Food Justice Certification Gains Momentum: Certifiers and Farm Worker Representatives Complete Training and Qualifying Exam

The Agricultural Justice Project proudly announces the awarding of certificates to representatives of four organic certification agencies and five farm worker organizations who successfully completed a 3-day training on the requirements for the Food Justice Certified label.  Twenty one people took part in the training May 3 – 5, 2011, in Eugene, Oregon, which included formal presentations on AJP standards and policies, and three practice inspections on area farms and a business. Management Committee member Sally Lee explained, “A Memo of Understanding with AJP will allow the certification agencies to offer our domestic fair trade certification to farms and food businesses across North America. A unique feature of the AJP system requires the trained certification inspectors to cooperate with representatives of farm worker organizations in performing the third party verification.”

The long-term goal of the AJP is to transform the existing unjust food system. AJP envisions a food system that is based on thriving, ecological family-scale farms that provide well-being for farmers, dignified work for wage laborers, and that distributes its benefits fairly throughout the food chain from seed to table. As a first small step towards this ambitious goal, AJP is launching domestic fair trade in the United States with a social justice label, Food Justice Certified. This new label allows family-scale farms to distinguish their products from industrialized organic products. The standards for this label are based on the complementary principles of fair pricing for the farmer and just working conditions for farm and food business workers resulting in a win/win/win/win scenario in which workers, farmers, buyers, and ultimately consumers all benefit.

For more information, contact Sally Lee at agjusticeproject@gmail.com or visit the website – www.agriculturaljusticeproject.org.

Dynamic Equilibrium as a Farm Goal

Elizabeth Henderson, farmer of Peacework Organic Farm, ag justice champion and regional organic/CSA pioneer, wrote this piece back in 2002 for Growing for Market. We wanted to share it with beginning farmers who are seeking balance in their lives on the farm.

Running a Resilient Farm Business
by Elizabeth Henderson

   For several years, I followed the engaging saga of the Arnosky’s farm in this magazine (Growing for Market).  They added more flowers, more acres, more greenhouses, more employees.  Then they added vegetables.  And then they announced that they had no more time to write for Growing for Market, an activity they had seemed to enjoy.  While creative and adventurous in their farming techniques, the Arnosky’s turned out to be orthodox true believers in their business strategy.  The sign over the door of US business reads:  “if you aren’t growing, you’re dying.”  The ag. establishment bullies farms with the demand: “get bigger or get out.”  Are these good mantras for sustainable farm businesses?  Wouldn’t “resilience,” and ”dynamic equilibrium” be healthier goals to guide us in developing our farms?   

     Achieving dynamic equilibrium or dynamic stability means finding a way to run your farm so that it does not run you into the ground.  Designing your farm for maximum resilience means that you can withstand the shocks of bad weather, business cycles, and the fragility of human existence.  Most of us who are doing market farming chose this path because growing vegetables or flowers or tending livestock is something we love to do.  We get satisfaction from living close to the earth, working outdoors, planting and seeing things grow, nurturing living creatures, using our bodies as well as our minds.  We can imagine small-scale farming as a wonderful style of life for ourselves and future generations.  The trick is to design our farms so that we do not destroy our love.  That means we have to find the right scale of activities, the number of acres we can handle, the optimum amount of equipment, the fairest markets, and the financial goals that will make our farming socially as well as environmentally sustainable.

Preview of Nov 1 Local Fair Trade Workshop in Ithaca Journal

The upcoming NOFA/Groundswell sponsored workshop on local fair trade is previewed in an article in the Ithaca Journal. The workshop, coming up on Nov 1st at Ecovillage in Ithaca, will cover just labor practices, setting fair prices for goods and the concept of "Local Fair Trade". For more information, visit the Groundswell Center's website.

