Bowing to farmworker and consumer pressure, Wendy’s declares intention to bring tomato purchases back to U.S. “by the end of the year” in surprise announcement at annual shareholder meeting in Dublin, Ohio!
Company stops short, however, of joining award-winning Fair Food Program, instead shifts purchases to greenhouse operations outside the FFP and professes blind faith in failed third-party audits…
This past Tuesday, Wendy’s corporate executives and board members gathered at the company’s headquarters in Dublin, Ohio, for the fast-food giant’s annual shareholder meeting. As the cool and rainy spring day dawned, nearly three dozen representatives of the Fair Food Nation headed into the meeting, equipped with hard questions for CEO Todd Penegor and Board Chair Nelson Peltz on the company’s unconscionable decision to purchase the vast majority of its tomatoes from Mexico’s famously brutal produce industry. Meanwhile, outside the meeting, nearly 200 supporters — farmworkers and consumers alike — filled the sidewalk in a spirited picket, their chants echoing off the surrounding buildings.
All the pieces were in place for what would turn out to be a truly memorable day. It was a day on which, for the first time, a major US retail food company repatriated its tomato purchases from Mexico in response to intense scrutiny of the horrific labor conditions in that country. And yet, despite this historic news, it was a day on which Wendy’s nonetheless disappointed its critics by announcing that it would sidestep Fair Food Program farms and purchase exclusively from greenhouse growers outside the program, relying on discredited, for-profit auditing firms to monitor conditions at its new suppliers’ operations. At the end of the day, Wendy’s move left the burger chain awkwardly akimbo, one foot squarely on the right path, the other still firmly stuck in the past.
Today, we bring you the initial report from both outside and inside the 2018 Annual Shareholder meeting, with more analysis to come in the days ahead. There’s a lot of ground to cover, so we’ll jump right in!
Outside the meeting: “Your burgers may be square, but your food ain’t fair…!”
Outside of the meeting, nearly 200 protesters marched and chanted in spite of a steady, driving rain.
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