Another way to avoid participating in slavery is to buy or swap second-hand items. For example! Instead of spending way too much money on Gymboree kids' clothes (a company, by the way, which has not yet agreed to stop using child-picked cotton from Uzbekistan), go to kidswear consignment stores or thrift stores. I have lately found brand-name clothing, in perfect condition, for pennies - and best of all, providing for my children did not exploit someone else's children.
I truly needed some new pants, so I got over my ego and went clothes shopping at Goodwill. I was not expecting to find much, and I confess I was not surprised to find a fair number of rather hideous castoffs. But as I kept looking through the racks, I rejected about as many pairs of pants as I would have in any department store, and soon I had a stack of perfectly nice, respectable pants to try on. I ended up leaving the store as the proud owner of brand new (with original tags) Banana Republic dress pants, marked down
from $148.00
to $8.99.
For this shopping trip, at least, System of oppression: 0, this Starfish seeker: 1.
Friday, December 3, 2010
Tuesday, November 2, 2010
Little Changes, Big Results (Part 1)
Fight human trafficking! Hooray! ...now what?
If we can't storm the brothels and sweatshops personally - although perhaps we can! (We'll talk about that soon, have no fear) - there are still definitive ways we can fight human trafficking in our ordinary lives, amid commuting, grocery shopping, and soccer practice.
One of the best ways available to combat human trafficking is the Fair Trade system. Simply stated, Fair Trade certification means that the people who produce many of the things we buy are paid an adequate price to cover their labor and living costs. When the farmers and artisans are not paid enough, entire communities break down. Traditional ways of life become impossible, and the resultant extreme poverty makes the people vulnerable to traffickers. Parents sell or give their children away because they either can't afford to raise them and/or because they have been promised a better life. People borrow money to survive and find themselves trapped in debt bondage. By purchasing Fair Trade certified products, we can use our consumer power to stop the problem at the root.
Fair Trade items are widely available online, but it is slowly taking off in mainstream stores as more people find out about it. Ask store managers to order fairly traded coffee, chocolate, sugar, rice, olive oil, flowers, tea, vanilla, wine, bananas, and sports balls. Soccer balls are frequently made in sweatshops, but there are alternatives! Order Fair Trade coffee and tea at your favorite coffee shop, or buy it to make at home, and ask your places of business and worship to switch to Fair Trade coffee. Stores like Trader Joe's and Whole Foods carry Fair Trade certified products, and you can ask employees to help find them on the shelves. Since the farmers are given a fair price for their products, we can expect to pay a little more (although it's frequently not that much more expensive), but a practical way to offset the cost is to purchase more sparingly. It's cheap and easy to buy a huge bag of Hershey's Miniatures, but it is so much more rewarding and satisfying (and health-conscious) to savor a bar of fairly made chocolate piece by piece.
There are other ways to live counter to our slavery-filled culture, and November will be full of posts about how to do just that! Stay tuned...
If we can't storm the brothels and sweatshops personally - although perhaps we can! (We'll talk about that soon, have no fear) - there are still definitive ways we can fight human trafficking in our ordinary lives, amid commuting, grocery shopping, and soccer practice.
One of the best ways available to combat human trafficking is the Fair Trade system. Simply stated, Fair Trade certification means that the people who produce many of the things we buy are paid an adequate price to cover their labor and living costs. When the farmers and artisans are not paid enough, entire communities break down. Traditional ways of life become impossible, and the resultant extreme poverty makes the people vulnerable to traffickers. Parents sell or give their children away because they either can't afford to raise them and/or because they have been promised a better life. People borrow money to survive and find themselves trapped in debt bondage. By purchasing Fair Trade certified products, we can use our consumer power to stop the problem at the root.
Fair Trade items are widely available online, but it is slowly taking off in mainstream stores as more people find out about it. Ask store managers to order fairly traded coffee, chocolate, sugar, rice, olive oil, flowers, tea, vanilla, wine, bananas, and sports balls. Soccer balls are frequently made in sweatshops, but there are alternatives! Order Fair Trade coffee and tea at your favorite coffee shop, or buy it to make at home, and ask your places of business and worship to switch to Fair Trade coffee. Stores like Trader Joe's and Whole Foods carry Fair Trade certified products, and you can ask employees to help find them on the shelves. Since the farmers are given a fair price for their products, we can expect to pay a little more (although it's frequently not that much more expensive), but a practical way to offset the cost is to purchase more sparingly. It's cheap and easy to buy a huge bag of Hershey's Miniatures, but it is so much more rewarding and satisfying (and health-conscious) to savor a bar of fairly made chocolate piece by piece.
