Florida’s tomato farms supply 50% of all U.S. fresh tomatoes but have also been called America’s ‘ground zero for slavery.’ Countless workers held against their will, threatened with violence and forced to haul hundreds of heavy tomato buckets a day for little to no pay.
Thankfully, a new solution called the Fair Food Program has been proven successful. The Fair Food Program is working to enforce a policy of zero tolerance for slavery on tomato farms.
But a major U.S. supermarket chain, Publix Super Markets, is refusing to support the Fair Food Program. Publix continues to buy tomatoes from growers that are not partners of the Fair Food Program and where workers still toil beyond the reach of its proven protection from modern slavery.
Will Publix Super Markets, which prides itself on making Fortune’s ‘Best Companies to Work For’ list, continue to turn a blind eye and give excuses, or will it leverage its vast market influence and lead the way in cleaning up slavery in the tomato supply chain once and for all?
Tell Publix to make the right decision to join the Fair Food Program and ensure our tomatoes meet the highest human rights standards in the food industry today.
Campaign updates
April 2, 2015: The Coalition for Immokalee Workers has combined creative, on-the-ground actions with cutting edge online organizing to win Fair Food Agreements with eleven multi-billion dollar food retailers. With the four largest US fast-food companies signed up, pressure is now mounting on the supermarket industry. [1]
Publix has still not signed up to the Fair Food Programme, which means that we can’t guarantee that their tomatoes are slavery-free. So please take a moment to keep up the pressure on Publix to take action.
Julie H.
Maria Antonieta M.
Alonso R.