Heather Rockwood is a food science junior and Mustang Daily food columnist.
Imagine you have been working all day with the sun’s hot rays burning down on your body. You are exhausted from the manual labor of harvesting food and replanting for next season’s crop. Your back is sore from bending over so much, but the sun is finally setting and you know the end of the day is finally here. You walk over to the line of waiting workers to receive your earnings. What happens when you finally get to the front of the line?
Well, if you are in the United States, you can expect to be rightly rewarded for your hard work, and you expect to receive at least minimum wage for the long hours you put in.
Unfortunately, in this scenario, you are not in the U.S. Actually, you are a resident of a developing country, such as Kenya or the Ivory Coast, and earn less than $2 for all those long hours. This hardly seems fair, but that’s the reality found commonly throughout developing nations, and this is one of the better scenarios. What if the scenario was expanded to the realities faced by some countries? What if you were just a child working such hours? To add to that, you were not only a child, but a trafficked slave far from home and the family you love.
This scenario seems unimaginable to many of us who have grown up so blessed. As Americans, we have the opportunity to walk to the grocery store, obtain food we can immediately consume and choose from five different versions of the same product. We can’t imagine seeing a child work the register at a local grocery market, and almost all of us believe living off a minimum wage salary — $8 per hour — is near impossible for a family.
As Americans, we work hard and demand to be fairly rewarded for our labor, and we are. Although we claim these standards in our lives, the sad reality is that beyond the comfort of our U.S. homes, a vast majority of the rest of the world is facing a starkly different reality — and we, however unknowingly or unintentionally, have contributed to the painful reality of so many others.
Sixty percent of the world lives on less than $2 a day. Since globalization, the world of food has been greatly altered. In an effort to provide more foods in all seasons and to gain larger profits, many American companies outsource labor to developing nations across the globe. This new shift posed a possibility of benefit not only for American companies, but also the potential benefit of opportunity for developing nations to become a part of the global society. Sadly, this opportunity became more like a curse for hundreds of thousands of small farmers and producers.
Instead of taking a step further in development and progress, many producers were victimized, stripped of rights and protection, left defenseless against the powerful government-backed companies that came into their countries, and thus scenarios like the one described above became the result of the once hopeful opportunity.
But the reality of this scenario does not have to remain — there is gleaming hope once again for change and the rebirth of the original opportunity posed by global trade. As students and consumers receiving education and information on the injustices occurring around the world, we have the opportunity to make a difference for so many who have lost their voice in the clamor of an unfair system. Fair Trade is a social movement not only committed to raising awareness of the unfair realities in the global food trade, but a market-based movement that takes action to change the current situation. While focusing on numerous facets of global trade, the Fair Trade movement’s overarching goal is to offer disadvantaged producers fair prices, to secure rights for marginalized producers and to contribute to sustainable development.
By purchasing products marked with certified Fair Trade logos, consumers are guaranteed that they are battling against the current injustices involved with global trade, and fighting for the promotion of producers in developing nations being justly compensated and being able to work in safe and healthy working environments.
Next week begins Cal Poly’s Fair Trade Week, and I encourage you to take a closer look at what it means for you individually and for the thousands of marginalized farmers to support and promote the Fair Trade movement. We all eat, and thankfully we can use the way we purchase our food to help impact a greater change for good. And I think you’ll be surprised with just how many people are becoming conscious of the present situation and are making the ethical choice to support the Fair Trade movement.
Instead of the usual weekly recipe, I’ve included some local places that sell fair trade and products that are fair trade certified:
– Santa Cruz Organic Juice
– Sweet Earth Organic Chocolate
– Dole Food Company (pineapples and bananas)
– Trader Joe’s Honey
– Black Horse Espresso and Bakery
– Higher Groundz
– Nautical Bean
– Linnaea’s Café
– Kreuzberg, Ca
HINT: This food originated in Latin America, and was used as currency in parts of Latin America until the 19th century. It was also used in many religious rituals of the ancient Mayan people.