Southern California religious leaders, Rabbis for Human Rights make their voices heard loud and clear in growing call for Trader Joe’s to support Fair Food Program…
One week out from the big march to Trader Joe’s corporate headquarters in Monrovia, CA, Southern California faith community allies — including religious leaders from Clergy and Laity United for Economic Justice (CLUE) of both Los Angeles and Orange County and National Farm Worker Ministry — have issued a powerfully-worded sign-on letter to Trader Joe’s CEO Dan Bane. Here is an extended excerpt from the moving letter:
 “… Trader Joe’s puzzling and misleading public statements about the Fair Food agreements and the company’s attempts to foist responsibility off on their wholesalers illustrates the extent to which Trader Joe’s has not yet even understood the basics. We find this inexcusable given that the CIW has been willing to meet in person with Trader Joe’s, has shared the template of the Code of Conduct, and has an indisputable track record of working conscientiously and successfully with other major corporations. The Fair Food agreements are being implemented now and dramatically improving the lives of farmworkers. That Trader Joe’s would scorn these agreements and their achievements is, frankly, unconscionable.
As people of faith we believe that all people are created by God for good purpose: to dwell justly with one another and to care for all creation. Farmworkers, corporate executives, growers and consumers depend upon another to grow, harvest, sell and obtain the food we need for ourselves and our families. Trader Joe’s has a reputation as an ethical company; it is one of the reason members of our congregations shop at your store. You have an opportunity here to do what is right and good; to make an historic contribution to transforming this part of our food system into one that ensures well-being for all. This is not the first time corporate executives or growers have had to decide what to do. We hope that you will follow the example of Jon Esformes, a principle in Pacific Tomato, when at a press conference he said, “you wake up and you realize that maybe this is something we could have done yesterday, but I am certainly not going to wait until tomorrow.” Mr. Bane, do not wait. Work now with the Coalition of Immokalee Workers to forge a Fair Food agreement of which you, your company and your customers can be proud. Use your power to help rectify rights of farmworkers long trampled that the dawn of a new day in the Florida tomato fields might blaze into bright morning light.” read more |
If you are a faith leader in Southern California and would like to add your name, there is still time! Send an email to info@justharvestusa.org to sign-on today.
Meanwhile, the Rabbis for Human Rights — North America (RHRNA) are truly stepping up this High Holiday season to show their support for the Campaign for Fair Food. Visit their website today to see the growing list of resources — including several compelling sermons, a fantastic rabbinic letter, and an e-action that lets you send an email to Trader Joe’s today — that our friends over at RHRNA have been putting together ever since their fact-finding visit to Immokalee in September.
Rabbi Rachel Kahn-Troster took the call to action to heart. She posted an excellent article in the Huffington Post, entitled “A Just Harvest for Sukkot,” drawing the connection between the Jewish harvest festival and the Campaign for Fair Food:
 “… Sukkot, which begins this week, is the Jewish version of Thanksgiving. All of three of the pilgrimage festivals (Passover, Sukkot and Shavuot) are connected with a harvest, but Sukkot, coming at the end of the fall growing season, really bursts with agricultural celebration. We wave around the lulav and etrog, celebrating God’s gift of the harvest with all of our senses, and fill our sukkot with the beautiful gifts of the ground: apples, cranberries, gourds and Indian corn. Sukkot is also a creation festival, a celebration of the renewal of God’s world.
And yet, while we may understand that we are partners with God in creation, including the gift of the food that we eat, we often forget to acknowledge the workers, like Gerardo and the members of the CIW, who are the divine middlemen and women. Without them, the food would not make it out of the fields, let alone to our table… … As Sukkot begins, and we remember the farmworkers who picked the harvest we are celebrating, we at Rabbis for Human Rights-North America want to do more than just sing songs of justice around some tomatoes in Naples. We are calling on the Jewish community to support the CIW in its Campaign for Fair Food. A just harvest cannot mean tomatoes picked by slave labor or for sub-poverty wages. Only once we have fair food can we truly harvest goodness.” read more |
The tide is turning in the Trader Joe’s campaign, and it will only keep rising in the days and months ahead. Join us in Monrovia next Friday, October 21 for the big march, and get ready for a season of action as Fair Food activists across the country take the fight for fair farm labor conditions to Trader Joe’s!