Award-winning Fair Food Program breaks ground in Tennessee alongside longtime partner Sunripe Certified Brands and new FFP Participating Grower, Smoky Mountain Family Farms…

Even in these dark and difficult times, the Fair Food Program continues to inspire and transform lives for the better.

First came the publication last week of an unprecedented, decade-long study carried out by MSI Integrity, the Harvard University-incubated project that undertook an in-depth examination of 40 of the world’s best-known social responsibility certification programs.  In a report titled “Not Fit for Purpose,” MSI Integrity concluded that traditional corporate social responsibility schemes – including such well known brands as Fair Trade International, Rainforest Alliance, and the Equitable Food Initiative – “are not effective tools for holding corporations accountable for abuses, protecting rights holders against human rights violations, or providing survivors and victims with access to remedy.”  The report went on to identify the Fair Food Program, specifically, and the Worker-driven Social Responsibility model more broadly, as the new “gold standard” in protecting workers’ fundamental human rights in global supply chains.   

Then came the news this week that longtime Fair Food Program partner Sunripe Certified Brands – the first major grower to sign a Fair Food agreement way back in 2010 – is joining forces with another fourth-generation produce company, Pete Pappas and Sons, Inc., and Tennessee-based tomato grower Smoky Mountain Family Farms to launch a major new partnership in the summer tomato market.  And with which social responsibility program did this exciting new collaboration choose to partner?  With the Fair Food Program, of course, whose industry-leading worker protections made their debut this July in the Volunteer State.  Here is the announcement:

We are happy to welcome Smoky Mountain Family Farms into the Fair Food Program, and look forward to continuing to grow together in the seasons ahead.