There are other ways to live counter to our slavery-filled culture, and November will be full of posts about how to do just that! Stay tuned...
Tuesday, October 19, 2010
Happy Shopping
I'm not writing advertisements for any of the following companies - but I do really like them. I'm using each of the described products and I like them enough to talk about them. If you like them too, great! If you have other ethically-made products you are excited about, please comment here or on Looking For Starfish's Facebook page and get the word out!
LUSH shampoo keeps my hair squeaky clean, pretty and shiny, and nice-but-not-too-nice-smelling. It comes in a bar, like a bar of soap, and has a great lather. All LUSH products are made by hand in Canada, and only contain fresh, organic ingredients. Most of their products come with no packaging whatsoever, but the packaging they do use is from post-consumer recycled, recyclable and biodegradable materials whenever possible, according to the LUSH website. Best of all, the company supports small farms and co-ops in Ghana, Morocco, Papau New Guinea, Vancouver and Colorado for its vanilla beans, rhassoul mud, shea butter, and seaweed. The nearest stores are in San Francisco, Emeryville, and Santa Clara, and their products are also available online.
Simple shoes are available at Nordstrom, several other local stores, and online. I have had one pair of Simple shoes for at least four years, and they look almost new. I just got a new pair of funky boots and they are very fabulous, I must say. The company website has a stated, clear human rights policy, and their reputation is excellent across the available internet information. They are in the process of becoming 100% sustainable - using a combination of all-natural, self-renewing, biodegradable, organic, and/or recycled materials.
I might love this product a little too much - Trader Joe's Fair Trade Swiss Dark Chocolate. Sweet, creamy, delicious, and, best of all, guilt-free in all the most important ways. They make a Fair Trade Swiss Milk Chocolate bar too, and it is just as dreamy. (I know. I've tried it.)
Hygiene products, footwear, chocolate. Sort of essential, right? Happy Shopping.
LUSH shampoo keeps my hair squeaky clean, pretty and shiny, and nice-but-not-too-nice-smelling. It comes in a bar, like a bar of soap, and has a great lather. All LUSH products are made by hand in Canada, and only contain fresh, organic ingredients. Most of their products come with no packaging whatsoever, but the packaging they do use is from post-consumer recycled, recyclable and biodegradable materials whenever possible, according to the LUSH website. Best of all, the company supports small farms and co-ops in Ghana, Morocco, Papau New Guinea, Vancouver and Colorado for its vanilla beans, rhassoul mud, shea butter, and seaweed. The nearest stores are in San Francisco, Emeryville, and Santa Clara, and their products are also available online.
Simple shoes are available at Nordstrom, several other local stores, and online. I have had one pair of Simple shoes for at least four years, and they look almost new. I just got a new pair of funky boots and they are very fabulous, I must say. The company website has a stated, clear human rights policy, and their reputation is excellent across the available internet information. They are in the process of becoming 100% sustainable - using a combination of all-natural, self-renewing, biodegradable, organic, and/or recycled materials.
I might love this product a little too much - Trader Joe's Fair Trade Swiss Dark Chocolate. Sweet, creamy, delicious, and, best of all, guilt-free in all the most important ways. They make a Fair Trade Swiss Milk Chocolate bar too, and it is just as dreamy. (I know. I've tried it.)
Hygiene products, footwear, chocolate. Sort of essential, right? Happy Shopping.
