As I have been doing a little research on modern day slavery, I have had come to terms with the fact that I have helped and aided slavery to prosper. Chances are that most North Americans have aided slavery without even knowing it. If you have eaten chocolate, wear cotton clothing, own a cell phone or computer, drank coffee, eaten sugar, or worn gold jewelry then you have also been connected with slavery.
Chocolate, sugar, coffee, and many other fruits and vegetables are all grown on farms and its very common for them to be farmed by slavery. Computers and cell phones all have a rare metal that is only found in Democratic Republic of the Congo. It has to be mined from the earth, along with gold. Most of the miners are children, who have to work in deplorable, dangerous conditions.
These are just some more things that are made by human slaves:
- In Malawi, 78,000 children, some as young as five, work 12-hour days to produce cigarettes.
- That shimmer in your eye shadow? It is a mineral called mica. Much of the world’s mica comes from India, where children as young as six labor long and hard for a single meal of rice.
- A 7-year-old boy works all day, every day, in a balloon factory in Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh. He works 12-hour days, 7 days a week, for about $2.14 per week.
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I kept coming across the term 'fair trade'.I had heard the word quite a bit, but didn't really know what it meant.
Wikipedia's definition of fair trade is :
'Fair trade is an organized social movement and market-based approach that aims to help producers in developing countries make better trading conditions and promote sustainability.'
Online Dictionary:
"The practice of directly benefiting producers in the developing world by buying straight from them at a guaranteed price."
A great example of how to explain fair trade is with chocolate. So, a regular chocolate bar could be anywhere from $.50-$1.00. Fair trade chocolate bars are closer to $3.00. With such a huge price difference, it kind of makes you wonder why the difference in price? What are you paying for when you buy fair trade?
When you buy a chocolate bar that is not fair trade, chances are, that the cocoa was grown, and farmed by workers that are not paid wages, work in deplorable conditions, work long hours, are beat if they don't produce enough, and can't support their families.
When you buy a chocolate bar that is not fair trade, chances are, that the cocoa was grown, and farmed by workers that are not paid wages, work in deplorable conditions, work long hours, are beat if they don't produce enough, and can't support their families.
The International Cocoa Organization estimates that there are approximately 14 million people around the world currently directly involved in the annual production of over 6 billion pounds of cocoa. Unless it is a fair trade cocoa farm, the cocoa is made with forced child labour; thousands of children are currently being used as slave labour on cocoa farms in an attempt to keep down production costs.
A fair trade chocolate bar ensures that the workers are paid fair wages, have good working conditions, normal working hours, and are not enslaved. Fair trade companies will also take some of the profit and put it towards the community.
Some companies are making the switch to fair trade items. Cadbury Chocolate is now making a few fair trade chocolate bars. They are sold in Australia, and New Zealand, so far. Starbucks will sell bags of fair trade coffee, but unfortunately, they don't serve fair trade coffee.. however, in London all the Starbucks' must, by law, serve fair trade coffee.
I wonder what North America is doing about fair trade? It doesn't seem like we are doing much.. I mean, I had no clue what fair trade even meant. Now, I'm going to be on the lookout for fair trade items.
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This is a really great message on trafficking, slavery, ect. It was spoken at the Justice Conference in February.
There are some great resources available to buy fair trade items from.
Common Threadz- Fair trade clothing
Earth Lover Shopping
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