Bringing Food Justice to Trader Joe’s

Trader Joe’s is one of a batch of new corporations wrapping their push for profits in feel-good green slogans and promises of fair labor practices. But at least a few of their products aren’t coming from fair labor at all. The Coalition of Immokalee Workers, a community organization of farmworkers in Florida, have gotten other corporations like Whole Foods and Subway to sign a pledge to buy tomatoes from growers that have good labor practices—after workers in Florida have been rescued from conditions that have been legally deemed slavery.

Trader Joe’s still refuses to sign, and there’s an action coming up here in New York. We spoke to Kate Caldwell, Human Right to Work with Dignity Director at the National Economic & Social Rights Initiative, and Nancy Romer, General Coordinator with the Brooklyn Food Coalition, about the reasons behind the protest.

If you want to help bring food justice to Trader Joe’s, there’s an art-making party at the Rebel Diaz Arts Collective this Friday evening, August 13, and the protest is at 6pm on August 19, outside the Trader Joe’s at 6th Avenue and W. 21st St. in New York City.