Thursday, October 14, 2010
Slaves not to Greed, but to Christ
Our fight is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, authorities, and powers over this present darkness, and evil spiritual forces in the heavenly places. Eph. 6:12
In the Spring 1955 edition of the Journal of Retailing, economist Victor Lebow wrote,
"Our enormously productive economy demands that we make consumption our way of life, that we convert the buying and use of goods into rituals, that we seek our spiritual satisfactions, our ego satisfactions, in consumption. The measure of social status, of social acceptance, of prestige, is now to be found in our consumptive patterns. The very meaning and significance of our lives today expressed in consumptive terms. The greater the pressures upon the individual to conform to safe and accepted social standards, the more does he tend to express his aspirations and his individuality in terms of what he wears, drives, eats- his home, his car, his pattern of food serving, his hobbies. These commodities and services must be offered to the consumer with a special urgency. We require not only “forced draft” consumption, but “expensive” consumption as well. We need things consumed, burned up, worn out, replaced, and discarded at an ever increasing pace."
Whether his attitude was encouraging and accepting of, or critical of this phenomenon of consumption is really irrelevant. Americans, from the leader of the nation to the least influential citizen, have been directly affected by the drive to consume. The professing Christian President George W. Bush encouraged Americans to go and shop after September 11, 2001, in an attempt to keep the economy from tanking. While this may seem to make economic sense, Americans have become nationally and personally culpable of the worship of a golden idol. We celebrate each holiday - shortened from Holy Day - by shopping. Each rite of passage, each birthday, each graduation, each celebration, includes shopping.
Americans have invited, welcomed, and enjoyed the spirit of Greed. Our politicians and biggest businesses have invited Greed to take over our country and become our protector since the 50's, and we've grown fatter and fatter under Its rule. We still believe in Its ability to save us. We teach our children to serve It. "Do well in school so you can make lots of money and have lots of nice things someday!" We listen to every lie It says and believe every promise It makes.
As with every evil spirit, Greed has been easy to invite and easy to welcome, but it is absolutely essential that we cast It out and invite the Lord to return to His rightful place. Greed has been a cruel tyrant. It has made us into slaves, and makes us into slave owners. "I need those shoes, I don't care where or how they were made!" We are all guilty. We all need to be rescued and liberated.
Thanks be to God, who sets the captives free! Thanks be to God for freeing us from our master Greed and offering Himself in return! Thanks be to our Savior Jesus for ransoming us with His blood! Thanks be to God Who is freeing the human slaves who make the products we thought we had to have! October is full of reminders that we live in a spiritual world. Each time you see a ghost decoration, pray for the increase of the Spirit of God. Pray with us for the liberation of our world, country, and selves. We live in the Kingdom of Heaven. We are Its citizens. Jesus has bought us from slavery and now gives us the privilege to fight for Him. Let's resist the invasion of the kingdom of darkness and live under the Rule of our glorious and precious King.
In the Spring 1955 edition of the Journal of Retailing, economist Victor Lebow wrote,
"Our enormously productive economy demands that we make consumption our way of life, that we convert the buying and use of goods into rituals, that we seek our spiritual satisfactions, our ego satisfactions, in consumption. The measure of social status, of social acceptance, of prestige, is now to be found in our consumptive patterns. The very meaning and significance of our lives today expressed in consumptive terms. The greater the pressures upon the individual to conform to safe and accepted social standards, the more does he tend to express his aspirations and his individuality in terms of what he wears, drives, eats- his home, his car, his pattern of food serving, his hobbies. These commodities and services must be offered to the consumer with a special urgency. We require not only “forced draft” consumption, but “expensive” consumption as well. We need things consumed, burned up, worn out, replaced, and discarded at an ever increasing pace."
Whether his attitude was encouraging and accepting of, or critical of this phenomenon of consumption is really irrelevant. Americans, from the leader of the nation to the least influential citizen, have been directly affected by the drive to consume. The professing Christian President George W. Bush encouraged Americans to go and shop after September 11, 2001, in an attempt to keep the economy from tanking. While this may seem to make economic sense, Americans have become nationally and personally culpable of the worship of a golden idol. We celebrate each holiday - shortened from Holy Day - by shopping. Each rite of passage, each birthday, each graduation, each celebration, includes shopping.
Americans have invited, welcomed, and enjoyed the spirit of Greed. Our politicians and biggest businesses have invited Greed to take over our country and become our protector since the 50's, and we've grown fatter and fatter under Its rule. We still believe in Its ability to save us. We teach our children to serve It. "Do well in school so you can make lots of money and have lots of nice things someday!" We listen to every lie It says and believe every promise It makes.
