Pathways to Creating a Just Food System
Photo: Dana Geffner visits with Fair Trade Alliance Kerala Farmer members organizing for the yearly seed festival.
Written by guest contributor Dana Geffner
For over two decades, Dana Geffner has worked to raise awareness of a just food system that works in solidarity with small-scale farmers and artisans, protects worker’s rights and encourages trade policy transformation that benefits people and the planet. She is co-founder of Fair World Project (FWP), an NGO based in the United States that advocates fair trade for organized small-scale farmers and labor justice for workers globally. She was the host of For A Better World, a podcast about fair trade and the farmer and worker-led movements that are fighting for equitable food and farming systems, and editor of the magazine with the same name for over 10 years. She helped to develop the Regenerative Organic Certification to help strengthen the social fairness pillar of the standard and served on the board of directors for 6 years of the Regenerative Organic Alliance. She is a co-founder and current board member of Grow Ahead, a crowdfunding platform that raises funds for farmer-led agroforestry projects to address the challenges of climate change in global south communities. She holds a Master’s in Public Affairs from the University of California, Berkeley, and a Master’s Certification in Food Systems from the Berkeley Food Institute. She is now working on a book that will be published by Chelsea Green at the end of 2024 that shares tools for creating more justice in food supply chains to create a more hopeful future for us all. Her goal is to stop corporate extractive growth that is driving inequality and to participate in building a just economy for everyone.
The global economic system is rife with abuse and injustice. Since the power in global supply chains favors those with size and wealth, most of the people who grow, process, and produce our food suffer poverty wages, unsafe work conditions, and other rights violations. Small-scale farmers and workers are typically marginalized and disempowered. People are organizing in many different ways to push back against the conventional extractive business models to transform our food systems. The food economy is often complex, and reforming and transforming them requires different approaches. Rarely does a one-size-fits-all approach work. I’d like to share some successes in transforming our food systems by unpacking different mechanisms for small-scale farmers in majority countries, family farmers in minority countries, farmworkers globally, and alternative business structures. Different mechanisms support a broader movement for system change in our food systems. Together, these mechanisms drive a larger movement for justice and sustainability. There are many different pathways, many different tools, and many different scenarios; highlighted below are just a few examples that continue to inspire me to participate in the work to create a more just food system.
Note: I use the terminology majority world/minority world to differentiate communities and countries. People and organizations working on narrative changes that support the decolonization of people and places have been discussing the terminology changes—those of us living in the West are not the majority on this planet. “According to World Bank statistics, 80 percent of humanity lives on $10 or less a day.” There are many reasons other terms are inaccurate, inconsistent and offensive.
Small-scale farmers organize
Small-scale farmers in the global majority form the backbone of our global food system, and according to the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food, small-scale farmers hold the key to doubling food production while mitigating climate change and alleviating rural poverty. Small-scale farmers face many threats including land grabbing, unjust international trade agreements, and lack of government and technical support. They also contend with low and volatile prices, uneven wealth distribution, corporate control of the global food system, and climate change. A holistic approach is needed to address all the challenges small-scale farmers face. Market-based solutions through fair and equitable partnerships between small-scale farmer organizations and ethical brands is one tool needed for which small-scale farmers regularly request; additional tools such as government policies that protect farmers from price volatility and the work of NGOs and international organizations working in partnership with farmer organizations are necessary. Ideally, these tools are working together with a clear focus to improve infrastructure, provide education and training, ensure market access, and implement climate-resilient agricultural practices to build a more sustainable food system.
Working within our capitalist system
Fair Trade was created by and for small-scale farmers in the majority world, it was created to help differentiate themselves in the marketplace. Fair Trade was meant to support small-scale farmers organizing together to take advantage of economies of scale, access necessary capital and negotiate with buyers—it was meant to change power dynamics in global supply chains.
Fair Trade provided an important tool to keep small-scale farmers on their family’s land by providing market access through partnering with alternative business models. This ensured fair prices without child labor or otherwise exploitative labor conditions. Fair Trade became something different as it grew in popularity, with fair trade voluntary third-party certifications needing to bring in money to fund their larger offices and extensive staff. These voluntary certifications started to work with large exploitative businesses that had no desire to change their business model but needed to clean up their images so activists would stop campaigning against them. This change took away the ability to differentiate truly mission-driven brands and their partner farmer organizations in the marketplace. This is highly controversial, with many believing that these large multi-national corporations are not dedicated to fair trade or the farmer organizations they partner with, they are simply using it as a marketing scheme and have massive amounts of power to water down standards which we have seen in the last 15 years. Markets are finicky, and thus so, are corporations that have the sole purpose of generating as much profit for their shareholders, so if a marketing scheme is no longer working for them, they abandon it, which we have witnessed within the fair trade movement. You can listen to For A Better World’s podcast Nestle’s KitKat Unwrapped to learn how one brand dropped the fair trade certification and how farmers lost out.
