In the aftermath of last month’s victory in the Burger King campaign, we want to draw your attention to some words about the future of the Campaign for Fair Food that may have been lost in all the news around the agreement. Addressing the joint press conference at the US Capitol, Lucas Benitez of the CIW said:

“Dr. Martin Luther King said it best when he said, ‘The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.’

Social responsibility in this country’s food industry is inevitable, and though the exploitation of Florida’s farmworkers remains unconscionable today, company by company we are building a path toward justice. The next steps are up to those companies that stand before us in the road ahead.

There are companies — like Chipotle in the restaurant world and Whole Foods in the grocery industry — that already make claims to social responsibility yet, when it comes to tomatoes, fall far short of their lofty claims. It is time, now, that those companies live out the true meaning of their marketers’ words.

And there are companies — like Subway and WalMart — that, by the sheer volume of their purchases, profit like few others from the pernicious poverty of workers in Florida’s fields. They, too, must step up now. After eight years of this campaign — and the very public commitment of the three largest fast-food companies in the world to the principles of Fair Food — they can no longer claim ignorance of the problem nor can they say that the solution is not possible.

So to all of you who have marched with us, organized petition drives with us, prayed with us, and struggled with us, today is a day to celebrate this hard-fought victory. Tomorrow, with renewed energy and purpose, we begin our work again to make respect for fundamental human rights in Florida’s tomato fields truly universal.”

And for more reading on the future of the Campaign for Fair Food, don’t miss the new article, “New targets for tomato pickers,” ZNet, 6/1/08