Six L’s — Florida’s largest tomato grower — joins forces with CIW for Fair Food!

With the the 2010 tomato season just around the corner, momentum for the Campaign for Fair Food and its industry-changing standards for real social accountability just keeps growing!Today, the CIW and Immokalee-based Six L’s made it official: Florida’s largest tomato grower is joining the Fair Food program. Six L’s has agreed to pass on the penny-per-pound and to adopt the Code of Conduct at the heart of the campaign, including a cooperative complaint resolution system, a participatory health and safety program, and a worker-to-worker education process aimed at insuring that farmworkers themselves are active participants in the social responsibility efforts. Gerardo Reyes of the CIW said: “With this news, we take one giant step closer to a world where farmworkers and growers can work together in genuine partnership for an industry that we can all be proud of — an industry that starts with fair wages and modern working conditions in the fields. When that new industry becomes a reality, we will be able to stand with our employers and proclaim that, together, we produce the best, and fairest, tomatoes in the market.”Kent Shoemaker, CEO of Six L’s, said: “The workers of our company are the foundation of our success. We have a long tradition of mutual respect. We look forward to building upon this foundation with this new initiative.”

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With Fair Food standards gaining ground by the day within Florida’s tomato industry, it is now more important than ever that the retail food corporations that buy Florida tomatoes step up and support the Campaign. With every new supermarket and restaurant chain that joins the growing movement for Fair Food, wages for Florida tomato pickers on the participating farms will increase, and the purchasing power buttressing the new, more modern standards will grow. Click here to see the excellent new Supermarket Campaign video and learn how you can help farmworkers fight for Fair Food.