This is not a new story, many of us working within food systems understand the plight of small-scale farmers. Their organizing efforts around the world to transform our food systems are worth celebrating and replicating.
Celebrating organizing efforts in India
Fair Trade Alliance Kerala (FTAK) works with over 10,000 family farmers cultivating 40,000 acres of farmland throughout southern India in the Kerala region. These family farmers are organized in cooperatives throughout the countryside and produce and export a variety of crops: cashews, coconut oil, coffee, turmeric, and other spices. Their trading partner, Elements, works with alternative trading partners throughout the U.S. and Europe to bring their farmers' crops to market. They are working on changing power dynamics in our food systems. They will not work directly with large multinational corporations but rather use alternative trading partners to facilitate and manage those trading relationships, thus shielding them from the downward pressure that conventional brands often place on producer partners. This allows them to prioritize their food sovereignty and the development of healthy, equitable roles for all genders in the community; challenges that have been undermined by colonialism and the conventional, extractive market.
I visited Kerala, India right after the largest flood in 100 years hit the region and impacted cashew and spice farmers and their livestock. The inspiring work that FTAK member farmers are doing did not shield them from climate change-fueled natural disasters that are becoming more prevalent and devastating communities throughout. Over 400 people were killed and 800,000 were displaced—a tragic example of how those who can least afford it and did not contribute to it are most impacted by climate change. Thankfully, no lives were lost in the FTAK member communities, but there were substantial losses as hillside homes and cropland were buried in mudslides. With a camera crew in tow, I visited mountain tops that crumbled, towns that were devastated, and farmland that was completely lost. I spoke to farmers who had to swim with their cows to reach higher elevations, saving themselves and their livelihoods. I also visited some of the most impoverished communities in this region to learn how they are surviving in the face of this tragedy and without their own land to farm.
It was clear that since the farmers in the region had been organizing together they were able to support each other through volunteer acts and mutual aid programs. Further, since they were organized they had strong relationships with NGOs, ethical brands, and cooperative grocery stores in minority countries who worked to facilitate fundraising campaigns to help the members get back on solid ground.
I was also inspired when I learned that several cooperatives within these communities were started and are fully operated by women. Traditionally, men have been the farmers in the family, and the financial responsibility has fallen entirely on them while wives did unpaid labor such as taking care of livestock, cleaning the harvest and making lunch. However, these female-operated farmer cooperatives are now run by the wives who farm differently through communication and learning together. In one community, husbands were skeptical but, upon request, provided their wives with small plots of land. The women met regularly together to discuss and learn from each other about different techniques and how to deal with challenges. The women started to plant seeds differently and more efficiently than their husbands. Soon the crops and soil were healthier. Next, the women would ask to take over the bookkeeping; again, husbands were skeptical but reluctantly gave in. Today, the women have proven to be more successful in farming and bookkeeping by working together and are changing gender dynamics. Women have more respect in the communities and in the households; men are starting to do the household chores such as sweeping. The women laughed and joked around about this; we all understood it was an important change in everyone’s lives as the younger generation was learning to respect women differently than ever before. Organizing together—learning from one another—has built resilient communities and created lasting change for the cooperative members.
A global movement for food sovereignty
La Via Campesina is an international movement that brings together millions of peasants, landless workers, indigenous people, pastoralists, fishers, migrant farmworkers, small and mid-size farmers, rural women, and peasant youth from around the world. Its main goal is to defend the rights of people’s food sovereignty. Food sovereignty is the importance of prioritizing local agricultural production in order to feed people, civil society participating in agricultural policy, farmers having the rights to how they produce food, consumers deciding what they want to consume, marginalized communities being recognized for their role in agriculture and production of food, and countries having the right to protect themselves from low priced imports. The movement is focused on agroforestry and peasants’ seeds, reforming and protecting land, water, and territories, international solidarity, climate and environmental justice, dignity for migrants and waged workers, and peasants’ rights. They are fighting against “Transnational companies and Agribusiness, capitalism and free trade and the patriarchy”. Their vision of a family farm and the food that is provided by these farms is one free of chemicals and for local consumption to guarantee security and diversity of food. “They are living examples of social, economic, and ecological sustainability.”