As with every evil spirit, Greed has been easy to invite and easy to welcome, but it is absolutely essential that we cast It out and invite the Lord to return to His rightful place. Greed has been a cruel tyrant. It has made us into slaves, and makes us into slave owners. "I need those shoes, I don't care where or how they were made!" We are all guilty. We all need to be rescued and liberated.
Thanks be to God, who sets the captives free! Thanks be to God for freeing us from our master Greed and offering Himself in return! Thanks be to our Savior Jesus for ransoming us with His blood! Thanks be to God Who is freeing the human slaves who make the products we thought we had to have! October is full of reminders that we live in a spiritual world. Each time you see a ghost decoration, pray for the increase of the Spirit of God. Pray with us for the liberation of our world, country, and selves. We live in the Kingdom of Heaven. We are Its citizens. Jesus has bought us from slavery and now gives us the privilege to fight for Him. Let's resist the invasion of the kingdom of darkness and live under the Rule of our glorious and precious King.
Friday, September 24, 2010
Why I don't love Hershey's chocolate anymore
It is sometimes not enough to know that alternatives exist - sometimes we need to know why the alternatives are preferable. Fairly traded chocolate is the most ethical and most loving option to be found today. But there are best and there are worst of the worst. While none of the large chocolate producers is taking adequate steps to solve their labor problems, it seems that Hershey's has fallen back even from that dragging pack.
Hershey's is the largest manufacturer of chocolate and candy in the US. According to a September, 2010 report by Global Exchange, Green America, International Labor Rights Forum, and Oasis, Hershey's main areas for improvement are Sourcing, Transparency, Greenwashing, and Certification. Hershey's does not have a system in place to ensure that cocoa sourced from West Africa is not produced by human trafficking, forced labor, or child labor. The company does not reveal where its cocoa comes from or name its suppliers. Hershey's donates money to charitable organizations in West Africa and is a member of the World Cocoa Foundation, but the company itself has no policy in place to prevent slave produced chocolate. The company has not taken significant steps toward using a third-party certification such as Fair Trade.
In a graph dated September 2010, Sustainalytics (a sustainability research and analysis firm) contrasted the policies of several of the largest chocolate candy producers and cocoa importers. The graph outlines company policies, monitoring programs, MSI capacity building (go to www.msiworldwide.com for more info), certified cocoa procurement and quantitative goals and dates for its procurement, and company disclosure of progress made toward each of these goals. In order of best to worst, the companies are: Callebaut, Cadbury Kraft (not available in the US - Hershey's holds the US Cadbury contract), Mars, Lindt and Sprungli, Kraft, Nestle, ADM, Olam, Cargill, and, dead last, Hershey's. Hershey's company profile on www.responsibleshopper.org has even more implicating information.
So this Halloween, if you run out of time to order great candy from the available fantastic sources, please at least avoid Hershey's products:
5th Avenue, Almond Joy, Breathsavers, Bubble Yum, Cadbury, Reese's, Good & Plenty, Heath Bars, Icebreakers, Jolly Ranchers, Kit Kat, Mauna Loa, Milk Duds, Hershey's Miniatures Mounds, Mr. Goodbar, Pay Day, Rolo, Skor, SnackBarz, Snacksters, Hershey's Granola Bars, Symphony, Hershey's Syrup, Take 5, Twizzlers, Whatchamacallit, Whoppers, York, Young & Smylie Licorice, Zagnut, Zero
Hershey's is the largest manufacturer of chocolate and candy in the US. According to a September, 2010 report by Global Exchange, Green America, International Labor Rights Forum, and Oasis, Hershey's main areas for improvement are Sourcing, Transparency, Greenwashing, and Certification. Hershey's does not have a system in place to ensure that cocoa sourced from West Africa is not produced by human trafficking, forced labor, or child labor. The company does not reveal where its cocoa comes from or name its suppliers. Hershey's donates money to charitable organizations in West Africa and is a member of the World Cocoa Foundation, but the company itself has no policy in place to prevent slave produced chocolate. The company has not taken significant steps toward using a third-party certification such as Fair Trade.
