“Among the most important social impact success stories …”
We’ve all seen the beer commercial that begins, “I don’t normally drink beer, but when I do …” I feel the same way about fast food. When I do stop in for a quick bite at an airport or along an interstate, I choose my restaurants carefully. My first consideration is not with calories or nutrition labels, but with ethics.
It may be hard to imagine that farmworkers in the U.S. today are subjected to abuse and exploitation, but here, as around the world, farmworkers are among the least protected and most exploited workers. That is why deciding where to eat is about a lot more than burger versus salad. I make sure that I patronize the restaurants and food chains that participate in a growing international movement to help stop the abuses still rife in the hidden parts of the food supply chain. It’s an easy choice to make every time we wonder if we’d like “fries with that.”
At a time when corporations seem to wield more power than governments, and human rights seem to be under attack, the Fair Food Program (FFP) gives power back to the consumer. Its primary objective is to guarantee improved working conditions and pay for hidden workers on whom we all depend every single day. Its success is based in the powerful and unprecedented alliance it has built between farmworkers and consumers like us. This alliance has pressed retail food companies to use their enormous purchasing power to end abuses and require better labor standards for farmworkers who harvest the produce they buy. Developed by farmworkers, and operating in seven states along the Eastern seaboard, the FFP is providing basic protections for the tens of thousands of women and men who stoop in the hot sun to pluck strawberries, pick tomatoes, and pull bell peppers.
If growers do not meet and maintain certain work standards, they lose the ability to sell to major buyers like McDonalds, Burger King, Walmart and Trader Joe’s who have signed legally binding Fair Food Agreements. These agreements, in place with a dozen of the world’s largest food companies based in the U.S., assure fair pay and humane conditions for farmworkers, and give them a trusted place to report problems like sexual harassment, abuse, wage theft, and lack of toilet facilities or drinkable water while in the field, knowing that complaints will be immediately investigated and resolved. The FFP also provides worker-to-worker education so farmworkers become the frontline monitors in protecting their own rights on FFP farms.
Traditional political action and community organizing remain vitally important, but in places where government is either corrupt, paralyzed or committed to inaction, the workers themselves give consumers a way to offer support with their wallets and avoid companies that leave their employees vulnerable to mistreatment. This effort has met such unparalleled success in ending and preventing sexual assault, forced labor and other serious human rights abuses that the Harvard Business Review has named it “among the most important social impact success stories of the past century.”
Now the program’s model is being translated to supply chains around the world and is a prime example of a whole new category of social action called Worker Driven Social Responsibility. From the apple orchards of New York and the tomato fields of Florida where I live to the clothing sweatshops of Bangladesh, workers are identifying basic standards to which companies should publicly commit. These commitments give consumers the power to spend our dollars with ethically accountable companies and avoid those that are not.
I think it’s a way for us to cast our vote — not just every two or four years — but every day. Every time we pull out our wallets, we are voting for a company and the way it treats its workers, and not only those on its payroll, but also those in its vast supply chain.
As an activist and public theologian committed to teaching, preaching and speaking out on the moral dimensions of contemporary issues, I have joined with other leaders to help advance human rights through the food we buy. I want my vote — and my dollars — to count for all the good they can.
If you live in the New York area, I'll be speaking on this important subject with colleagues Gerardo Reyes Chaves, Obrey Hendricks, Hussein Rashid, Rachel Kahn-Troster, and Noelle Damico - Monday, January 28. You'll find more information here: http://www.allianceforfairfood.org/on-common-ground/
0 Comments6 Minutes
More wisdom from my friend Mark Tidd – especially for white males in Christian ministry.
You may know Mark for his deservedly famous and contagious "welcome to church" - this reflection after a recent conference struck me as important to share in these times when the "gates of white supremacy" are being challenged - and fighting back. Mark captures the stark choices white leaders face - pouting and withdrawing, or a lifetime of uncomfortable kenosis?
Blessed Are Those Who Squirm
With DiscomfortWere you one of the lucky kids who got to play “kick the can” on the street in front of your house or apartment growing up? I did, and I loved it. I got to play it again the last three days at the National With Collective (W/) conference in Denver that our church helped sponsor. Only this time I was one of the cans. As a straight, white, male I know I’m at the top of the heap of privilege in our country, but at this conference some of the cans that were being kicked included women and LGBTQIA persons – if they were white.And I thank God for this extremely uncomfortable and exhausting time which was quite a shock after having just returned the day before from 3 weeks of bliss in Europe with my wife, Leanne.
