16, 2012
HUGE new initiative promises to
"Move Mountains"!
"Darkness cannot drive out darkness:
only light can do that.
Hate cannot drive out hate:
only love can do that."
The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, "Strength to Love," 1963
Interfaith Action, the network of people of faith and religious institutions that partners with the CIW in the Campaign for Fair Food, has launched a pivotal new initiative designed to rally the power of prayer to move Publix from "isolation and hesitation... into communication and cooperation with the CIW." From the Interfaith Action website:
January 23, 2012
Neither rain, nor sleet, nor snow, nor hail...
... will keep these Fair Food activists from
their appointed rounds!
Dispatches from the frozen northern front of the Battle for Fair Food have been coming in this week, from Ohio (above) --- where a member of Ohio Fair Food wrote this past Saturday, "75 Coalition for Immokalee supporters just marched on the south campus Krogers in Columbus demanding that Krogers meet with the CIW for a penny per pound!" -- to La Grange outside of Chicago (below), where Fair Food activists protested Trader Joe's refusal to sign an agreement with the CIW and collected petition signatures in support of the Campaign, catching the eye of the local media in the process:
January 20, 2012
Premiering this week at the Sundance Festival...
"Payback," a new film by the award-winning Canadian documentary director Jennifer Baichwal, featuring an extensive segment on farm labor exploitation and the Campaign for Fair Food!
Adapting the 2008 best-seller "Payback" by author Margaret Atwood to film, Canadian documentary director Jennifer Baichwal and cinematographer Nick de Pencier are premiering their new film, by the same name, at the Sundance Festival this weekend. The Sundance program describes "Payback":
January 18, 2012
"Sum of Us" are getting tired of Trader Joe's
foot dragging on Fair Food!
Online petition calling on Trader Joe's to sign Fair Food agreement latest indication that patience with "ethical grocer" is growing short among concerned consumers...
Sum of Us, the "movement of consumers, workers and shareholders speaking with one voice to counterbalance the growing power of large corporations," has stepped into the ring in the battle to win Trader Joe's commitment to the Fair Food Program, and they've done so with a sharply-worded new online petition out today. Here's an excerpt:
January 11, 2012
Trader Joe's set to open first Florida store...
on Immokalee Road!
This should be interesting...
On February 10, Trader Joe's will be opening its first store in Florida. Where? About 30 miles from Immokalee, on the road that connects Immokalee to Naples.
While this is surely a coincidence, it is one that cannot be ignored, and workers from Immokalee, together with their Southwest Florida allies, are planning a warm welcome for their newest neighbor.
January 9, 2012
Martin Sheen pens powerful letter to Trader Joe's CEO Dan Bane in "fervent support" of the Campaign for Fair Food!
Sheen: "Frankly it is both surprising and deeply disappointing that Trader Joe's has yet to make a binding commitment to support the CIW's Fair Food Program"...
Martin Sheen (shown above with Wilson Perez of the CIW at last fall's School of the America's gathering in Columbus, Georgia, where Mr. Sheen gave a moving speech on the power of non-violent protest in the pursuit of human rights) is an Emmy Award-winning actor and widely respected activist for human rights.
And, fortunately for us, Mr. Sheen's commitment to human rights extends to the Fair Food movement, too! Late last month, as he has many times over the years before, Mr. Sheen lent his voice to the Campaign for Fair Food, calling on Trader Joe's to live up to its reputation as a progressive grocer and sign an agreement with the CIW to support the Fair Food Program.
In a letter to Trader Joe's CEO Dan Bane, Mr. Sheen wrote, in part:
"Dear Mr. Bane, I am writing to convey my fervent support for Trader Joe's signing an accord with the Coalition of Immokalee Workers to better the lives of the men and women that harvest the tomatoes sold in your company's stores... ... Frankly it is both surprising and deeply disappointing that Trader Joe's has yet to make a binding commitment to support the CIW's Fair Food Program. Given your company's progressive reputation, I imagine the overwhelming majority of Trader Joe's customers share my hope that your company will speedily join with the CIW to do its part in advancing the human rights of farmworkers." read more |
You can read the letter in its entirety here.
We are extremely proud and gratified to count Mr. Sheen among the ever growing number of Fair Food activists across the country. We look forward to working more closely with him in the coming months as the focus intensifies on California-based Trader Joe's!
