Emma Podietz wants to change the way Trader Joe's does business. But she can't do it alone.
That's why she founded the NYU chapter of the Student Farmworker Alliance. Since March, Podietz says, she and her team have been working to increase wages for migrant laborers who pick tomatoes sold at Trader Joe's.
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"A lot of people know about industrial agriculture and processed foods, but people still aren't aware of the people who pick their food," she said.
A student of environmental and Latin American studies in Gallatin, Podietz practices what she preaches. She bikes to class, she recycles, she even eats vegan. She has tried composting with moderate success.
And yes, she has farmed.
After a semester abroad in Buenos Aires, Podietz spent three weeks working on a farm in northern Argentina, where the expanding soy industry threatens small family operations.
"It was really cold and physically hard," she said.
The experience made Podietz take a fresh look at the lives of farmers worldwide. But it wasn't a deal breaker.
Things really changed for Podietz in February, when representatives from the Coalition of Immokalee Workers visited an Oxfam NYU meeting on campus. They talked about the plight of Florida's fruit pickers, who suffer due to poor conditions and inadequate pay. Corporations like Trader Joe's, they said, only perpetuate the abuses.
"I decided that night at the meeting to be a leader within NYU in the campaign," she said. "It just clicked for me."
The goal, she says, is to change Trader Joe's, not to sabotage it.
"I don't think it's a terrible company," she said. "I just think it's ridiculously secretive and its marketing is false."
While the store appears to appreciate farmers, Podietz says, it makes no provisions to ensure "Fair Food" conditions for the workers behind its tomato stock. Ideally, the supermarket would sign an agreement making those arrangements, as stores including McDonald's and Taco Bell have done in the past.
Trader Joe's has so far been uncooperative, but Podietz still finds hope.
"We know we're getting under their skin because they posted a rebuttal to everything that the CIW has been doing on their website," she said. The rebuttal , published April 9, asserts that Trader Joe's is not opposed to paying workers one cent more per pound, although the company has yet to sign the CIW agreement.
Right now, the SFA at NYU is an informal community. It has a Facebook group with 63 members and a listserv. Weekly meetings see six core members, many of whom are crossovers from Oxfam. It has yet to elect leadership or register as a club at NYU.
Getting the word out about the group and its mission, Podietz said, is a challenge. The group will make an appearance at NYU's Earth Day celebration this Friday and at the historic May Day protest for labor rights next month in Manhattan. But there's no telling how many people will join them.
Most people know about their campaign from a February demonstration outside Trader Joe's Union Square location, where many of Podietz's friends dressed as tomatoes in solidarity with the Immokalee workers.
For Podietz, who wants to ensure that a new crowd of labor rights activists will succeed her when she graduates, getting the message out is paramount. If tomato costumes make that happen, then so be it.
"You could call it silly — I would just call it positive," she said.
