OVERVIEW

Pressure from supermarkets, such as Whole Foods, to keep costs low means that the people who pick and process the food on grocery store shelves often face unsafe conditions on a daily basis, and can receive wages so low they struggle to feed their families.

Oxfam launched our Behind the Barcodes campaign in 2018 to examine the policies and practices of some of the biggest supermarkets around the world. We have conducted research through surveys and interviews of workers throughout the food system. Now, in our second year of the campaign, we have found that human rights abuses continue in the supply chains of Whole Foods and other supermarkets. And those abuses aren’t isolated to some far-flung corner of the world; they are occurring everywhere, including on farms here in the United States.

Thanks to your actions, and in response to the campaign, Whole Foods has adopted some new policies to tackle the human rights abuses behind their food. While this is a step in the right direction, these commitments don’t go far enough, as our reporting uncovered. Until they do, we will continue to demand Whole Foods end the human suffering behind the food we all eat.

Tell Whole Foods: We won't stand for it.

• Post on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram to demand that Whole Foods do more to end the human suffering behind the food sold on its shelves.
• Learn more about Behind the Barcodes at www.behindthebarcodes.org.
• Follow the conversation online using the hashtag #BehindTheBarcodes.

SAMPLE SOCIAL MEDIA

SAMPLE TWEETS

Behind the tea, fruits, and vegetables sold at Whole Foods are horrible human rights abuses. I won’t stand for it @WholeFoods. 📢RT if you agree and learn more at BehindTheBarcodes.org

Giant supermarkets like @WholeFoods need to amp up their efforts to end human rights abuses behind the food sold on its shelves. 📢RT and learn more at BehindTheBarcodes.org

Human suffering should never be an ingredient in the food we buy. @WholeFoods, it's time to end the human rights abuses happening behind your food. We won't stand for it. #BehindTheBarcodes

"I’m concerned about dying in the field because of heat, or getting injured,” a worker on a farm in North Carolina that supplies sweet potatoes to @WholeFoods, told Oxfam. Human suffering should never be an ingredient in the food we eat. 👉🏽Learn more at BehindTheBarcodes.org

FACEBOOK/INSTAGRAM

“I’m concerned about dying in the field because of heat, or getting injured,” Arturo, who works on a farm in North Carolina that supplies sweet potatoes to Whole Foods, told Oxfam in August when they visited farms to survey working conditions. This kind of human suffering should never be an ingredient in the food we eat. 📢Share this message and demand supermarkets like @WholeFoods do better. 👉🏽Learn what you can do at BehindTheBarcodes.org

Human rights violations aren’t just happening in faraway places, they are happening in Whole Foods’s backyard here in the US. This summer, Oxfam and its partner, @FarmLaborOrganizingCommitteeHome, interviewed workers on farms in North Carolina who pick sweet potatoes that end up in Whole Foods’s stores. Through their research and interviews, Oxfam found horrible working conditions: workers reported laboring up to 14 hours a day in oppressive heat with few rest breaks and often very limited access to toilets. Many say they are paid low wages that leave them in debt and are too scared to speak out for fear of losing their jobs or having their work visas revoked. As consumers, we have the power to demand that the people behind our food are treated humanely and have their rights respected. 📢Amplify this message and demand supermarkets like @WholeFoods do better. 👉🏽Learn more and take action at BehindTheBarcodes.org