Gerardo Reyes Chavez, joined by other farmworker staff members of the CIW, provides an on-the-farm, on-the-clock, worker-to-worker education session in Tennessee in July, 2024.
Gerardo Reyes Chavez, CIW: “We have been able to get rid of situations of modern-day slavery. The [Fair Food] Program has elevated conditions to the point of prevention.”
“If you can do something to help some of the most vulnerable workers in this country, do it… Help us expand [the Fair Food Program].”
As the Fair Food Program continues to expand both domestically and overseas, the CIW’s Gerardo Reyes Chavez sat down with Danielle Nierenberg, the founder of Food Tank, to reflect on the history of the CIW, the birth of the FFP, and the crucial role consumer allies continue to play today in advancing farmworkers’ human rights. Food Tank is a national nonprofit that convenes farmers and farmworkers, policy makers and government leaders, researchers and scientists, academics and journalists, and the funding and donor communities to collaborate on providing sustainable solutions for the most pressing problems in agriculture. The conversation was recorded for Food Tank’s popular podcast Food Talk, whose prior guest include José Andrés, Michael Pollan, and Questlove.
Drawing on his own vast experience as a farmworker — including more than a decade harvesting watermelons from Florida to Missouri — Mr. Reyes takes the listeners through the CIW’s early days of organizing farmworkers in Immokalee in the 1990s, through the birth of the Campaign for Fair Food and the national mobilization of consumers in the 2000s, to the present day where tens of thousands of farmworkers in multiple states and crops harness the purchasing power of 14 of the county’s largest retail food companies to monitor and enforce their own rights under the Fair Food Program. In the process, he shares how his own experiences with extreme abuse brought him to the CIW’s doorstep over twenty five years ago, and how the Fair Food Program — the program that he helped build, through more than two decades of tireless hard work — is transforming US agriculture today, including the Florida tomato industry, which went from “ground zero for modern-day slavery,” in the words of federal prosecutors before the launch of the FFP in 2010, to what one human rights expert called the “best workplace environment in US agriculture” on the front page of the New York Times just three years later.
If you’re looking to learn more about the past, present, and future of the Fair Food Program and its unprecedented success in tackling modern-day slavery, sexual assault, and other longstanding abuses in our country’s fields, this podcast is an excellent place to start.
Below you can find a link to listen to the full conversation, as well as a brief write-up of the podcast episode, courtesy of Food Tank. You can also listen to the podcast episode on every major podcast platform or app. Enjoy!
Fair Wages, Safe Conditions: Expanding Farm Worker Protections through the Fair Food Program
The Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW) is using their Fair Food Program to improve conditions for farm workers in the United States. As they seek to scale their impact, CIW is continuing its calls for Wendy’s and Kroger to sign onto the program.
CIW’s Fair Food Program (FFP) is a partnership between growers, farm workers, and retail food companies. Participating growers and buyers agree to implement a code of conduct, informed by farm workers themselves, which outlines health and safety protections. It also mandates the Fair Food Premium—a bonus added to farm workers’ paychecks on top of their regular income.
Former Executive Director of the Florida Tomato Growers’ Exchange, Reggie Brown, second from right, speaks with the press with (from right to left) the CIW’s Gerardo Reyes, Lucas Benitez, and Julia Perkins at the November, 2010, signing of the Fair Food Agreement with over 90% of the Florida tomato industry outside CIW offices in Immokalee.
The FFP was created as the solution “to address the imbalance of power between workers and their employers,” Gerardo Reyes Chavez, a former farm worker and a key leader for the CIW, tells Food Tank. Chavez describes conditions of “modern day slavery” in agriculture fields, where sexual assault and harassment are rampant and farm workers are forced to work under “threat of death,” including in times of extreme heat.
The FFP’s legally binding Fair Food Agreements, which are enforced through market consequences, guarantee that farm workers are free from these conditions. Buyers participating in the Program are required to suspend purchases from growers when they fail to comply with the CIW’s code of conduct. But outside of the FFP, these abuses “continue to be the status quo,” Chavez says.
Companies from Burger King to Walmart have signed onto the FFP since its launch in 2011. But some chains such as Wendy’s have refused, despite calls to join. “They continue to refuse to do the right thing,” Chavez tells Food Tank. But, he adds, “the last word is with the consumers.” That’s why Chavez hopes that eaters will boycott the fast food chain and apply the necessary pressure to push Wendy’s to sign on.
“If you can do something to help some of the most vulnerable workers in this country, do it,” he implores…
Stay tuned for more exciting updates on the CIW and FFP!
