Exploitation producing vegetables for the US.

This is a very insightful documentory into the lives of workers in Mexico who grow vegetables for Mexican and US markets. Beware Americans, some of your vegetables are grown by these people. They are subjected to varying degrees of exploitation, bad labour conditions, poor wages, and sometimes, literal slavery.

But you don't really care where vegetables come from. Why should you care?
If you are an American, your country abolished slavery, and is not the most powerful and prosperous nation on earth, but every restaraunt, every high rise building, every clothing store, every accomplishment in America is still built on the backs of slaves.
I wonder, will the US will ever cease to be a land built on the backs of slaves?

If you are human, you are related to these people. These children picking chillies in the feild. The little boys who will never drive their dream car and possably never own a car at all. The little girls who sit in a hot, dark room all day, who can't read or write or go to school. Their mother who hurts every time she leaves them there, but is terified somebody will kidnap or harm them and has no other option. Imagine the shame within her that she can't do any better for her children. That isn't soley her fault, it's societies problem. We allow a situation to exist where these children will never be able to do anything more than pick whatever vegetable and take whatever meagre amount they can get to feed their families if we cannot change their cicumstances.

Know the issues; sugar

Sugar.
Sweet, fattening, diabetes inducing sugar.
While we know it's unhealthy and wish we didn't, most of us eat a lot of sugar.
I don't know about you, but my family has always bought the cheapest bag of sugar from the supermarket shelf. But it would have so much of a better effect on the producers of our sugar if we could buy fairly traded organic sugar instead.

Our demand for cheap sugar creates a demand for sugar to be grown cheaply. Although countries like the US and Australia grow sugar cane, many other countries that grow it are "developing countries" The demand for cheap sugar creates a demand for cheap labour. In many cases people are exploited to harvest it.

One example is Dominican Bateyes.
In the Dominican Republic, migrants from Haiti, more recently, the children of migrants, make up a large amount of the workers for sugar plantations. Most of these plantations have company housing called bateys. These bateys are often badly maintained, and often there is limited access to health care or school, meaning the children born there end up in a cycle, having no other choice but to work in the same industry as their parents. The pay is not very good, and people do not have the means to get out.

Bateyes, and batey like places exist in other countries. In many other countries where sugar is grown, people have similar problems. Our desire for the cheapest sugar available doesn't help the equality of these workers.

There are some groups and charities working to improve conditions in these places. We can donate to these chatities to help, but when we are buying the product, we have an opportunity to make difference. Buying fairly traded and organic sugar means more money can be spent on labour which provides income for farmers and farm workers. It's also a good idea to look for co-operatives that fund community projects like medical care, school uniforms, and education. Most fair trade products come from such co-operatives. It's also worth while finding out what country your sugar is grown in.


Sources and more information;
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/john-j-powers/dominican-bateyes_b_1547082.html
http://www.thebateyfoundation.org/about/
http://bateyrelief.org/work/

Know the issue; Human conditions in cocoa production

To see the first part to this series;

http://irefusetoeatthat.blogspot.co.nz/2013/06/know-issue-what-is-cocao.html

In the previous part of this series, I gave some basic information on what cocoa is. In this part I will be giving information on the ethics of producing cocoa. Because a lot of work is involved to produce cocoa, it is not easy to produce it cheaply. There are concerns that low market prices of cocoa can drive producers into poverty, and even cause some to resort to slave labour to make money.

A major issue people are becoming more aware of  in cocoa production is human trafficking. Children are cheap labour. It is believed that children are sometimes kidnapped, sometimes sold by family members, and sometimes smuggled from nearby countries to work on cocoa farms in the Ivory Coast and Ghana. These children are not given proper training to handle the dangerous work involved in processing cacao. (Climbing up trees and cutting fruit down with machetes.)  When every company is trying to make their chocolate cheap, it can actually be hard for farmers not to resort to this kind of practice to make their business work. Some people dispute whether cocoa slaves actually still exist. You are free to make you own mind up.  In the film The dark side of chocolate, Ali Lakiss, the owner of Saf-Cacao, one of Ghana's biggest cocoa exporters, said "There are no children in the plantations." He obviously has a lot to gain from people believing that. Journalists have filmed children working in cocoa farms. Some children do so part time and also go school. But from what I have seen, I think theirs enough evidence to believe children are being, or have been exploited in cocoa production, and I feel we, those who eat chocolate, should do something about it.

