Agriculture's equitable initiative works to better businesses

Businesses can run smoothly when everyone involved in the supply chain of a particular commodity or brand has a seat at the table to iron out any issues or come up with simple solutions to any issues that present themselves. 

The Equitable Food Initiative (EFI) is working to transform agriculture with its non-profit certification and skill-building programs that not only work to improve the lives of the farm workers, but also a business’ bottom line. The EFI’s core program certifies operations who achieve meeting the key standards in regards to working conditions, pesticide use, and food safety. 

In March EFI announced in a press release that it welcomed four new members to its multi-stakeholder board of directors. Victor Smith (JV Smith Companies) and Kathryn Ault (NatureSweet Tomatoes) joined as grower representatives, Martin Guerena (National Center for Appropriate Technology) as a pest management expert and Laura MacCleery (Center for Science in the Public Interest) to represent consumer interests. 

EFI was incorporated in 2015, but executive director Peter O’Driscoll says the real origin of the program was in 2008 resulting from multi-stakeholder discussions among retailers, suppliers, consumer organizations and labor organizations. “The dialogue in 2008 really arose out of recognition in the retail area that there was not enough assurance from produce retailers around where their produce was coming from, the conditions in which it’s harvested and of course the major concern for them was the food safety.”

Transparency is an overarching aspect of the program. Because of it, all of the stakeholders - the retailer, foodservice provider, shipper, grower – everyone’s goal is continuous improvement. “If something isn’t working a farm worker doesn’t have to wait for a grower/shipper to (acknowledge it) or the retailer doesn’t have to face a negative publicity crisis and (have to react) (those) who have opted into the program are essentially changing the game around how they work and how they operate. It’s an ongoing continuum of training,” he says. He believes everyone should have total access to the supply chain – they should know where the food is coming from. 

O’Driscoll says what’s really interesting is that EFI has found that the value of the program goes well beyond plant certification. Each collaborative team is problem-solving and communicating with on a continuous basis and can address a lot of other business problems related to the perishable industry such as shrink, rejection rates (which are a huge business issue,) recruitment/retention, and productivity. “What we’re seeing is that the suppliers who achieve certification are using the leadership teams on their farm to help solve (other business concerns) in those areas.” Workers are eager to stay on the farms and retain their positions because he says they feel like they’re a part of the process.

The model has even seen success in resolving sexual harassment on farms. One example, according to LeAnne Ruzzamenti in what has largely been a male dominant workforce, workers now feel comfortable in recruiting their female friends or family members. She says even new moms can come back to work sooner since one of their clients, a berry farm, launched a lactation tent on the farm for new mothers to be able to return to work sooner. “That is the kind of ways the leadership team not only meets the EFI standards but you can also use the model to address issues in very creative ways,” she says. Other solutions have resulted from farm workers learning about the importance of core temperature at the testing stage. About five years ago EFI’s first leadership teams followed a produce truck of their berries. O’Driscoll says when the workers went back to the farm and on their own initiative, had some ideas how to harvest and get fruit into the cooler quicker to reduce core temps and increase shelf life and reduce rejected loads.

There may have been some early reluctance for organizations coming onboard but the positives seem to have outweighed hesitancy. “As a multi-stakeholder initiative, we bring everyone together. You’ll have retail partners, growers, shippers, labor unions (all together). What we’re seeing over time is that any reluctance is being overcome for probably one reason more than any other, which is that there really isn’t another program out there that can link social, labor and safety assurance to the broader issue of business performance and we really feel that we’re distinct. Suppliers talk to each other and they recognize that a well-trained workforce and an engaged workforce can actually make a real difference in their bottom line. When everyone is working together they can actually solve problems together that ultimately profit the business.”

For more information:

Peter O’Driscoll

Ph: 1-202-730-6672