Ithaca farm programs examine food pricing
EcoVillage to host Nov. 1 workshop on community-supported agriculture

By Krisy Gashler • kgashler@gannett.com • October 17, 2010, 7:45 pm

One of the pioneers of community-supported agriculture in New York will be co-leading a workshop for farmers on labor and pricing policies on Nov. 1.
Elizabeth Henderson has been growing vegetables at Peacework Organic farm near Newark, N.Y., in Wayne County for 22 years.
"Ours is the oldest community-supported agriculture project in this area," she said.
Along with Robert Hadad, Cornell Vegetable Program fresh market specialist, Henderson is scheduled to host an all-day workshop on farm labor policies, pricing and local fair trade at EcoVillage in Ithaca.
"Paperwork is not what farmers most like to do -- that's why they're farming -- but it's something that you have to do, so we're trying to make it easier," she said.
Workshop topics cover creating a safe, just workplace and calculating reasonable production costs and fair prices.
"I would like to see fair trade done in our food system, but to get a fair price, you have to be able to calculate it accurately. That's what the workshop is about: laying the groundwork for fairer trade," Henderson said.
There's no set amount that workers or farmers should make, but it should be a living wage for everyone involved, she said.
"It's wonderful, wonderful work to do, if you could make enough working at it five, even six days a week. And it's so important. You know, why are we paying a lawyer $100 an hour and a farmer minimum wage?" she said. "So many farms go out of business and it's because we live in this cheap food system, and farmers aren't paid adequately for the important work that we do."

Reviving Social Justice in Sustainable and Organic Agriculture

This piece from the Agricultural Justice Project was written by Elizabeth Henderson of Peacework Farm, who has been an ardent supporter of fair farm policies and farm worker rights for many years. Elizabeth will be giving a workshop on the topic of Farm Labor Policies, Pricing and Local Fair Trade on November 1st at EcoVillage in Ithaca, NY. For more information, visit the Groundswell Website.

Reviving Social Justice in Sustainable and Organic Agriculture
By Elizabeth Henderson
Northeast Organic Farming Association representative to the Agricultural Justice Project Steering Committee

If you can remember back to the early days of organic agriculture in the 1970’s, you may recall its history as a movement with a wholistic approach to land and livelihood. The farmers who were attracted to organic practices and their loyal customers agreed that decent prices, fair treatment of workers and animals, and care for mother earth all went together. Organic food enthusiasts were willing to pay a small premium for organic products to sustain the farms economically. They understood that the prices had to cover the true costs of production and they trusted their farmers to charge fairly. That all started to change as larger entities became involved and organic began to enter the mainstream. The initial family-scale farms and small independent processors faced overwhelming competition from an “organic industry” and large-scale farms that converted to organic purely as a marketing decision. The “American Organic Standards” developed by the Organic Trade Association did not touch pricing and labor issues and then the Organic Foods Production Act of 1990, which established the National Organic Program (NOP) under USDA, followed suit. When commenters criticized the national organic regulations for leaving out the social component, the NOP responded, that is “not in our purview.”

Upcoming Nov 1 Workshop: Farm Labor Policies, Pricing and Local Fair Trade

Preparing the Ground for Local Fair Trade

ATTENTION FARMERS: November 1 workshop will help you understand and implement fair labor and pricing policies

To help set the stage for domestic fair trade, the Northeast Organic Farming Association of New York is sponsoring a series of workshops for farmers on farm labor policies and setting prices that cover farm production costs. The Ithaca workshop will be held on November 1 and is cosponsored by Groundswell.

Farm Labor Policies, Pricing and Local Fair Trade

Elizabeth Henderson, long-time CSA farmer and leader in the international Agricultural Justice movement, is one of the presenters at the November 1 workshop.

Monday, November 1, 2010
9am - 3 pm

EcoVillage FROG Common House

Rachel Carson Way, Ithaca, NY

Charge: $35 ($30 NOFA-NY members), includes a light lunch and a copy of Richard Wiswall's The Organic Farmer's Business Handbook

Please RSVP by October 15 to Robert Hadad, Cornell Vegetable Program Fresh Market Specialist, at rgh26@cornell.edu 585-739-4065. If you include your email, you will receive an electronic copy of the Agricultural Justice Project Tool-Kit, a guide to good farm labor policies.

WORKSHOP DESCRIPTION: Farm Labor Policies, Pricing and Local Fair Trade
For a farm to be sustainable, the farm needs a steady, well-trained labor force and the products of the farm must bring a price in the marketplace that covers the cost of production, plus a living wage for the farmer, money to do repairs and maintenance, to pay for continuing education for the farm staff, and to make improvements to the farm. Many family-scale organic farmers have the best intentions, but under the day-to-day pressures of farming, do not take the time to learn all the relevant laws and regulations, and to document their well-intentioned practices. The purpose of these workshops is to provide the concrete information and documentation a farmer needs to live up to the claim of social justice.