December 31, 2011
Should auld acquaintance be forgot...
Mark Bittman, Gourmet Magazine give end of the year tips of the hat to CIW;
Two holiday-themed videos close out 2011 in the Campaign for Fair Food...
The year 2011 in the Campaign for Fair Food may ultimately be known as the year the CIW caught the attention of the food movement, with high profile articles and appearances giving farmworkers an important new voice - and the issue of human rights an important new place -- in the growing debate over how we produce and sell food in this country.
But that didn't make it any less of a surprise to see two of the food world's most important voices give the CIW prominent mention in their end-of-the-year lists of food organizations to support in 2012.
In an article entitled "10 Exceptional Food-Related Charities," (12/14/11), Gourmet Magazine included the CIW in a list including such august organizations as the United States Fund for UNICEF and the Center for Science in the Public Interest. Here's the excerpt on the CIW:
"Coalition of Immokalee Workers A group like the CIW is a good reminder that there can be hardship at both ends of the food-supply chain—in getting enough food to eat and in growing it. Readers of Barry Estabrook, author of Tomatoland and contributor to Gourmet Live, will already be well acquainted with this community-based farm workers’ organization and its outsize accomplishments. From its home in southern Florida—source of winter tomatoes and other crops for much of the nation—the CIW has won landmark agreements with industry and major fast-food chains to significantly improve worker wages and conditions. The coming year’s challenge: widely implementing the CIW’s Fair Food Code of Conduct in the fields. What the group’s site doesn’t yet make obvious is that it is a registered 501(c)(3) charity and that donations are tax-deductible; give it time—right now, it’s busy putting an admirable 83% of its funds into programs and only 3% into fund-raising." read more |
Meanwhile, in an article entitled "Food Gifts that Matter," (12/21/11), Mark Bittman shared his own list with his extensive readership, writing, "if you’re thinking about making a donation this year to brighten the national or global food landscape, here’s a list of organizations where your gifts will be well spent." His mention of the CIW reads:
"Coalition of Immokalee Workers: Fights for fair wages, better treatment, better housing and greater respect for low-wage immigrant farm workers in Florida. CIW also works for stronger laws and enforcement protecting workers’ rights and the right to organize." read more |
Finally, Fair Food activists were far from silent this holiday season, and we leave you in these last days of 2011 with links to two holiday-themed videos, one from Philadelphia drawing links between the Jewish harvest festival tradition of Sukkot and the Campaign for Fair Food, the other a bit of traditional caroling fun from the Rio Grande Valley in Texas:
We hope you and all those you love have a very happy new year, and we look forward to working together in 2012 for still more historic advances in the movement for Fair Food.
December 23, 2011
Christmas in Immokalee is a time for reflection...
 |
CIW members act out the Nativity scene at this past Wednesday's community meeting in Immokalee. The re-enactment is an annual event, designed in the tradition of popular theater to provoke reflection on the meaning of Christ's birth into poverty. |
Today we received an email entitled "Reflections from Rev. Dr. Michael Kinnamon on Why Christians Should Be Particularly Aware of Poverty and Justice Issues at Christmastime." It included the text of his comments from earlier this month at the Faithful Budget Prayer Vigil on Capitol Hill. We want to begin this post today by sharing an extended excerpt of his comments:
What Christians confess and celebrate in this season is that “God [the Word] became flesh and lived among us” (John 1:14). The implications of this are so staggering that I fear we, Christians, often miss them. If we look for God only in spiritual things, if we speak about God’s presence as something that is only in our hearts, if we teach that God’s promise has only to do with heaven, then we may overlook God altogether. Because the God we know and worship was born in a cave where animals were kept—the child of poor, Jewish peasants—threatened by a king who saw in him the seed of political revolution (Luke 2:1-20; Matthew 2:1-18). “Christmas,” writes theologian Shirley Guthrie, “is the story of the radical invasion of God into the kind of real world where we live all year long—a world where there is political unrest and injustice, poverty, hatred, jealousy, and both the fear and longing that things could be different.”... ... That’s why a religion that celebrates incarnation cannot remain aloof from political oppression or economic injustice or environmental destruction. God, Christians believe, became flesh, the ultimate act of solidarity with this world in all its political, economic, and ecological messiness. And that’s why the church, as the primary instrument of God’s purpose for Christians, is called to promote social transformation toward the day when God’s will for abundant life is realized on earth as it is in heaven. Theologically speaking, re-enactments of the Nativity should not take place inside our sanctuaries, but outside the doors of the church, in the midst of the everyday world where “the fullness of God was pleased to dwell” (Colossians 1:19). To put it simply and bluntly: A church that is indifferent to worldly struggles, indifferent to the plight of the poor, is following its own agenda, not God’s." |
"I realize that we are an interfaith campaign, but I thought it might be appropriate if I said a brief word about the Christian holiday of Christmas, and why I believe it compels Christians to be here for this vigil.The idea of the Nativity re-enactment taking place "outside the doors of the church, in the midst of the everyday world," is something CIW members have been doing for years in Immokalee, and the message of the theater is decidedly one of social transformation.
