Inside the world of the Fair Food Program, farmworkers have the power and the tools to act as the frontline monitors of their own rights — without fear of retaliation — collectively forging what human rights experts have called the “best workplace environment in U.S. agriculture” since the FFP was launched in 2010;

Outside the Program, farmworkers are regularly subjected to a litany of human rights abuses, including sexual harassment and assault, wage theft, and even modern-day slavery, virtually without recourse to redress.

“You’re not in Florida anymore… When we’re up here, what I say goes, not the CIW!”

Those were the words of a farm labor boss, or crewleader, speaking to his crew on a farm in Georgia during the early years of the Fair Food Program, before the FFP had expanded to additional states and crops. Workers used the Fair Food Program’s hotline to report their crewleader’s thinly-veiled threat, but at that time the crewleader was effectively right — the FFP had no power to intervene, or even to reassure the workers of their rights, because the FFP’s Participating Buyers hadn’t extended their commitment to farms beyond Florida’s tomato fields… yet.

However, thanks to the CIW’s subsequent national expansion — beginning with the CIW’s agreement with Walmart in 2014 — workers on that farm in Georgia are now protected by the FFP, including its groundbreaking heat stress protocols, which mandate the provision of drinking water, electrolytes and rest breaks, along with protections against wage theft, sexual harassment at the hands of crewleaders, and retaliation. For any issue they may face, farmworkers on this GA farm — and all other FFP farms in 23 states — can report problems to the program’s 24/7, free and confidential hotline operated by highly trained human rights investigators. 

Over the 15 years since the FFP was launched — during which FFSC auditors and CIW staff have received thousands of worker complaints and held tens of thousands of worker interviews — workers have expressed their appreciation for the unique power of the Fair Food Program on countless occasions, and often compared their experience on FFP farms to jobs they have worked on farms beyond its protections. The stories they tell only underscore the urgent need to bring the Program to every farm in every corner of the country. 

In one such exchange, following a worker-to-worker education session at a Fair Food Program farm, an H2-A worker (or “guestworker”, here on a temporary visa) asked to speak to someone from the FFSC about the conditions at a non-Fair Food Program company where he had completed an H2-A contract the previous season. At that farm, he reported, the workers’ housing was infested with roaches and rats, workers had to labor in the rain, even with the danger of lightning, and without breaks. He reported that there was a “great difference” between farms in the Fair Food Program and farms outside of the Program and wanted to know if anything could be done to help the workers at that farm.

The hope of the Fair Food Program is that the “great difference” experienced by that worker will gradually diminish as the Program slowly, but inevitably, expands to cover all farmworkers across the U.S., its expansion driven by the undeniable reality of the more humane conditions where the FFP is present and the moral imperative for food industry leaders to support the expansion of those more humane conditions.  

Over the past 15 years we’ve proven that the Program can expand, and quickly. The Fair Food Program is now present in nearly two dozen states, and ten of those states were added in 2024 alone. But there are still far, far more farmworkers who toil beyond the reach of the program’s powerful protections than those who harvest our food in the FFP’s environment of dignity and respect. Indeed, the CIW continues to uncover and help to prosecute modern-day slavery cases on non-FFP farms, including the recent case US v. Moreno, which came to light after two workers jumped over a barbed-wire fence, hid in the trunk of a car driven by a Good Samaritan who helped the workers escape the control of their crewleader, and called the CIW for help against the rampant abuse and threats they were receiving as soon as they had reached safety. That slavery case inspired the 5-day, 50-mile march pictured at the top of today’s post.

But to reach those workers who still desperately need the FFP’s help, we need your support. 

By giving monthly, you can give at an amount that is sustainable both for you and for the expansion of our work. Your support will help fuel the expansion of the Program to additional states and crops and support our ambitious, overarching aim: to guarantee that the U.S. agricultural industry, which for centuries has relied on the exploitation of farmworkers, can finally enter a new day of human rights. Together, we can ensure there is only one world of agriculture in this country – a world where farmworkers’ fundamental human rights and dignity are protected, 24/7, through the Fair Food Program.

Become a Fair Food Sustainer today! 

And stay tuned next week for an exploration of the FFP’s Worker-driven Social Responsibility model, and how it is expanding to offer the same protections and hope in new industries.