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Q3. Is there any work toward visibility into work conditions on produce the retail level? (Note: Responses are paraphrased.)

Panelists: Kate Ellingson & Priscila Ruedas

Kate

Making farm workers more visible, like food chain and food security, making sure they are seen. 

Prisila

How do we bring a life to the people who do all of this labor? We have to get outside of our own world. On my tomato packaging, there was a picture of a woman (Letitia) and a QR code that linked to her story with a video. We as consumers have a huge responsibility as to where we should put our money. If there’s a company that highlights the appropriate things and actually does the appropriate work, how do we push them to build upon that? How do we bring the worker to the forefront? 

These are real people and real families. The QR code from the tomato packaging brought up the farmers' story. It gives the individual worker the opportunity to step up and show the workload that they have. I will go out of my way to pay extra to make sure that the work conditions are being met for the workers and they are treated fairly. Usually, the people who are making a lot of money, like a Walmart and other grocery chains, get the credit even though the worker did most of the work.