Their platform serves as a way for people around the world to communicate and implement acts of solidarity through campaigns to defend their land, water, seeds, and forests. By organizing together “over the last three decades, La Via Campesina has successfully found a seat at the table of global institutions of governance such as the Food and Agricultural Organisation, the UN Decade of Family Farming, the Civil Society and Indigenous Peoples’ Mechanism (CSM) of the Committee on World Food Security (CFS) and more.”
The organization calls on several days to organize, days we should all be aware of and participate in through educating ourselves and others if we are able:
March 8th - International Women’s Day
April 17th - International Day of Peasant Struggles
September 10th - International Day of Action against the World Trade Organization and Free Trade Agreements
October 16th - International Day of Action for People’s Food Sovereignty & Against Transnational Corporations.
November 25th - International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women
December 3rd - International Day of “No Pesticides”
By participating in these days of action together, in solidarity with peasant farmers, we can work towards building a better future, one that centers a more just food system that prioritizes the health and well-being of people, animals, and the planet.
Organic family farms vs. organic mega-farms in the United States
Family farmers in minority countries, including North America and Western Europe, face many of the same challenges as small-scale farmers in global majority countries, such as unequal political and financial power by corporate agribusiness, unfair domestic policies, and so-called “free trade agreements”. Maintaining family farmers’ livelihoods is essential to national food security, rural community development, and a safe and nutritious food system. Holding government agencies accountable, enacting fair trade policy, and purchasing products from committed organic farmers are all necessary to truly support family farmers. In the United States, we have the Farm Bill, a comprehensive food and agriculture legislation that Congress updates every five years. It includes farm commodity subsidies, crop insurance coverage, conservation programs, nutrition assistance programs, and other USDA programs. It determines what our food system looks like—out of the roughly $428 billion budget less than 1% of the budget is allocated to organic farming, even less so to small-scale organic family farms even though they make up 89% of US Farms and struggle to compete in the marketplace. There are several organizations working to transform the Farm Bill so that it provides healthy food, soil, and livelihoods, such as Farm Action and The Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy.
In the United States farmers and farmworkers are often pitted against each other due to the politics of food. The US agricultural sector is deeply complex, and its history is steeped in the darkest of exploitation: slavery, racism, sexism, and rape in the fields. The policies are crafted that way with labor laws excluding farmworkers, crop insurance denied to black farmers, land stolen from Indigenous communities, and land promised and not provided to enslaved people. I highly recommend listening to the podcast “The 1619 Project” episode 5 by Nikole Hannah-Jones and reading Freedom Farmers: Agricultural Resistance and the Black Freedom Movement by Monica M. White.
The structural problems of the profit-driven U.S. economy that have infiltrated our political system have allowed the continuation of corporate consolidation and have left farmers unable to sell their produce for the amount that would allow them to build a healthy business and pay their farmworkers living wages. With policies actively against protecting workers, farmers who want to do right by their workers can’t compete against these large corporate farms that use exploitation and political power to lower the cost of their products on the supermarket shelves. This has made it impossible for ethical farmers to compete in the marketplace.
The organic movement in the 1970s was meant to differentiate, in the marketplace, farmers who were committed to a holistic approach to land, livelihoods, and a wide array of traditional growing techniques. Farmers who were attracted to organic agricultural practices and their loyal customers believed decent prices, fair treatment of workers and animals, and the care for land, water, and air all went together. Farmers throughout the country were committed to healthy soil and labor rights for their workers, and they wanted to differentiate themselves in the marketplace so they could receive a premium from supermarkets and continue these sustainable practices. Then, in 1990, the United States government got involved and took over the organic standards and created the National Organic Program (NOP), first stripping the standards of labor rights. Then, in 2017, to the dismay of environmental activists and pioneers of the organic movement, the NOP sold out and stopped prioritizing the healthy soil requirement and allowed for non-soil production (hydroponics). Once again corporate power takes control of politics in the United States as many large corporate farm owners sit on the NOP board. I have had countless conversations with many pioneer organic farmers who believe that too much was compromised and lost when the US government took over regulation of the organic standards. The USDA’s decision to allow hydroponics as organic is deemed a disastrous change for the climate emergency crisis since healthy soil sequesters carbon that is necessary to cool the planet and reverse climate change. It was also unjust to the farmers dedicated to keeping their soils healthy and confusing to consumers who wanted food grown in healthy soil. No longer does the organic certification logo tell us what has been grown in healthy soil and what has not. Through my conversations, the verdict is clear: ethical family farmers who care about the health of our planet, the animals, and all people have similar complaints about the USDA organic standard: that they are unfairly supporting the agenda of multi-national corporations’ profit-first business models and now hindering their ability to compete in the marketplace.
