At the Fair Food Festival in Brooklyn on September 24, the Community/Farmworkers Alliance partnered with the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW) to create a lively, day-long festival that combined food, justice, balloons, films, music, and actions for Fair Food. Farmworkers from Florida,  local allies, and community members gathered for live music from the Rude Mechanical Orchestra and workshops on "Greenwashing 101" and "Food Justice and the Labor Movement." The festival participants targeted the Brooklyn Trader Joe’s, whose grocery chain persists in its refusal to sign a Fair Food Agreement with the CIW to improve workers’ wages and working conditions. Protestors raced down the sidewalk in "Unity Runs," handed out literature, carried balloons and "Traitor Joe’s" signs, and chanted, "Up! Up! With the fair food nation! Down, down with exploitation!" One bystander told a local news site she was disappointed in Trader Joe’s refusal to agree to work with the CIW to improve wages and working conditions for the workers who pick the tomatoes they sell: "That’s sad that such a well-known company would do that."

The Festival was cosponsored by NESRI, East New York Farms, Brandworkers International, Restaurant Opportunities Center of New York, Small Planet Fund, Prospect Park CSA, South Bronx CSA, Bed-Stuy Farm Share, Brooklyn Food Coalition, and Just Food.

For more information, see CIW’s  report on the festival, Patch.com coverage of the festival and a  Truthout story about CIW.