The Coalition of Immokalee Workers, which you may recall from the documentary Food Chains, fights for fairer conditions for tomato harvesters in the U.S. — and they just scored a pretty major coup.
Ahold USA — which includes 780 grocery stores across the country, like big-in-the-East, unheard-of-in-the-West grocery chain Stop & Shop, and online shopping service Peapod — just signed on to participate in the Fair Food Program to distribute CIW-certified tomatoes. Ahold joining the Fair Food Program will expand the number of grocery stores carrying these tomatoes by 75 percent.
Why does this matter? Basically, the only way to improve conditions for farmworkers is if consumers and produce distributors — especially large-scale distributors, like Ahold USA — give enough of a shit to buy from certified growers. Why do we want to improve conditions for farmworkers? They’re paid next to nothing, work abysmal hours, live in very poor conditions, and, as they’re usually undocumented immigrants, have no legal protection against labor exploitation. Given all that, they still produce the vast majority of the food that we eat.
Also, as a general life rule, it’s always a good idea to do things that make Donald Trump mad.
