Creating a Local Fair Trade Label

Creating a Local Fair Trade Label

Summary

During its first year, this project has been delayed by late funding and unanticipated transitions in staffing at NOFA-NY. As a result, NOFA-NY and NESARE have agreed to curtail the scope of the project while committing to complete the parts of the work that have progressed as planned. Of the initial eight farms that agreed to participate in the Food Justice Project, two have remained. These are the two farms that acknowledged having hired workers from the start of the pledge and that participated in the trainings in the NESARE Project “Preparing the Ground for Local Fair Trade,” provided by NOFA-NY board members Elizabeth Henderson and Robert Hadad. The two farms that took the Food Justice Pledge, Fellenz Family Farm and Mud Creek Farm, successfully completed the application process and were inspected on October 25 and 26, 2012 by NOFA-NY staff. Both farms market to consumers primarily through Community Supported Agriculture (CSA). Project staff is currently working with the two farm participants to design outreach material that promotes their Food Justice Pledge label for the 2013 season. In order to assess the positive impact of the label, both farmers agreed to track the effect of participation in this project on their member recruitment for 2013. Evaluation surveys of the farmers, their workers, and their customers have been designed and will be administered in the spring of 2013.

Objectives/Performance Targets

Leah Cohen of Florida Organic Growers and Henderson had designed an application, an inspection checklist and questions to ask, and the training for farm inspectors. After setbacks with training community members to do the farm inspections, Elizabeth Henderson conducted the inspections, accompanied by new staff assistant Jerome Nathaniel, while workers were still available towards the end of the 2012 season. Both farms passed the inspections. The inspection adhered to Henderson’s planned process: the inspector held an initial meeting with the entire staff to explain that participation in the project is voluntary, that each employee would be interviewed individually, that all responses would be strictly confidential. The inspections found that the farmers had shared information about the AJP process with their employees and that the farms were upholding the AJP standards. Both farms have clear labor policies, treat employees with respect, and have ways to resolve conflicts without retaliation against employees who have complaints or raise issues.

Accomplishments/Milestones

Farmers helped NOFA-NY staff revise the language for the Food Justice Pledge. Two farms have qualified to use the Food Justice Pledge label, and outreach will be conducted through the winter of 2013. Henderson has written regular reports on this project and other related domestic fair trade initiatives for the NOFA-NY newsletter, The Natural Farmer, and the Abundance Coop newsletter. Farmer Erin Bullock of Mud Creek Farm participated in a workshop on this project together with NOFA-NY staffer Kristina Keefe-Perry and Elizabeth Henderson at the NOFA-NY Winter Conference in 2012. A workshop on farmer-farmworker relations is planned for the NOFA 2013 Summer Conference. Staff has met with the farmers who have given guidance on the appropriate outreach materials that they believe will be most helpful in attracting customers to their CSAs. Jerome Nathaniel has begun working with NOFA-NY’s designer on the development of these materials, including a trifold brochure and a banner for use at farmers’ markets. NOFA-NY staff will drive traffic to the Food Justice label via social media and online promotion for the farms, which will be especially helpful for Mud Creek which recruits most of its CSA members online.

Impacts and Contributions/Outcomes

It is too early to draw any conclusions from the work on this project. One clear observation is the fragility of these very small farms: one farmer did not want to adhere to the Agricultural Justice Project (AJP) standard requiring payment of Workers Compensation because of the expense; two farmers decided not to continue farming; another farmer is not sure about farming for the 2013 season because of health issues; and another farmer became a paid employee of a local aggregator, leaving only one farmer who withdrew for undisclosed reasons. The farmers that are leaving the farming industry and the farmer with health problems also turned out to be hiring off-the-books or relying on visiting volunteers to do work and did not feel they could honestly claim to uphold AJP standards. This experience has helped AJP define more clearly what is meant by hired labor and to clarify what qualifies as fair trade when a farm does not hire workers or have certified fair trade markets. Despite the challenges, conducting this pilot project has helped NOFA-NY and the Agricultural Justice Project get a much clearer understanding of what is involved in administering a local fair trade label. It is too early to determine whether the label will attract additional customers to the farms that use it.

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