Safeway supermarkets can be found virtually anywhere in the U.S. from Alaska to Florida.

What Safeway won't mention is its role in maintaining unfair terms of trade and its struggle to keep employee benefits at a minimum. Safeway and other grocers purchase thousands of tons of foodstuffs each year, putting them in a position to dictate prices to producers around the world.

Safeway has made efforts to carry more organic products but the store-brand foods still include unlabeled GMOs.

Even a modest commitment to fairly traded goods would not only improve a large number of farmers' lives, but would also signal a new way of looking at the value of agriculture and those who feed us.