With anger and disillusionment comes organizing
Over 1000 family farmers have organized under a program called the Real Organic Project (ROP). The ROP states that
“The USDA has failed to enforce important aspects of the organic law. As a result, it has become ever harder for small to mid-sized farms to survive while staying true to organic principles. In the face of corporate theft of the USDA seal, the organic community united in creating the Real Organic Project. We are championing an “add-on” label for greater marketplace transparency.”
This U.S.-based movement of like-minded committed organic farmers who view soil health as a key aspect of organic is alive and strong. They continue to use the USDA organic certification as a baseline and have developed an add-on label similar to some European countries. These pioneer farmers once again created a way to differentiate themselves in the marketplace by organizing together. With this add-on label to the USDA organic label, consumers can know that their food is grown in healthy fertile soil and animals are raised on pasture, which is healthier for the land. Today, we are starting to see the ROP logo on fruits and vegetables in the marketplace and at farmer’s markets throughout the country.
Photo: Portland Farmers Market at Portland State University, 2023.
Newer terminology for traditional agricultural techniques that prioritize soil health has popped up over the last decade: regenerative agriculture. It is a holistic approach to agriculture that emphasizes the restoration of soil health and builds upon experiences and traditions of organic practices and movements. Practices such as conservation tillage, mulching, cover cropping, crop rotation and restorative livestock integration—techniques drawn from traditional knowledge of small-scale farmers around the globe. Today, in the United States, the term is being debated, not only in the natural product industry, with advocates pushing to include the USDA organic standard as a baseline and to include worker rights and animal welfare standards, but also at the policy level in California, where the term is looking to be legally defined.
Farmworkers standing up for their rights
“The only resources that you must have to organize is human resources—people.” told to me by Dolores Huerta, famous organizer and co-founder of the first farmworker labor union, the United Farm Workers of America(UFW), alongside Cesar Chavez. Her advice about organizing: “you cannot do it by yourself; you have got to have other people there with you to be able to do the job.”
According to the Food Chain Workers Alliance, over 20 million people work in the food system in the U.S., and millions more around the world toil in the food sector. These workers are among the most exploited and poorest in the world, planting, harvesting, processing, packing, transporting, preparing, serving, and selling food. Farmworkers were left out of “New Deal” laws that protected workers during the height of the Great Depression, including the National Labor Relations Act and the Fair Labor Standards Act. These laws made significant improvements to legal protections for many U.S. workers, including the right to organize, collectively bargain, receive overtime pay, and a minimum wage, along with significant restrictions on child labor. However, to have these laws pass the Roosevelt Administration was pressured to compromise with powerful politicians and economic interests from southern states, leaving farmworkers essentially excluded from the protections and benefits. Therefore farmworkers have had to organize and call on consumers to stand in solidarity in order to fight for their human rights. Today, farmworkers also must contend with fairwashing by voluntary third-party certifications that are undermining their organizing efforts. The demise of unions since the Reagan administration has created larger wealth gaps than ever before. Without bargaining power by farmworker unions they are unable to change these power dynamics and increase wages and safety.
Third-party certifications can play an active role in complementing government policy and democratic organizing, but they cannot replace these efforts since they don’t build funding sources to fight for better laws with longer-lasting impact on farmworker justice. A good example of how voluntary third-party certification has undermined farmworker organizing is the case study of Chobani using fair trade certification. The farmworkers in Chobani’s dairy farms had been in negotiation with Chobani to unionize in order to change the terrible working conditions they faced on the farms. Chobani stopped all negotiations once a voluntary third-party certification stepped in to create a standard without the farmworkers at the table. The farmworkers, the intended beneficiaries, criticized the standards and asked Chobani “to recognize and support the right of all workers in their chain to be unionized.” Listen to “Unfair Dairy” to learn more.
Supporting farmworkers both at home and abroad strengthens food workers’ ability to organize. It transforms both institutions and markets to provide livable wages and safe and equitable workplaces.