When we buy chocolate, some of the money that companies make will go toward making more chocolate, right? So if you buy chocolate, how can you make sure it doesn't come from these farms that are enslaving people?

I know you want me to tell you what brands to buy, but I can't. There are many different solutions 
#1. Fair trading
Fair Trade and other similarly labeled products are purchased from the farmers at more than a minimum Fairtrade price. People believe buying Fairtrade certified chocolate, means there are no issues with the production of the chocolate. Unfortunately, this is not true. Fairtrade chocolate is usually purchased from a co-op where all farmers are paid (and sometimes contracted to) a price. Fair trade can improve the living conditions of people who grow cocoa. This can have positive effects farmers who do the right thing. On their employees, employees' families, and their communities. However, we are worried that some farmers will sell their cocoa at a fairtrade price, and still use slaves. Most of the time the organisations that certify cocoa cannot completely make sure slaves are not used. 

#2 Boycotting Ivory Coast Cocoa.
Ghana and the Ivory Coast are the only places where people claim cocoa slavery is happening. Many people boycott cocoa from the Ivory Coast and Ghana. The Food Empowerment Project  has produced a comprehensive list of cocoa brands that buy cocoa from other areas like south America rather than Ghana and the Ivory Coast. They only research vegan products, but have a long list regardless. If there is a company that is not on the list, you can sometimes find information on their website or through sending them an email asking them. While this does provide us with a way not to impact the West African cocoa slaves, boycotting a country is only a temporary solution. Many people in West Africa do rely on the chocolate industry for income. Also, some of the other countries we buy cocoa from could have problems with exploitation, just less reported. What we eventually need to do is to work with producers. 

#3 Direct action to improve conditions
The more direct relationship a chocolate producer has with farmers and small co-operatives that have good relationships with farmers, the more control we can have over their practices. In the past, companies have signed famous agreements promising to stop slave labour in West African cocoa farms. So far, not enough has been done. When media attention dies down, it's forgotten about again. If you want to encourage companies you buy from to do more, please send them annoying letters and emails. Some groups are starting to do this well, and to make a difference in the lives of farming families, but many do not. 

I believe it is your responsibility to research this for yourself. I have been researching for years for myself. I am passionate about encouraging other people to make good decisions, and although I think my opinion is clear, I am not telling anyone else what to think. Chose which way you are most comfortable buying. But please don't do nothing.

Also visit; 
http://www.slavefreechocolate.org/index.html

Know the issue; What is cocao?

In order to help people understand issues, I am beginning a series of blog posts which I hope will explain exactly what I am waffling on about.

The trunk of a Cocoa tree, picture from Wikipeadia

Cocoa pods are fruit that grow on trees. The trees are called cacao trees or cocoa trees, and were first cultivated by the Olmecs in what is modern day Mexico. The trees grow up to 25 feet high. Cocoa pods were an important commodity in early South America. At one point they were used like a currency. 

Cocoa pods don't ripen all at the same time, they turn from green to orange, and have to be monitored carefully and harvested individually using knives on long poles. After the ripened pods are cut, the beans and pulp are removed and left to ferment either in piles covered in banana leaves or in wooden boxes. Organisms and bacteria like yeast produce acids and gases that partially break down proteins and sugars in the bean. After about a week, the beans are dark brown. From there, the beans are sold to factories. Then they are roasted to remove bacteria and break down acids that would make the beans taste bitter. 

After roasting, the nibs of the beans are ground into a paste called 'mass' The mass then goes through a powerful press, where it is separated into butter and powder. The powder can then be further refined, and occasionally anti caking agents are added to make cocoa powder for baking. Sugar and other flavourings are added to make drinking chocolate powder. To make solid block chocolate, hot cocoa butter is mixed into coco powder and other flavourings.

We are surrounded by cocoa, it is used in just about every product on supermarket shelves. From block chocolates and baking powders, to biscuits and muesli bars dipped in it and ice creams, yogurts, slices, cereals, and drinks that use it as flavouring.

A dessert my class made in school using cocoa

Today it is estimated that between 69% and 95% of the world's cocoa are grown on trees in West Africa. (In Ghana and The Ivory Coast)

References; http://science.howstuffworks.com/innovation/edible-innovations/chocolate1.htm
http://nz.answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=AkC7IXQ3fxmdwPazK5dWdqHJZwx.;_ylv=3?qid=20130417115735AATM5xF
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theobroma_cacao