eNEWS
January 2010 > FOG staff attend Domestic Fair Trade Annual Meeting
Florida Organic Growers Executive Director Marty Mesh and Social Justice Coordinator Leah Cohen attended the Domestic Fair Trade Association (DFTA) Annual Meeting Dec. 4 to Dec. 6 in LaFarge, Wis. DFTA is a coalition of organizations representing stakeholders in the food system that work toward promoting health, justice and sustainability.
DFTA's work over this past years has focused on three main critical areas: fair farmer contracts, immigration and developing a standardized method for transparently evaluating fair market claims.
In 2003, 40 percent of all U.S. agricultural products were produced with either a marketing and/or production contract. This trend is rapidly spreading from poultry to hogs to tobacco to specialty crops and grains. Unfortunately, these agricultural contracts are developed in an environment in which the corporate processors, handlers, packers or buyers have monopoly-like market power and farmers have almost no legal protection. The result is a growing imbalance in market power between the family farmer and agribusiness corporations, which is depressing farm income and threatening the economic viability and environmental health of our rural communities.
In response to this difficult situation for family farmers, the DFTA membership adopted a Fair Farmer Contract Standards Policy Position. The DFTA position supports legislation based on the model Producer Protection Act provided by 16 state Attorneys General as a basic minimum for standards of fairness in agricultural contracts. This DFTA position also calls for good faith collective bargaining, minimum contract security, upgrade compensation, and livestock mortality disposal standards.
Agricultural work is intimately linked with U.S. immigration issues. The DFTA membership recognizes that current immigration laws and practices in the U.S. do not respect workers' human and labor rights; that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has dramatically increased workplace and community raids resulting in widespread detentions of immigrant workers and their families, and separation of families; and that farmers and other employers face instability in their labor supply exacerbated in large part by this increase in ICE raids. The DFTA calls for just and comprehensive immigration reform that meets the mutual needs of immigrants and their families, and employers. The DFTA Immigration Resolution on Immigration Policy outlines the specific rights and conditions that should be included in this reform.
With a dramatic surge in ethical purchasing and demand for fair and sustainable products in the market place, the DFTA membership identified the need to develop a method for assessing these claims. The DFTA criteria committee has drafted and continues to work on finalizing a set of criteria that will be used to evaluate claims, labels and seals; what they mean to consumers and stakeholders in the food system; and how they are verified.
To learn more and to access Spanish versions of DFTA materials visit
www.foginfo.org/dfta, call 352.377.6345 or email fog@foginfo.org.