This year was no different, and we thought we'd share with you another email -- this one written by an intern working in Immokalee to her grandmother to convey her thoughts after watching the theater and the reflection that followed -- as a way to, in a small measure, share the Immokalee Christmas experience with you during this very special time of year:
Tonight the Coalition staff acted out the story of Jesus' birth—except Version 1 of the story (right) birthed Jesus into a rich family (father in leather jacket, fake mustache, toupee, silver staff, hilarious. Baby Jesus wearing gold wrapping paper and being rolled around in a roll-y chair full of sparkles. Mother Mary dressed in sequins. Lots of laughter). Version 2 (picture at top of post) was more accurate: A pregnant Mary, draped in lackluster garments, rides a donkey—who is just another worker costumed in sheets "back stage" (aka around the corner). Baby Jesus was another worker wearing a white sheet wrapped like a diaper, released from beneath a low lit table. After all the laughter subsided, two seasoned organizers, Lucas and Gerardo, started asking the 50-person audience questions: Did Jesus come from a rich family, or a poor one? Would Jesus have been so prophetic if he’d been rich? What noble journey did he embark on? What noble journey are we on, sacrificing for our families far away to support them? If Jesus had been born in this country, where would’ve he been born: Naples or Immokalee? Is Jesus born again every Christmas? Or is he born again in our hearts, renewing our hope to continue our struggle? Why is our faith important? And what is faith without action? Is God going to answer to our plight? Or will he only do so once we are doing for ourselves?" |
"I just came back from a weekly workers meeting, one of the richest parts about being here. It's "popular education" in action: no theory, no lofty words, just humans doing human things that make sense to any person. Each year Christians around the world retell the story of their Savior’s birth, how a poor, rural family was forced to travel to Bethlehem so the Emperor could count them. And there, far from home, Mary gave birth to a son and laid him in a manger because there was no room for them in the inn.
May this good news bring us all hope, courage and joy this holiday season.
December 12, 2011
Fair Food protests bring International Human Rights Day home to Florida, Publix!
150 in Miami, 100 in Naples pressure Publix to protect farmworker rights in its tomato supply chain
Carrying a hand-written scroll calling on Publix to "honor and guarantee the fundamental human rights of farmworkers which have been violated and ignored far too long," 150 farmworkers and Fair Food activists descended on a newly-opened Publix store in Miami yesterday to press their demands for ethical purchasing practices from the Florida grocery giant. The same store had been the subject of a pray-in by local South Florida religious leaders earlier last week...
Interfaith pray-in greets shoppers at Publix Grand Opening in Miami!
Since the first pray-in at Publix back in August of this year, clergy have returned several times to the produce aisles to protest, through prayer, Publix's refusal to support the CIW's groundbreaking Fair Food Program.
Yesterday, at the grand opening of the new Publix store in Miami -- the same store where people will gather for a protest on Sunday in commemoration of International Human Rights Day -- an interfaith group of clergy met to express their frustration with Florida's supermarket giant because, in their words, "Publix has been refusing to dialogue, so all that's left is for us to pray..."
December 5, 2011
"Groupthink Isn't Sustainable"
Final installment in 3-part essay on Trader Joe's, Publix puts supermarkets' stubborn resistance to Campaign for Fair Food under the microscope...
"Dear Joe" letters keep coming...
