“There is a huge difference now since we have started this season, the conditions here are really improving. For example, the supervisors used to get angry, and now they behave respectfully towards us [the workers]. Now we can make a complaint without fear of retaliation, and they [the supervisors] treat us well and as if we are all equals, without preference for one over the other. Now I feel happy to harvest here.”
– Worker on a FFP farm in November of 2014
“Sometimes bosses cross the line and you [The Fair Food Standards Council] all are there to defend us. I’ve noticed such a large improvement… I feel so much confidence in you and FFSC because of your ability to change a supervisor’s attitude. [My supervisor] is respectful now and treats us fairly. My work experience has improved so much, I even joke around with her now and we get along… You all truly protect us, I can’t imagine what would happen to us at work without you.”
– Farmworker, 2019
“I’m very thankful for the work that you and your organization [the Fair Food Standards Council] do every day so every worker in the fields can have dignified [working] conditions to support them.”
– Farmworker, 2019
“The company provides us with disinfectants, cleaning towels, and everything we need! We lack nothing! Before the Coalition of Immokalee, there were slaves… they used to say ‘I’ll pay you later’… not anymore, thanks to the Coalition.”
– Farmworker, 2020
“They put up shade this year. We have been complaining for years, and with one discussion last year [from the CIW’s education team] and one visit to the field [by FFSC’s audit team], they finally paid attention to us and put up shade. That’s a very big help… They paid attention to our concerns.”
– Farmworker, 2023
“Before the FFSC came they did not give us any cooking appliances or utensils. They did not even give us blankets. Once [the grower] entered the FFP, all these essential items were provided by the company, and it has drastically improved our quality of life.”
– Farmworker, 2023
What is farmworker freedom?
This year, when contemplating the next major mobilization in the Campaign for Fair Food, farmworkers in Immokalee came up with a novel idea: The first-ever Farmworker Freedom Festival, a unique celebration of farmworker culture, dignity, and human rights.
And today, as the big weekend of March 8-10 rapidly approaches, we need your help to pull it off.
So what is freedom for farmworkers? What does it mean to forge the path from modern-day slavery to liberation for the women and men who harvest our food?
The Fair Food Program has come a long way from its inception — from the early days of forging never-before seen, enforceable, worker-driven protections for harvesters working Florida’s vast tomato fields; to expanding those proven protections over the next decade to workers in 10 states and 3 countries harvesting over a dozen crops; to the exponential growth of the Program in the just last several months alone, with thousands of more workers — on more than 30 new farms in 15 new states — poised to be covered in the coming year.
Despite these exciting leaps in farmworker justice and sustainable food, the Campaign for Fair Food continues, with many of the country’s largest food buyers still stubbornly rejecting the future of fair food. Over the past several years, the CIW has led inspiring, art-filled marches through the elegant streets of Palm Beach, sparking the public’s consciousness with a powerful message about the longstanding abuses that have haunted our agricultural industry for generations, and the proven antidote to that exploitation: the Fair Food Program. For farmworkers everywhere, the Fair Food Program stands as the single-most effective way to ensure freedom and dignity in the fields.
Donate to the Farmworker Freedom Festival!
This year, farmworkers and their consumer allies will once again arrive in Palm Beach, home to many business and financial leaders (including Wendy’s Board Chair Nelson Peltz) with the power and responsibility to help expand the FFP to new farms and fields. However, this spring’s major action will take a different form. We are assembling the first-ever Farmworker Freedom Festival, which will span 3 days in the heart of Palm Beach and include an art exhibition, the CIW’s famed Modern-Day Slavery museum, farmworker theater, a concert featuring popular Guatemalan, Mexican and Haitian musical acts, a 2-story tall, animated farmworker puppet named Esperanza, and more (hint: look for news of a major feature film premiere coming in the days ahead)!
We need your help to make the Farmworker Freedom Festival a success!
Hosting this 3-day celebration of farmworker arts and culture is no small feat. To tell the story of the Fair Food Program, and champion those who put food on our tables, we need shirts and flyers, buses, food and water for workers, allies, and more who plan to volunteer – in short, we need the Fair Food Nation to come together in this historic moment.
Please consider donating today to offset the costs needed to bring the Fair Food message to Palm Beach this spring, and in turn, bring awareness about the Fair Food Program to Nelson Peltz’s community, with the ultimate goal of bringing the last Fair Food holdouts — food industry giants including Wendy’s, Kroger, and Publix — into the Presidential-medal winning program for ending generations of forced labor and protecting farmworkers’ fundamental human rights.