Bill Maher, Eva Longoria talk “Food Chains,” Fair Food Program on HBO’s Real Time!

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HBO show highlights Fair Food Program as “Food Chains” readies for Nov. 21 release…

Fair Food activists tuning into HBO’s Real Time with Bill Maher were in for a real treat last Friday night, as “Food Chains” Executive Producer Eva Longoria joined Maher for an extended interview on the upcoming documentary, the plight of farmworkers in most of the US today, and the extraordinary advances for human rights that have taken place in Florida’s tomato industry thanks to the Fair Food Program.  

Getting ten minutes of airtime on HBO is the kind of mainstream exposure that the Fair Food Program only rarely receives, and Eva Longoria knocked it out of the park.  Here below are three short excerpts from her interview, followed by a bonus clip with a cameo from Senator Angus King of Maine, who was also a guest on the show that night and remarkably well-versed on the Fair Food Program himself.  Enjoy!

Clip #1 – On the Fair Food Program and the Penny per Pound:

 

Clip #2 – On, Wendy’s, Publix, and the responsibility of retail food giants for farmworker poverty:

 

Clip #3 – On how consumers can buy an ethical tomato, the Fair Food Program’s new label, and the power of consumers to help advance farmworkers’ human rights:

 

Bonus clip!  Senator Angus King and Eva Longoria discuss the virtues of the Fair Food Program and its imminent expansion:

 

It was a remarkable ten minutes on prime time cable tv for a human rights program born in the dusty streets of Immokalee, Florida.  

It wasn’t perfect — at the 30,000 foot level where cable talk shows fly, some of the details got a bit fuzzy, and one of the other guests asked a complete non sequitur of a question that derailed the discussion momentarily — but it was, overall, a fantastic interview and priceless exposure for the Fair Food Program.  

And with any luck, it will be a sign of things to come as the release of “Food Chains” two weeks from Friday, the launch of the new Fair Food label this month, and the expansion of the Fair Food Program itself to other crops and other states in the year ahead, bring increasing mainstream attention to the Fair Food Program as the future of human rights in American agriculture.

Keep an eye out for more news on the “Food Chains” front!  And check back soon for much more as the Nov. 21st release date rapidly approaches and the new Fair Food label makes its way out of Immokalee and into produce aisles near you…