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<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\nThere are obviously still problems, but far fewer than before, thanks partly to something called the Fair Food Program <\/a>\u2014 a coalition of retailers and farmers who came together to guarantee that the people harvesting your produce receive fair wages and working conditions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The retailers who\u2019ve joined this coalition aren\u2019t little mom-and-pop do-gooders. They\u2019re the biggest food sellers on the planet, including Walmart, McDonald\u2019s and Subway.<\/p>\n\n\n\n All agreed to pay a small premium \u2014 about an extra penny per pound for tomatoes, for instance \u2014 to ensure that their customers get produce from farms where workers earn legal wages and are guaranteed basic rights, like water breaks and paycheck audits. Really, this is basic, humane stuff.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Yet two decades after the\u00a0Coalition of Immokalee Workers\u00a0<\/a>began its crusade, a handful of companies still refuse to make the fair food pledge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Florida\u2019s marquee grocer, Publix, is the highest-profile grocery holdout. Among fast-food eateries, it\u2019s Wendy\u2019s.<\/p>\n\n\n Both are getting heightened attention as the coalition prepares for its first Farmworker Freedom Festival <\/a>next weekend in Palm Beach \u2014 a location chosen, in part, because it\u2019s home to Nelson Peltz, the chairman of the Wendy\u2019s board of directors <\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Coalition leaders like Gerardo Reyes Chavez, who has worked in the fields since he was 11, say wages are important. (Chavez says workers at fair-food operations can earn something like $15 an hour, something akin to theme park ride attendants.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n But really, he says, one of the most important things the program does is ensure workplace safety \u2014 like clean water, guaranteed shade during the summer and 10-minute breaks every two hours. Again, hardly radical stuff.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The program also audits farms\u2019 payments to prevent wage theft and runs a complaint hotline that it says resolves most worker complaints within two weeks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n At the most extreme end, the program also helps prevent crimes that, make no mistake, are still happening in America\u2019s farm fields. Just last week, the U.S. Department of Justice accepted plea agreements in one of the largest cases of human trafficking it has ever handled \u2014 one that played out in the onion fields of Georgia where authorities say <\/a>workers were physically abused, forced to work for little to no pay and housed in unsanitary conditions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Closer to home, a Florida contractor was fined <\/a>just last year in the death of the farmworker who died of heat-related illness after his first day on the job.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Chavez said fair-food program participants can look their customers in the eyes and say: \u201cWe\u2019re doing things in a responsible manner.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The holdout companies say they already are.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Lakeland-based Publix has a lengthy post on its website <\/a>that basically says farmworkers\u2019 beefs are with the farms, not retailers. The company says it is \u201cmore than willing to pay a penny more per pound\u201d extra for produce, but that the farms should simply decide to charge them more (the store\u2019s retort is \u201cput it in the price\u201d) and then ensure humane working conditions on their own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Farmworkers say that argument is disingenuous since major retailers like Publix often control the market and that farms won\u2019t raise prices for fear of sending companies like Publix to another farm \u2014 or country \u2014 for produce.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Wendy\u2019s says it doesn\u2019t participate in the Fair Food Program because \u201cthere is no nexus between the program and our supply chain.\u201d The company says its tomatoes, for instance, are harvested \u201cexclusively from indoor, hydroponic greenhouse farms, while the Fair Food Program predominantly operates in outdoor, conventional tomato growing environments.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The coalition, however, notes its program addresses much more than just outdoor working conditions, including wage and general workplace protections.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Really, most any reason companies might give for not making a fair-food pledge fade away when you consider that most major companies already have.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In addition to Walmart, McDonald\u2019s and Subway, other participants <\/a>include KFC, Pizza Hut, Taco Bell, Burger King, Chipotle, Fresh Market, Trader Joe\u2019s and Whole Foods Market.<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/download-1.jpeg?resize=916%2C1024&ssl=1\")
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