Lady Moon Farms Receives Innovation Award for Fair Practices

Lady Moon Farms, the largest grower of organic produce on the east coast with farms in Pennsylvania, Georgia and Florida, has received an Innovation Award from Whole Foods Market. The natural and organic grocery chain’s first ever Supplier Awards, presented May 22 in Austin, Texas, recognizes Lady Moon Farms forward-thinking attitude regarding fair and ethical practices, which the grocery chain says “changed the tomato industry in Florida.”

Lady Moon Farms was the first Florida farm to ensure fair wages and rights for Florida farm workers by signing with the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW). Lady Moon’s support of the Coalition gives an additional penny-per-pound for all harvested tomatoes; money that goes directly to the workers.

In a time when many Florida farm workers are struggling with sub-poverty annual earnings, and have no right to overtime or organize to collectively bargain with employers, organizations like CIW serve as the voice of many. Fourteen-hundred members strong, comprised mostly of Latino, Haitian and Mayan Indian immigrants, the Coalition works to improve wages and working conditions for farm workers and to shed light on humanitarian issues right here in the United States. Companies like Lady Moon Farms can and do make a positive difference simply by acting according to their stated beliefs.

“We guarantee all of our fruits and vegetables are harvested with ethical and socially just practices,” says Owner Tom Beddard. “There is no other way to honor that guarantee than to ensure our workers are treated fairly.”