The CIW's Campaign for Fair Food is nothing if not a battle for the truth -- and for the trillion dollar U.S. food industry, when it comes to the truth about their product, image is everything.
The food industry spends millions studying its consumers and billions advertising its products. We, on the other hand, don't have millions for research, much less billions for advertising. But, we are pretty sure that most people care about more than just marketing hype. In fact, in our talks with tens of thousands of people across the country, the labor conditions behind the food, the reality behind the brand, are pretty important, too.
For workers from Immokalee, the truth about the food you eat begins not at your local restaurant or supermarket, but in Immokalee, where the tomatoes that go into these products are planted, grown, and picked.
Today these workers continue to suffer sweatshop conditions in Florida's fields -- sub-poverty wages, no right to organize, no right to overtime pay, and no benefits whatsoever.
We'd like you to consider that farmworkers have to pick more than two tons of tomatoes to make $50 a day.
And we'd like you to know that there is a community of workers who have had enough, and who are fighting back to win a fair wage and respect for the back-breaking, dangerous work they do.
That's why we have had to work hard to document our struggle and tell our story, in our own words. There are hundreds of mainstream media stories on our campaign, and while many of them are quite good, none of them captures the harsh reality of farm labor conditions and the intensity of this movement as we can ourselves.
Since 2002, we have produced over forty video shorts covering our cross-country Truth Tours, high-profile actions, and national campaigns from Taco Bell and McDonald's to Burger King and beyond.
We hope our collection of media will help you think critically about the choices you make as a consumer -- and about the messages created to shape those choices that find you through the mainstream media.
