Margaret Gray is an associate professor of political science at Adelphi University and the author of Labor and the Locavore: The Making of a Comprehensive Food Ethic.
Greek yogurt juggernaut Chobani touts its fair trade certification as proof that it treats its workers well. But fair trade certification glosses over the fundamentally unequal and exploitative power dynamics of bosses over workers, at Chobani and workplaces everywhere.
On New York’s dairy farms and in fields around the country, farmworkers are intensely exploited. They need support for their organizing efforts — not liberal appeals to “buy ethically” or “local.”
There’s nothing ethical about “buying local” and supporting small farms when the workers on them are brutally exploited.