Fair Trade education continued....

In my last year of university I was taking a class called the sociology of work. It was in this class that my eyes were opened to the horrible world of slave labour. I had no idea that this existed. I, like most other North Americas, was so wrapped up in consumerism that it never even crossed my mind where my products were coming from or who made them. I never thought "hmmm I wonder why that item is so cheap". I just thought "woo hoo a cheap item, I need to buy 4". Sound familiar? Well that in the Constable residence has now changed. This video that I watched three years ago has changed my life immensely. The video is called "Modern Day Slavery". It is from the research of Kevin Bales who has a book called "Disposable People: The New Slavery of the Global Economy". I highly recommend it. You will never look at chocolate the same way again.

In light of Valentine's Day tomorrow I thought I'd enlighten you on the sweet treat that people love to give this time of year...chocolate. This is a long post and that may turn some of you off and I apologize to you for this. However there is no way to shorten what I've written because of the immensity of the problem!

Brian Woods writes “The fact that human life has come to have so little value is shocking, but it is worse when you realize that you are involved. Nothing demonstrates this better than the case of chocolate. From the African plantations via our local sweet shop, chocolate carries slavery into our homes…the international market in cocoa and chocolate helps create the conditions that lead to slavery.” According to research done by transfair Canada in Canada in 2002 nearly 47 million dollars worth of cocoa products came into our country.

Why is this happening and how did the problem become so big? According to activist Pauline Mahoney, the Ivory Coast, in West Africa, accounts for 43% of the world's 6.6 billion-pound annual cocoa crop. The International Institute of Tropical Agriculture, which is based in West Africa, reports that more than 284,000 children are working in hazardous conditions on cocoa farms on the Ivory Coast. The organization found that children harvest the cocoa beans from farms in the jungle using machetes. They also spray crops with pesticides and insecticides, without masks, rubber boots or proper equipment. These children are kidnapped or tricked to leave their home and come work on these farms. In other words, human lives are undervalued and violated just so a non-essential food can be picked and processed as cheaply as possible. (the picture to the right is a picture of one of boys backs from the first picture that was rescued from being a child slave labor on a cocoa farm in the video that I mentioned above, what you are looking at are scars from the many beatings that he would receive)

In 1995, world cocoa prices plummeted. To remain competitive and keep chocolate a cheap treat, the 3.6 million cocoa farmers on the Ivory Coast had to keep their bean prices low, and their labour costs even lower. The price of cocoa beans has halved in the last 10 years, leaving cocoa farmers unable to meet their own needs or pay their workers adequately. The cost of a chocolate bar has doubled over this time, meaning that big companies are profiting while farmers struggle. Therefore as Canadians we are contributing to this problem. Most of the big manufacturers of chocolate purchase their cocoa on international exchanges, where cocoa from Ivory Coast is mixed with cocoa from other countries. This means that none of the chocolate consumed by us Canadians can be guaranteed to not have been produced by children who are forced to work for 18-hour days, without adequate pay, housing, medical care, food or schooling.

Hang in there...I don't want to dump all this on you and not give you a solution!

There is a solution to this growing problem, purchase fair trade products. Transfair Canada is Canada's only independent certification organization for fair trade coffee, tea, and cocoa. TransFair Canada's mission is to improve incomes and living standards of small producers in workers in the South, by expanding the market for Fair Trade products in Canada. Creating and maintaining consumer awareness and confidence in Fair Trade are the central objectives of TransFair Canada.

The transfair Canada “fair trade certified logo” (which you’re seeing on the screen) guarantees consumers that their coffee, tea, and cocoa originates from Fair trade Labeling Organizations International which monitors its producers in Latin America, Africa and Asia. µCanadian importers and distributors of Transfair products must follow certain criteria such as:
1. pay a set minimum price that covers the costs of production
2. advance payments or extend credit to producers to help avoid debt while financing the next year's production
3. and agree to longer term trading relationships that provide producers with added security to plan for the future and promote sustainable production practices

Fair trade certified ensures that importers and distributors are purchasing the coffee beans, cocoa, or tea from democratically organized groups of small farmers who are listed and monitored by Fairtrade Labeling Organization International Registry. These farmers must have:
1. decent wages to the workers
2. good housing, the right to join a union, and no child or forced labour
3. minimum health & safety standards
4. minimum environmental requirements
Unfortunately, none of America's biggest chocolate companies yet offer Fair Trade. This includes Mars, the leading chocolate company in the world and the 4th largest private company in the USA. According to Candy USA Mars' three owners are worth a combined $31.2 billion. Surely they can afford to offer the Fair Trade alternative!

Fair Trade certified chocolate products have been widely available in Europe for years. There is clearly a sufficient supply of Fair Trade cocoa for the US chocolate industry given that Fair Trade cooperatives produced a total of 89 million pounds of cocoa in 2001, but sold only 3 million at Fair Trade prices. The price for these products is comparable to other products when the consumer takes into consideration that the farmers are getting a minimum price per pound, which is 30 cents more than what the cocoa market is at right now. If the cocoa market goes up the fair trade farmers are always guaranteed to be making at least five cents more per pound than those who sell their cocoa to the international exchange. Coffee and tea follows this as well. A poll done in 1998 by Transfair Canada found that 41% of Canadians would pay more for their coffee, if they knew that farmers were paid a fair price. Also because of the awareness programs done by transfair Canada, between 1997 and 1999 sales of fair trade coffee in Canada increased by 500%.

I agree with activist Pauline Mahoney who believes passionately that consumers are powerful and if we use our money with compassion and wisdom we can change the world. I have been buying and consuming fair trade products for four years now and although I’m just one person I feel as though I have made a difference through living deliberately in this way and by educating my family and friends on the decision that I’ve chosen.