NewsPress.com
by Amy Bennett Williams

BLOG-fairfood_icon-copy-960x960Stop & Shop’s parent company, supermarket chain Ahold USA, is now part of the Southwest Florida-born Fair Food Program, the first of the nation’s major grocers to join the Coalition of Immokalee Workers’ partnership to improve farmworkers’ lives and labor conditions.

Ahold USA owns Stop & Shop, Giant Foods of Landover, Giant Foods of Carlisle, Martin’s and online grocer Peapod. With more than 750 supermarkets across 14 states and the District of Columbia and 50 million customers each month, it’s one of the largest food retailing groups in the country.

The CIW was awarded a Presidential Medal earlier this year for its work in social responsibility. Its Fair Food Program protects the rights of tens of thousands of workers on farms across the east coast from Florida to New Jersey.

The program improves workplace standards while increasing workers’ pay 1 cent more for every pound of tomatoes harvested. The bonus comes from corporate buyers who agree to the program’s premium — not the growers, who simply pass it on. In addition to the raise, the program creates a cooperative complaint resolution system, health and safety programs, and worker-to-worker education.

Wal-Mart, the world’s major fast-food companies, food service corporations and two national grocery chains are paying the bonus; Ahold USA adds one of the country’s major grocers to the list.

“Not only will its partnership help propel to new heights our efforts to protect farmworkers’ rights, but we believe its market leadership will send an invaluable message to the rest of the grocery industry that social responsibility is greatly strengthened when workers, suppliers and retailers work together toward a more modern, more humane agricultural industry,” said the coalition’s Gerardo Reyes in a statement.

In the same release, James McCann, chief operating officer of Ahold USA, said, “Ahold USA’s companies are deeply committed to responsible practices throughout their operations and to providing customers with great products at great prices from suppliers who share our dedication to strong ethical standards and fair treatment for workers … Our companies and our customers care about the welfare of workers in our supply chain, and we believe now is the right time to begin an important new chapter in our partnership with the CIW.”

Farmworkers earn poverty level wages, according to the USDA’s National Agricultural Workers Survey, and remain “among the most economically disadvantaged working groups in the U.S.” and “poverty among farmworkers is more than double that of all wage and salary employees.” The average annual individual income for a farmworker is $10,000-$12,499.

Farmworkers are also often paid at a piece rate; the prevailing rate for tomatoes has been 50 cents a bucket for over 30 years, at which rate farmworkers have to pick around 2 tons of produce (125 buckets) to earn minimum wage in a day. The Fair Food Program offers the first significant pay increase for farmworkers in over three decades, totaling nearly $19 million so far, in addition to human rights protections.

“My hat’s off to them,” says Kevin M. Folta, professor and chair of the University of Florida’s plant innovation program. “When I’m in the fields, I feel like such a slacker because it is such brutal, hard work.”

He’s concerned, though, that consumers are distanced from that labor. “I think millennials, especially, don’t see a whole lot of interest in that part of the production. They want to know about chemicals, where did the seed come from, but they don’t seem that interested in the labor that goes into it.”

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