I thank God because about 25% of the people at this conference were people of color, which is way higher than last year. I thank God because the conference planners made sure to center those voices and experiences.
In our short history together, this gathering of mostly white people has focused on supporting churches, leaders, artists and thinkers who have parted from their Evangelical background in order to create LGBTQIA inclusive and affirming churches and spaces. In each other we found our “tribe,” a place to belong; but this place to belong was really, really white. And that had to change.
It’s one thing to say that the work of dismantling racism and white privilege will be long, hard and uncomfortable. It’s another thing to be involved in a Christian conference where white men, in particular, don’t know what to say for fear of looking stupid, insensitive, ignorant or self-important. Imagine that! A Christian conference where white men feel unwanted, unneeded, in the way, and at a complete loss. “Praise be to God,” says much of the world that has felt like that, not for two and a half days but millennia. Hallelujah, it’s about time.
It’s hard for us white male pastors when we can’t clear things up and give a hopeful spin to difficult times with our mouths. We are so used to being thanked for our words and wisdom that when we get the message that we need to shut up and listen we are shaken to our core. When we realize there is nothing we can do but stay present and squirm, we want to retreat to our phones and computers because surely someone “out there “will validate our voice, since apparently no one at the conference will!
If only redemption could happen with two and a half days of discomfort rather than a lifetime of kenosis; having the mind of Christ who emptied himself of all privilege and became our flesh and blood. With eyes fixed on Jesus will we endure the cross while scorning its shame, or will we pout that we can’t help being white, carry the shame and withdraw from the race? (Hebrews 12:1,2)
Nothing but love—and a few bruises,Mark
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A Short Video about Cory and the Seventh Story
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You can order Cory & the Seventh Story - and the companion e-book for adults - here:
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If You Don’t Really Like Reading Books …
I have a good friend who doesn't read much. I've given him a few copies of my books as a courtesy over the years, but I know he never got past the first few paragraphs.
I recently gave him a copy of my new book, Cory and the Seventh Story, co-written with Gareth Higgins and illustrator Heather Lynn Harris. We often call it a children's book, and it is, but my friend's reaction told me it is more than that.
"I put your book beside my bed," he said, "and I've been reading it and re-reading it before I go to sleep. It's really great that you've distilled what you write into a short story like this. As someone who knows you, I realize this isn't just a story you wrote. This is the story you live."
I've spent twenty years now writing traditional books of 60 - 90,000 words each. And I hope to write at least a few more in the years ahead.
But it took this little book of just 2500 words to connect with my friend.
That might be you too, or someone you know. If so, I hope you'll check out Cory and the Seventh Story.
It's a fable about "Us" and "Them", and how we can build bridges and not just walls between us.
For folks who do like to read, we've also written a companion book for adults, called The Seventh Story: Us, Them, and the End of Violence.
It starts with a fable for adults and then explores film, politics, sociology, history, and our own biographies.
You can purchase Cory and the Seventh Story and The Seventh Story now. If you'd like to learn more and order, head over to www.theseventhstory.com.
Thanks! And thanks for helping us spread the word.
0 Comments2 Minutes
Q & R: Social Trinitarianism … why?
Your thoughts and writing in the book 'Why Did Jesus, Moses, the Buddha, and Mohammed Cross the Road' strongly resonates with my journey of discovery of trying to learn what it means to follow Jesus. But I was puzzled by chapter 15 and because I have tried in vain so far to even come close to embracing trinitarianism I have got to try and understand why even in your mind and heart it is still a concept that has meaning in understanding Jesus and God.Reading about social trinitarianism, I felt like stepping from one confusing theoretical concept into another. A person who is not a person, a being as communion... You are brave in your thinking and writing, painting a new Christianity that is strong and refreshing. Braver than I am, who rarely speaks out. So why do you still embrace the concept of the trinity? Jesus never said he was God, always spoke of God as separate, as his father. What compels you to continue to think in terms of God as trinity with the result that you have to resort to conceptual gymnastics?Please understand I am honestly looking for understanding although I am content to embrace the mystery of God over trying to capture what should not be caught. I admire your work and I would not have reached out if I did not think you may have something of value to share.
0 Comments9 Minutes