Coffee Slavery
- Child labour is a major part in the production of coffee beans in Guatemala, Columbia and the Ivory Coast.
- Even if child labour is not the main labour, workers are exploited by the coffee farm owners sometimes receiving only 1% of what their bosses receive. In some Guatemalan coffee farms, workers have to produce 100 pounds of coffee before being paid $3, in three days.
- With commercial coffee machines pumping out cups of coffee at such a massive rate, the appropriate infrastructure must be in place to feed them. Most coffee plantations are located in less developed areas with Brazil and the Ivory Coast being notable providers.
- The large coffee corporations pay the plantation owners somewhere in the region of $10,000 for a harvest. This same harvest will go on to sell for nearly $75,000 in the west – a 750% return on investment. The constant underpaying of plantation owners has increasingly encouraged more and more inhumane tactics to try and make enlargement.
- Farmers, unable to turn a profit in recent years, have refused to pay their labourers, and instead kept them working without pay through beatings, intimidation and threats of death.
Conditions
- Much of the labour is bonded labour. With few resources to meet daily needs, and no alternative sources of credit available, parents are often forced to pledge their children’s labour as payment or collateral on a debt. While parents may assume their children will be able to repay the debt out of future earnings, a combination of low wages and high interest rates often make repayment impossible and the child becomes bonded indefinitely.
- Children ranging from the ages of 7-16 work long hours which sometime add up to 80 hours a week – forced to carry heavy loads and working with dangerous tools like machetes.
- When children fail the expectations of the farm owners, they are often beat with bicycle chains and whips.
- Coffee kids pick the coffee by hand and are exposed to toxic chemicals and pesticides that are harmful to their health and the environment.
The circumstances and conditions described above are ones which you wouldn't wish even on your greatest enemy. We are all humans and deserve our human rights. Who's fighting for these people and their rights? Or is this becoming one of those harsh realities which is deeply painful to watch yet YOU - as an individual - don't take a stand and object. I hope not. I encourage every person reading this to get involved and try make a change in this world. One act of kindness at a time. We can be the difference.
Please leave your comments below.
Please leave your comments below.
Look at the end of the day a blogpost about slavery won't solve anything.
ReplyDeleteYou should already be aware that other things happen in our World today that cause a lot of problems.
What can we possibly do from where we are?
at the end of the day the reality is whether there is slavery in coffee or not, people will still drink it and they really won't change anything or try to help.
When you think about it, most people have heard worse things on the news and in commercials about things happening to kids and yet they fail to do something about it. So then what makes you think that this coffee slavery issue is any different?
At the end of the day, for me, the change in a country has to come within that country, we can only do so much as people living so far away. When we donate to the people over there we don't actually know where our money is going, when we protest here is that going to make the kids working hard feel better? and finally when we post stuff about these issues in the world, online and in social media, will that really solve anything?
I don't mean to put your post down and I know what you're doing is good, you care and you want to see some change in this world, for the better, but at the end of the day, unless the people of these countries fight for their rights, no one else can help give it to them.
But i guess that's just my opinion.
Wow! Who would have thought our morning ritual of drinking a cup of coffee, meant that children in Guatemala went through so much pain and misery to get. These stats are absolutely staggering, this piece truly shows us that this is becoming a growing issue in today's society that is slowly starting to resemble that of sweat shops, where children are being forced to work. Unfortunately its hard for changes to be made in countries with such poverty. People need to be made aware of these issues. i definitely will be thinking twice before I purchase coffee that isn't fair trade.
ReplyDeleteTalk about two differing opinions...
ReplyDeleteIn regards to Bavly's comment, I totally understand your perspective and agree with you that writing blogs and even raising awareness to some extent don't achieve much ALONE.
However, when you raise publicity and passion for a specific cause and create tribes who will follow your lead, you can then take matters further. We are not suggesting to do so alone.
That's why we've chosen the organisation 'Free the Slaves' who we will be donating 40% of our annual profits in helping them with the fight to abolish slave labour. Currently, Free the Slaves are a founding member of the 'Alliance to end Slavery and Trafficking' (ATEST) which is a coalition of diverse US-based organisations advocating for an end to trafficking and slavery worldwide.
So in conclusion Bavly, I semi-agree with you but there definitely needs to be a lot of work done on governments in affected countries first and foremost to enforce existing/rally for new laws if necessary.
Ruth, I totally agree with you. I had no idea of the extent of the effect that my morning coffee could be having and that was a wake up call. You're right, it is definitely hard to make changes in these countries but that's why governments need to get involved and serious penalties and enforcement procedures have to be applied.
Thank you for your feedback!
Thanks for uploading this blog. I had no idea this was happening in some countries for something as simple as coffee. I won't be able to stop drinking coffee but it will make me drink less of it and maybe have a cup of tea instead. Thanks for the eye opening blog post.
ReplyDeleteCreating awareness is the start to putting an end to child slavery and labour. I have watched a documentary where top CEO of big companies are challenged to physically work in plantations or manufacturers and experience what the labourers go though and through this most of them end up changing the strategy of their organisation. They say the fish smells from the head first, coming up with means that target the top officials of organisations could be a great move to end childhood labour.
ReplyDeleteYou're most welcome Kristina :) it really is a harsh reality...and you don't have to stop drinking coffee; that's not the point. It makes a bigger impact if you take a stand to not purchase coffee unless it is sourced and harvested fairly and slavery-free.
ReplyDeletePeter you're right - targeting top officials is definitely the ideal way of achieving great results. However, currently, there is not enough man power behind the fight to end slavery and child labour. Freedom cups and so many other organisations are working towards raising more awareness and creating bigger tribes behind this fight. Once this is achieved, then I presume we reach for the sky...