Organizing efforts prevail
Several organizing efforts and initiatives are emerging to advance the rights of workers in the food chain that are having lasting and ripple effects for workers. Take Washington State’s Sakuma Brother Farms boycott called on by Farmworkers in 2013 after the workers had faced many problems such as wage theft, abuses in the field, bad housing, and lack of medical care. Sakuma Brother Farms’ main buyer of their berries was the large multinational corporation, Driscoll’s. Rather than supporting the farmworkers’ boycott, Driscoll’s increased its purchases from Sakuma Brothers. The boycott started to gain traction when retailers and consumers started to support the farmworkers’ call and boycott Driscoll’s at the supermarket shelves. The farmworkers throughout Washington State organized and began to win other victories during this time, filing a class action wage theft lawsuit in 2014. Over 1,000 workers received back pay, which gave them the confidence to take their fight for mandatory rest breaks all the way to the state supreme court, ultimately leading to a state law granting all workers in Washington state rest breaks for every four hours worked. A lasting impact directly from organizing!
The boycott of Sakuma Brother Farms and Driscoll’s continued, and several organizations were involved, most notably Community to Community who supported the farmworkers by speaking out and fundraising so they could continue to boycott. Food cooperatives started to get on board with the boycott, creating signage in stores. The organization I started in 2010, Fair World Project, called on consumers to send letters to Driscoll’s in support of the organizing efforts by the farmworkers to unionize. Within just a few weeks, over 10,000 consumers wrote letters, which we hand-delivered to Driscoll’s, a week after Driscoll’s requested a meeting with the farmworker representatives, Familias Unidas por la Justica (FUJ). FUJ is the independent union led by migrant indigenous Mixteco and Trique farmworkers from Mexico, many of whom were displaced and forced to move north after the NAFTA trade agreement was implemented, resulting in roughly 2 million farmers losing their land. In 2016 history was made when union elections were held and the farmworkers won their right to collectively bargain. Prior to the elections, another historic event occurred, since unions and collective bargaining agreements are not covered by the National Labor Relations Act, FUJ and Sakuma Brother’s Farm signed a Memorandum of Understanding that outlined the entire voting process.
Today, FUJ and its members have created a cooperative, purchasing sixty-five acres to plant their own berries and selling them to community food cooperatives, local stores, and at church services. It is inspiring to know that if farmworkers, retailers, NGOs, and consumers organize together real and lasting change can happen for people who toil in backbreaking jobs for us—the consumer! As Dolores Huerta said “Si Se Puede!” - Yes, we can!
A worker-driven social responsibility program, a real solution by workers and for workers
In 1993, the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW) was formed to stop the exploitation of farmworkers in tomato fields in Florida. CIW called on consumers to boycott Taco Bell, pressuring them to sign a penny-per-pound agreement. They were “calling on the fast-food giant to take responsibility for human rights abuses in the fields where its produce is grown and picked”. In 2011, they created the Fair Food Program (FFP) the only program based on legally binding agreements between growers and buyers, and includes worker representatives to participate. The program is unique in its market enforcement mechanism through the use of a label and relies on legally enforceable contracts. Participating retailers and restaurants agree to buy from participating farms. If a farm violates the code of conduct, the farm cannot sell to participating buyers. Once a buyer commits to the program they must buy from participating/compliant farms. If a farm violates the code of conduct it can no longer sell to those major companies, a major market loss for the farm owner. Through organizing consumers, their David and Goliath story has brought major food corporations into the program: McDonald’s, Burger King, Trader Joe’s, Subway, Chipotle, Walmart, and Whole Foods; and the largest food service providers Bon Appetit, Compass Group, Aramark and Sodexo. In 2015, they expanded to tomato fields in Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Maryland, Virginia, and New Jersey, as well as strawberry and pepper fields in Florida.
In addition to harnessing consumer pressure, the workers built a unique program to enforce their standards. A 24/7 easily accessible complaints hotline is staffed by investigators who are part of the Fair Food Standards Council. Using this system, the FFP has been able to eliminate horrendous human rights abuses like slavery and sexual harassment in the fields. Since 2011, CIW reports that $496,939 has been recovered in wage theft via their complaint process, and over $36 million has been paid in premiums to workers by participating buyers. For more information read their 2021 Annual Report.
