- A27 -

The leading edge of human rights in agriculture Fair Food Standards Council The mission of the Fair Food Standards Council FFSC is to monitor the development of a sustainable agricultural industry that advances the human rights of farmworkers the longterm interests of growers and the ethical supply chain concerns of retail food companies through implementation of the Fair Food Program. Fourteen years since its inception the Fair Food Program has entered into a phase of truly dramatic expansion During 2024 and 2025 the programs protections will reach thousands more farmworkers at over 30 additional farms in 13 new states. This accelerated growth was prompted in large part by a new initiative designed by the US Department of Agriculture launched in 2024 to expand the H2A or guestworker program while also protecting those workers from abuse. As part of that pilot program the USDA designated the FFP as the highest or platinum level of human rights protection for US farmworkers and offered farms the highest level of financial subsidies for joining the FFP to protect guestworkers in their operations.