In a graph dated September 2010, Sustainalytics (a sustainability research and analysis firm) contrasted the policies of several of the largest chocolate candy producers and cocoa importers. The graph outlines company policies, monitoring programs, MSI capacity building (go to www.msiworldwide.com for more info), certified cocoa procurement and quantitative goals and dates for its procurement, and company disclosure of progress made toward each of these goals. In order of best to worst, the companies are: Callebaut, Cadbury Kraft (not available in the US - Hershey's holds the US Cadbury contract), Mars, Lindt and Sprungli, Kraft, Nestle, ADM, Olam, Cargill, and, dead last, Hershey's. Hershey's company profile on www.responsibleshopper.org has even more implicating information.
So this Halloween, if you run out of time to order great candy from the available fantastic sources, please at least avoid Hershey's products:
5th Avenue, Almond Joy, Breathsavers, Bubble Yum, Cadbury, Reese's, Good & Plenty, Heath Bars, Icebreakers, Jolly Ranchers, Kit Kat, Mauna Loa, Milk Duds, Hershey's Miniatures Mounds, Mr. Goodbar, Pay Day, Rolo, Skor, SnackBarz, Snacksters, Hershey's Granola Bars, Symphony, Hershey's Syrup, Take 5, Twizzlers, Whatchamacallit, Whoppers, York, Young & Smylie Licorice, Zagnut, Zero
Tuesday, September 21, 2010
The Treat (Chocolate Part 2)
If you aren't craving chocolate right now, you're about to be. Consider yourself warned. Now, ready to copy and paste some websites into your browser?
www.naturalcandystore.com - An absolutely wonderful online candy store located out of Concord, CA. You can order for delivery or for customer pickup. Looks FANTASTIC for Halloween. Also? Free samples with every purchase.
www.organiccandy.com - I love this website, background music and all. All candies manufactured exclusively in Canada and the US in fair wage factories, using only adult-produced, fairly traded raw materials. They even sell cotton candy. Mmmm.
www.globalexchange.org - Such a great resource. Anything you click will be informative and inspiring, but first check out the Fair Trade Store: www.globalexchangestore.org, as well as this list of 100% fair trade companies: http://www.globalexchange.org/campaigns/fairtrade/coffee/retailers.html
Also available at Global Exchange - Reverse Trick-or-Treating Kits to help raise awareness for fairly traded chocolate.
http://www.globalexchange.org/campaigns/fairtrade/cocoa/reversetrickortreating/
www.sweetearthchocolates.com - Halloween candy, truffles, wedding favors, individually wrapped chocolate candies (like peanut butter cups, oh my aching sweet tooth), baking chocolate and cocoa powder, and so much more of the most amazing looking chocolate I have ever seen.
http://www.katescaringgifts.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=CTGY&Category_Code=ROBINS_SAUCE - Chocolate syrup for your ice cream. Hershey's who?
http://www.equalexchange.coop/cocoa - Cocoa powder and different hot chocolate mixes. Winter demands hot cocoa!
http://www.divinechocolateusa.com, http://www.greenandblacks.com, http://sjaaks.com/fair_trade - Divine Chocolate, Green and Black's Organic Chocolate, and Sjaak's Organic Chocolate are somewhat well-known fair trade chocolate producers and look scrumptious. You can see videos of cocoa farmers and their families on the Divine Chocolate website.
If you want even more resources, here are two addresses of huge lists of fair trade chocolate resources.
http://www.greenpromise.com/resources/organic-chocolate-suppliers.php
http://transfairusa.org/content/certification/licensees.php?category=Cocoa&include=Everyone&sort=name
For even more (yes, there is more!), type "Fair Trade Chocolate (or Cocoa or Baking Chocolate or Candy or...)" into your favorite search engine. And go recover from your vicarious and ethically produced sugar coma.
www.naturalcandystore.com - An absolutely wonderful online candy store located out of Concord, CA. You can order for delivery or for customer pickup. Looks FANTASTIC for Halloween. Also? Free samples with every purchase.
www.organiccandy.com - I love this website, background music and all. All candies manufactured exclusively in Canada and the US in fair wage factories, using only adult-produced, fairly traded raw materials. They even sell cotton candy. Mmmm.
