When shopping for fruits and vegetables, socially conscious consumers consider the actions of companies to be just as important as value and sale price*. These consumers are putting pressure on retailers to source from socially responsible suppliers who are putting values at the center of their operation. We see these pressures evolve into various requirements from retail buyers that is passed onto growers.
Equitable Food Initiative (EFI) was formed to help operations relieve their audit burden and more easily respond to evolving retail requirements by engaging workers from all aspects of the organization in a culture of transparency and continuous improvement. In addition, EFI is a model for certifying farming operations who have been putting people at the center of their operation for years or even generations.
“A healthy, proactive, motivated workforce is going to be more productive and efficient, and is going to help you meet the quality, price and continuity requirements of your buyers. It’s also going to give you the basis for implementing sustainability initiatives, going to give you the opportunity to have a workforce that cares about food safety measures and actually takes care of the product at the point of production.”
-Peter O’Driscoll, Executive Director, EFI
EFI teaches skills in problem solving and worker-management communication, resulting in a sense of place and ownership at work. By having a culture of continuous improvement and transparent communication paired with equal participation, EFI certified farms are poised to take on an evolution of requirements.
“We have realized that everything is in a chain. We used to focus too much on our work but every single step in our production process is important and now we understand that.”
-Elsa Leiva, Food Security, Agrovision Peru, Leadership Team Member
Ready to take your next steps towards getting EFI certified? Click here to contact us!
