About Us

The Florida Tomato Growers Exchange is leading a progressive movement in support of long-term comprehensive solutions that improve the lives of farm workers and their families. The organization supports third-party audit programs such as SAFE (Socially Accountable Farm Employers) in addition to providing housing and scholarship opportunities for farm workers and their families. Because of the Exchange's leadership, in 2007 Florida became the first state in the country to institute a mandatory food safety program.

About SAFE

SAFE is a nonprofit organization that provides independent auditing and certification of fair, legal farm labor practices in the agriculture industry.

SAFE certification signifies that a grower has complied with all applicable laws and regulations governing employment in the jurisdiction in which the company operates.

Growers who earn the SAFE seal have demonstrated that they foster a work environment for their employees that is free of hazard, intimidation, violence and harassment.

Growers who are SAFE-certified have demonstrated they comply with strict standards outlined in the organization's Farm Labor Employer Code of Conduct. The code covers general employment practices and specific issues such as forced labor, child labor, discrimination, wages and benefits, employment records, workplace safety and housing.

SAFE provides a transparent and credible source of independent, third-party certification of labor practices for farm employers. SAFE was formed in 2005 by the Redlands Christian Migrant Association and the Florida Fruit & Vegetable Association. In a climate where major food product companies, restaurants, markets and others are taking a closer look at labor practices, SAFE-certified farm employers are prepared to meet socially accountable employment standards.

"Anybody who opens themselves up to a third-party entity hasn't got much to hide."

– Barbara Mainster, Executive Director, Redlands Christian Migrant Association on the strict guidelines of the SAFE program

For more information on SAFE, please visit www.safeagemployer.org.

The facts about 'penny-a-pound'

The Florida Tomato Growers Exchange does not object to fast-food restaurant companies paying extra wages to the workers who pick the tomatoes they buy. Our members simply do not want to be part of that arrangement by functioning as the conduit through which the extra penny would be paid.

We believe that under the cover of being a social organization hoping to better the life of farmworkers, the Coalition of Immokalee Workers is in fact a labor organization as defined under Florida statutes and that certain employees of the CIW are "business agents" as defined under Florida statutes.

The CIW is not licensed or registered as a collective bargaining agent as required by law, but as a 501(c)(3) charitable organization whose supporters gain favorable tax treatment under federal law.

CIW is organized and acts for the purposes of improving its members' rates of pay, hours of employment, working conditions and grievances relating to employment. What's more, the CIW is attempting to negotiate wage increases for tomato workers by threatening a secondary boycott against the fast-food chains.