www.globalexchange.org - Such a great resource. Anything you click will be informative and inspiring, but first check out the Fair Trade Store: www.globalexchangestore.org, as well as this list of 100% fair trade companies: http://www.globalexchange.org/campaigns/fairtrade/coffee/retailers.html
Also available at Global Exchange - Reverse Trick-or-Treating Kits to help raise awareness for fairly traded chocolate.
http://www.globalexchange.org/campaigns/fairtrade/cocoa/reversetrickortreating/
www.sweetearthchocolates.com - Halloween candy, truffles, wedding favors, individually wrapped chocolate candies (like peanut butter cups, oh my aching sweet tooth), baking chocolate and cocoa powder, and so much more of the most amazing looking chocolate I have ever seen.
http://www.katescaringgifts.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=CTGY&Category_Code=ROBINS_SAUCE - Chocolate syrup for your ice cream. Hershey's who?
http://www.equalexchange.coop/cocoa - Cocoa powder and different hot chocolate mixes. Winter demands hot cocoa!
http://www.divinechocolateusa.com, http://www.greenandblacks.com, http://sjaaks.com/fair_trade - Divine Chocolate, Green and Black's Organic Chocolate, and Sjaak's Organic Chocolate are somewhat well-known fair trade chocolate producers and look scrumptious. You can see videos of cocoa farmers and their families on the Divine Chocolate website.
If you want even more resources, here are two addresses of huge lists of fair trade chocolate resources.
http://www.greenpromise.com/resources/organic-chocolate-suppliers.php
http://transfairusa.org/content/certification/licensees.php?category=Cocoa&include=Everyone&sort=name
For even more (yes, there is more!), type "Fair Trade Chocolate (or Cocoa or Baking Chocolate or Candy or...)" into your favorite search engine. And go recover from your vicarious and ethically produced sugar coma.
Monday, September 20, 2010
The Trick (Chocolate Part 1)
70% of the world's cocoa supply comes from West Africa, particularly Ghana and Cote d'Ivoire. Traditionally, children have always worked alongside their families on the farms, but that practice has turned into a system wherein children are trafficked in to work. Families believe that their sons will have a better life with better pay to send home, but once the children get there, they are at the mercy of their "employers."
The problem that fuels this system of trafficking and slavery is poverty. World cocoa prices are unstable and have been far below production costs over the last decade. Although cocoa prices have gone up a little in the past few years, producers are still in debt from when prices were low. Economic crises have forced farmers to cut their labor costs to survive. They have had to take their children out of school to help on their farms, and other children have been forced to look for work to help support their families, leaving them vulnerable to traffickers. As of 2000, trafficking of persons is not prohibited by Ivorian law.
There are some measures being taken by large candy producers, but they are not nearly effective enough. In 2001, the Chocolate Manufacturers Association and the World Cocoa Foundation signed a voluntary agreement called the Harkin-Engel Protocol. The signing was witnessed by Senators Harkin and Kohl, Representative Engel, the Ambassador of Cote d'Ivoire, and industry representatives. Tulane University was contracted to research and measure progress toward the agreement's objectives. The deadline to end the worst forms of child labor was first extended to 2008, and then to 2020. It does not guarantee an end of child trafficking, adult forced labor, or fair prices for the farmers.
Some candy producers, such as See's Candy, Lindt, and Russell Stover's, insist that they do not use chocolate produced in Cote d'Ivoire. The problem is that by the time the chocolate reaches the United States, the beans picked by hired laborers and the beans picked by slaves have been through warehouses, ships, and trains together, making it impossible to tell for sure where they originated. Other candy producers, such as Hershey's and Mars, belong to the World Cocoa Foundation, but as the Foundation grinds along trying to eradicate the worst forms of child labor, the root of the problem remains, and the producers continue to use and distribute slave-picked chocolate.
