For related articles and more information, please visit OCA’s Fair Trade & Social Justice page and our Florida News page.

For decades, most farmworkers in the U.S. have experienced sub-standard wages and working conditions. Today, this reality is changing for many, thanks to the Fair Food Program (FFP).

The Fair Food Program, which grew out of the Coalition of Immokalee Workers’ (CIW) Campaign for Fair Food, brings together workers, consumers, growers and corporate buyers in support of fair wages and humane labor standards in the agricultural industry. The FFP is a pathfinding collaboration premised on risk prevention, supply chain transparency, and the verifiable, market-enforced protection of workers’ rights, monitored by the Fair Food Standards Council (FFSC).

Since November 2011, the Fair Food Program has begun to bring about many far-reaching reforms across the $600 million Florida tomato industry, including:

• Over $11 million in Fair Food Premiums paid by Participating Buyers to improve workers’ wages;

• Industry-wide implementation of a 24-hour worker complaint hotline and a rapid, effective complaint investigation and resolution process;

• A worker-to-worker education process conducted by the CIW on the farms and on company time to ensure that workers understand their new rights and responsibilities;

• Enforceable zero-tolerance policies for forced labor, child labor, violence, and sexual assault; and

• Industry-wide monitoring by the FFSC.