Building power through worker centers
Due to the undermining of unions around the United States since the 1980s and the lack of labor laws protecting agricultural workers, worker centers around the country have emerged to fill the void and empower workers. They are primarily community-led, supporting day laborers, immigrant rights, equity, and justice. Worker centers offer training on workers’ rights, provide safe places to voice grievances, and play critical roles in winning policy changes such as raising wages, enforcing wage theft laws, creating paid leave policies, and securing protection for immigrants.
An example is the Pioneer Valley Workers’ Center (PVWC), in the state of Massachusetts. They are working to build democratic organizations so all workers can share in important decision-making that impacts them—“Nothing About Us Without Us”—such as campaigning for policies that protect farmworkers’ human rights at the state level. The policies they are fighting for include guaranteeing all farmworkers receive the same state minimum wage as other workers, requiring seasonal farmworkers to earn overtime pay after 55 hours of work, and allowing for a much-needed day of rest. They also partner with other organizations working on policy changes such as fighting for the rights of undocumented people in the state of Massachusetts to be allowed driver’s licenses through a statewide campaign with Driving Families Forward Coalition. They provide know-your-rights training on immigration and labor laws. They are also bringing people together through soccer tournaments, art events, and concerts to build community for immigrants. These organizing efforts help facilitate collective action against exploitation and foster mutual aid such as rideshare and food distribution programs. Another organization they are partnering with is All Farmers which works on land access for refugees and people of color. They are partnering on cooperatively farming a seven-acre plot, allowing the farmworkers access to healthy foods.
The Workers Center of Central New York has been working since 2006 to change power dynamics in an area of NY state that boasts the highest rates of poverty in the country. Similar to PVWC, they are working on wage theft, health and safety in the workplace, and immigration reform. They also participated in fighting for the “Green Light” law which allows all New York workers 16 years of age and older to apply for a standard driver’s license, regardless of citizenship or lawful status.
Worker Centers are becoming integral to engaging community members to change power dynamics in our food systems at the local, state, federal, and international levels. They build power by organizing so they can lobby together. They are developing strategies that cross borders to campaign for fairness in global supply chains, such as the National Guestworker Alliance national campaign, an original project housed under the New Orleans Workers’ Center for Racial Justice. In 2015, through campaigning efforts, they won a $14 million lawsuit and the granting of H-2B guest worker visas for five guest workers from India who toiled in slave-like conditions for a Mississippi-based marine construction company, Signal International. The workers were forced to live in overcrowded labor camps and were charged $1,050 a month for rent and threatened with deportation.
Today, corporate farms continue to lobby against protection for farm workers so they can continue to exploit them, thus making it impossible for smaller family farmers to pay living wages to their farmworkers as they struggle to compete and stay on their land using fair business practices. The lobbying efforts by these corporate farms are creating international free trade agreements that are making it impossible for small-scale farmers in global majority countries to survive. Our current food system is rigged against the small and marginalized so people are organizing to completely restructure and fight for transformation. Retailers and consumers have a role in this fight. Large mega-retailers are lobbying against structural change while others are creating alternative business models. In the next series, I will dive into different types of alternative business models that are building fair and equitable partnerships with small-scale farmers in the global majority, family farmers in the global minority, and farmworkers unions. I will also unpack how consumers must participate in transforming our food systems.
We are grounded in the belief that “Another world is not only possible, she is on her way”
— Arundhati Roy
¹ Silver, Marc “If You Shouldn’t Call It The Third World, What Should You Call it?” https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2015/01/04/372684438/if-you-shouldnt-call-it-the-third-world-what-should-you-call-it, NPR 2015
² La Via Campesina, https://viacampesina.org/en/what-are-we-fighting-against/
³ Small-scale Family Farmers Supports Life. La Via Campesina. Fair World Project. 3/2104. https://fairworldproject.org/small-scale-family-farming-supports-life/
⁴ La Via Campesina the global voice of peasants! Brochure. https://viacampesina.org/en/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/12/LVC-EN-Brochure-2021-03F.pdf
⁵ Is Your Organic Food Actually Organic? https://realorganicproject.org/real-organic-farming/
⁶ Hernandez, Crispin. “Labor Rights and Farmworker Groups Denounce Fair Trade USA and Chobani’s Launch of “Fair Trade Dairy”.” https://fairworldproject.org/news/press-releases/labor-rights-and-farmworker-groups-denounce-fair-trade-usa-and-chobanis-launch-of-fair-trade-dairy/ FWP May 2021
⁷ Coalition of Immokalee Workers, https://ciw-online.org/about/