Fortunately for chocoholics, ethically produced chocolate is more and more widely available. A good alternative to the huge candy producers' questionable products is chocolate that is Fair Trade Certified. A Fair Trade certification means that purchasers of cocoa (as well as sugar, bananas, tea, coffee, cotton, and many other products) agree to pay at least a minimum set price to the farmers. This enables the farmers to live on the proceeds of their farms, pay their workers enough for the workers to live on, and allow their children to go to school. It also allows the communities to improve, funding hospitals and schools. It can effectively break the cycle of poverty. The cocoa purchasers can label their goods as "Fair Trade Certified," and consumers can enjoy chocolate that does not exploit workers and children. As demand grows, large candy producers are slowly investing more in Fair Trade cocoa. In the UK especially, consumer demand is driving some companies to serious, lasting change. In the meantime, you and I can stop contributing to a system that steals, kills, and destroys.
So that's the bad news. Ready for the good news? In the next post, we'll look at some alternative brands and places to buy ethically produced baking chocolate and candy.
The problem that fuels this system of trafficking and slavery is poverty. World cocoa prices are unstable and have been far below production costs over the last decade. Although cocoa prices have gone up a little in the past few years, producers are still in debt from when prices were low. Economic crises have forced farmers to cut their labor costs to survive. They have had to take their children out of school to help on their farms, and other children have been forced to look for work to help support their families, leaving them vulnerable to traffickers. As of 2000, trafficking of persons is not prohibited by Ivorian law.
There are some measures being taken by large candy producers, but they are not nearly effective enough. In 2001, the Chocolate Manufacturers Association and the World Cocoa Foundation signed a voluntary agreement called the Harkin-Engel Protocol. The signing was witnessed by Senators Harkin and Kohl, Representative Engel, the Ambassador of Cote d'Ivoire, and industry representatives. Tulane University was contracted to research and measure progress toward the agreement's objectives. The deadline to end the worst forms of child labor was first extended to 2008, and then to 2020. It does not guarantee an end of child trafficking, adult forced labor, or fair prices for the farmers.
Some candy producers, such as See's Candy, Lindt, and Russell Stover's, insist that they do not use chocolate produced in Cote d'Ivoire. The problem is that by the time the chocolate reaches the United States, the beans picked by hired laborers and the beans picked by slaves have been through warehouses, ships, and trains together, making it impossible to tell for sure where they originated. Other candy producers, such as Hershey's and Mars, belong to the World Cocoa Foundation, but as the Foundation grinds along trying to eradicate the worst forms of child labor, the root of the problem remains, and the producers continue to use and distribute slave-picked chocolate.
Fortunately for chocoholics, ethically produced chocolate is more and more widely available. A good alternative to the huge candy producers' questionable products is chocolate that is Fair Trade Certified. A Fair Trade certification means that purchasers of cocoa (as well as sugar, bananas, tea, coffee, cotton, and many other products) agree to pay at least a minimum set price to the farmers. This enables the farmers to live on the proceeds of their farms, pay their workers enough for the workers to live on, and allow their children to go to school. It also allows the communities to improve, funding hospitals and schools. It can effectively break the cycle of poverty. The cocoa purchasers can label their goods as "Fair Trade Certified," and consumers can enjoy chocolate that does not exploit workers and children. As demand grows, large candy producers are slowly investing more in Fair Trade cocoa. In the UK especially, consumer demand is driving some companies to serious, lasting change. In the meantime, you and I can stop contributing to a system that steals, kills, and destroys.
So that's the bad news. Ready for the good news? In the next post, we'll look at some alternative brands and places to buy ethically produced baking chocolate and candy.
Saturday, September 18, 2010
The good news is...
Welcome to Looking For Starfish's new blog! Thanks for checking it out, and more importantly, thank you for joining the fight against slavery. Let the people of God act for justice in His power! One of the most frustrating aspects of trying to live judiciously in our culture is that oppression seems to be involved in every purchase we make. It is so clear that our fight is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, authorities, and powers over this present darkness, and evil spiritual forces in the heavenly places. But the good news is that Jesus has come to set the captives free! So we know that when we participate in bringing freedom, we are directly acting in His will, and He is delighted by our smallest efforts. Don't get discouraged, because He will win this fight. This blog will have to talk about some very tragic things periodically, but its primary purpose is to give positive alternatives and practical ways to walk in love and justice. Since Halloween is approaching, we'll discuss ethical chocolate and where to get good trick-or-treating candy in the next post. Come, Lord Jesus, and use us powerfully while we wait for you.
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