Some of you may remember an article we posted here about two weeks ago by Ted Coine, a widely-followed author and commentator in the world of business leadership and corporate social responsibility. The article, entitled ""Doing the Right Thing Pays: Sustainable Leadership Series", took a close look at why companies like Trader Joe's and Publix, despite their reputations as ethical businesses, take such a stubborn stand against a widely-accepted and respected initiative like the Fair Food Program. Here's how he wrapped up Part 2, leaving us hanging for the conclusion:
".... Now, the CIW is locked in a similar struggle with Publix, one of America’s largest supermarket chains, and with Trader Joe’s. And following the pattern of the fast food giants, these two companies are stonewalling. It seems that penny is more than either is willing to pay for ethically-source food. It’s a fascinating, troubling clash of wills to observe. A clash that seems especially inconsistent with the reputation of a firm like Trader Joe’s, which has branded itself as highly ethical, as dedicated to CSR. In my next exclusive post here at SBF, on December 2, we’ll dive into the struggle CIW has been fighting for that extra penny. Hopefully by then both Trader Joe’s and Publix will have responded to my queries. My underlying question? Can a company be Good just some of the time, and still prosper from a reputation as a responsible actor in society? Or is Corporate Social Responsibility a matter of consistently-applied principles, of doing the right thing even when no one’s looking?" Read more |
Well, Part 3 is here, and it was worth the wait. Titled "Groupthink Isn't Sustainable," it is a rare inside-the-board-room look at the possible thinking behind the grocery giants' inexplicable refusal to support the innovative and virtually cost-free Fair Food Program. It is well worth taking a few moments to read if you are interested in understanding the psychology behind the resistance to progress. Here's an extended except:
"... Now it’s Trader Joe’s and Publix’s turn in the spotlight. And even though these two companies are publicly committed to Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), they have fallen into the familiar pattern of resistance shown by their predecessors. Even my most laissez faire, politically conservative acquaintances are shocked by the positions of Trader Joe’s and Publix in this matter. “It’s only a penny!” one remarked the other day. Another surprised me by saying, “This is so black and white! What’s the problem?” This brings up something that carries far beyond tomatoes, to Sustainable Leadership in general. As a professor of psychology recently asked me, “What is the larger issue with these companies? Surely they can’t be resisting because of a penny. There must be something deeper.” Here, then, are some thoughts on Sustainable Leadership and ethical decision-making.
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He concludes by writing:
"... I hope these insights prove useful to leaders who wish to act sustainably, and to those who would seek to influence them. A step back to evaluate motivation is essential to strategic decision-making. If CSR isn’t a strategic imperative, I don’t know what is. My questions for these two prominent brands are this:
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Meanwhile, consumers fed up with this kind of thinking by Trader Joe's continue to pen "Dear Joe" letters, explaining why they are breaking up with the company they used to love. Here's one of many that have come to the office since we announced the Dear Joe letter movement in November, this one from Max Ray "devoted TJ's shopper from ages 0 to 28":
Dear Mr. Bane, One of my earliest memories is shopping at Trader Joe's, the original store in Pasadena. I remember free cookies, friendly employees, delicious healthy affordable food (especially the dried strawberries and cherries!). I was thrilled when Trader Joe's came to my adult home, Philadelphia. I loved that the food was still healthy, delicious and affordable. I especially loved that I had a source for good, spicy, California-style Mexican food. So you can imagine my surprise when I learned that Trader Joe's, a store I relied on for affordable fair-trade products, was not signed on to the Coalition of Immokalee Workers Fair Food Agreement. I was sure that you'd be better than Taco Ball, Whole Foods, Sodexo, McDonalds, and the other less friendly and delicious stores that have signed on. Sad as it makes me, I will not be shopping at Trader Joe's until you have signed the agreement. Sincerely, |
That's what groupthink gets you.
October 27, 2011
"I have never seen such an act of disrespect"...
Pastor reacts to ripping down of clergy letters by Trader Joe's rep in scathing Op/Ed*...
Story picked up by The Atlantic, as well: "Trader Joe's Locks the Doors to Rabbis and Ministers"
*now with postscript...
Toward the end of the huge march and rally at Trader Joe's headquarters in Monrovia last Friday, a strange thing happened. Though many of the protesters saw it at the time, no one happened to capture the moment on film or video, and so we decided not to include it or mention it in our photo report from the action.
But since that time, the incident -- during which someone from Trader Joe's corporate headquarters tore down two large clergy letters taped to their doors while protesters, gathered across the street, looked on in disbelief (on right, the letters are shown taped to the doors moments before being torn down) -- has sparked a growing controversy...
