After a very successful stay in Southern California, the Tour crew headed north, stopping on the way for an afternoon at the University of California Santa Cruz campus and its famous Center for Agroecology & Sustainable Food Systems (CASFS), home to one of the largest campus-based farms in the country.

CASFS is a research, education, and public service program at UCSC dedicated to increasing ecological sustainability and social justice in the food and agriculture system. The Tour Crew was received with a delicious lunch made entirely of fresh, healthy food grown right there on the farm…

… followed by a tour of the 25-acre operation, no doubt the best part of the day for these two future farmers (keep an eye on them, they’re taking notes on this trip and will be running their own sustainable ranch before you know it.)

Then it was time for the Crew to reciprocate for its hosts’ remarkable generosity, which it did with two excellent presentations on the Campaign for Fair Food’s participatory approach to food justice — where workers and consumers join forces to demand food that respects human rights, not exploits human beings — one here at the farm itself for the summer apprentices there…

… and one here with participants in the International Agroecology Short Course, hosted each year by UCSC’s Sustainable Living Center.

Next up, a quick stop at another famous farm, Swanton Berry Farm, where the Crew visited the fields where some of California’s best strawberries are “organically grown by union labor” in a long and profitable partnership between the farm and the UFW.

No day on the Tour would be complete, of course, without a colorful and engaging protest at a local Trader Joe’s. This Santa Cruz action was distinguished by the remarkable reception of the Fair Food message by the store’s customers…

… many of whom took the time, shopping bags in hand, to consider the Campaign’s message and join in genuine dialogue with the Tour’s flyering crew (Note to Trader Joe’s: Dialogue is great way to learn and, believe it or not, there is a lot to be learned from the workers who pick your produce).

The best part of the Santa Cruz action? Several shoppers dropped their bags on the spot and grabbed a sign — like this shopper on the left — after learning of Trader Joe’s refusal to work with the CIW for Fair Food. Apparently, the contradiction between the company’s image and the reality of its supply chain policies proved too much to ignore for these conscious consumers.

Day Five started in Oakland, actually, with a visit to yet another famous farm in California’s burgeoning food justice movement, the People’s Grocery Community Garden at the California Hotel, an historic building in West Oakland.

The People’s Grocery turned the 1/4 acre lot behind the hotel into a raised-bed residence community garden, a community greenhouse, and a bio-intensive microfarm dedicated to its organizing goal of “improving the health and economy of West Oakland through the local food system.”

The Tour Crew met with members of the Grocery on the farm, where our future farmers from Day Four continued their education of sustainable agriculture with an introduction to vermiculture, or composting with worms. Infinitely interesting, it seems, for our young friends…

And speaking of young friends, the Campaign for Fair Food made dozens more later that morning at the Mission Cultural Center for Latino Arts summer school where, following a raucous presentation…

… the students got busy making their own little sign, full of messages for Trader Joe’s CEO, messages like “please support farmworkers and their families” and “please help the workers, give them two pennies!”.

Then, Lucas Benitez got together with longtime CIW friend and broadcasting partner Samuel Orozco of Radio Bilingue, California’s groundbreaking Spanish-language radio station that helped inspire the CIW’s Radio Conciencia and provides a two-hour chunk of thoughtful news and call-in programming every afternoon for our Immokalee-based station. Here, Samuel and Lucas do an interview that will be part of a series on the Trader Joe’s Truth Tour and the Campaign for Fair Food.

The action in San Jose was a beauty. A great crowd (which didn’t lend itself to being pictured in its entirety as it covered several sides of the store’s corner location, so you’re just going to have to take our word for it!) converged on Trader Joe’s, with faith allies from the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) and the UCC, and students from nearby DeAnza College and Santa Clara University.

One local participant wrote: “The reception from the TJ manager’s representative was polite and respectful, but he only expressed the TJ management line. However, the response from shoppers and passersby was much more enthusiastic. Two shoppers, upon hearing about the workers situation said ‘give me a sign, I want to stand with you’. Other drivers in the parking lot honked in support of the farmworkers and shoppers going into the store and leaving were curious and responsive when hearing about the situations the agreement would improve. We had good on-on-one conversations with folks who had no idea about the sweatshop conditions and who wanted Trader Joe’s’ to know they wanted food that was fairly produced.”

And so, the Trader Joe’s California Truth Tour continues, spreading news of Trader Joe’s inexplicable refusal to support the Campaign for Fair Food among consumers from Los Angeles to San Francisco, and laying the groundwork for a major action this coming September in the Golden State.

But before the Tour could wrap up, there was one more key stop to make — the incomparable Bay Area — where the Tour Crew met up this past weekend with old friends from the Taco Bell boycott and made some news ones too in Berkeley, Oakland, and San Francisco. So check back soon for the next, and final, update from the Trader Joe’s Truth Tour, with all the action from the weekend and plans for the months ahead!