Fair Trade Part 1: Structural Adjustment Programs

Over the next few days, I’ll be talking about some different factors that make Fair Trade an important part of dealing with poverty in the developing world. In order to spare you guys a very lengthy post, I’m splitting the discussion into three sections: Structural Adjustment Programs, Free Trade Zones and sweat shop labor and finally a bit of a discussion on why Fair Trade makes sense to me. I’ll also share some of the sources that have influenced my thinking. Here we go-

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In discussing poverty in developing countries, it’s helpful to understand some of the structural challenges that these countries have to deal with. Why can’t they seem to get their heads above water? Why do they stay in debt? Where is their innovation?

Many (if not most) of these developing countries are post-colonial. When countries come out from under colonial rule, they have to create their own infrastructure. They need capital. Who do you go to for a loan? The International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.

Structural Adjustment Programs are stipulations that developing countries have to agree to in order to take a loan out from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank. Countries also may agree to Structural Adjustment Programs in order to negotiate a lower interest rate on existing debt. As I understand it, the overall goal of Structural Adjustment Programs is to force countries taking loans out to be more market oriented. The hope is that these parameters will help the country to focus on production and trade, thus making the economy stronger. Sounds good so far, right?

So, what are the programs? One is the removal of trade restrictions. The IMF and World Bank defend this policy by saying that citizens of developing countries should have the right to buy whatever product they want. They should be able to buy imported goods. The problem is that when there is a lack of trade restrictions, cheap goods are imported, which can hurt the local economy. An example is milk in Jamaica. When Jamaica’s Structural Adjustment Programs were enacted and trade opened to cheap milk, it decimated the local milk industry. Jamaica could import powdered milk from the UK for much cheaper than they could sell their local milk. So, instead of Jamaicans drinking fresh Jamaican milk, they drank reconstituted powdered milk. Jamaica didn’t benefit from this- the UK did. Jamaicans got a sub-standard product, and it decimated their local milk industry, putting Jamaican dairy farmers out of business. The same thing happened with farming. Structural Adjustment Programs had the unintended consequence of decimating local agriculture. Structural Adjustment Programs may have lowered food prices, but they also contributed to unemployment.

Structural Adjustment Programs also require austerity programs when the country is having difficulty paying off their debt. Loan funds cannot be spent on healthcare or education, which is truly problematic. In Kenya, because of Structural Adjustment Programs, education is not provided by the government after elementary school. So, families have to pay for their children to go to high school. In Kenyan society, males are highly valued. Young girls are viewed as an asset to their future husband’s families. If you come from a poor Kenyan family and you have to choose which child you are going to educate, it would be viewed as foolish to choose your daughter. Thus, many young girls’ only options are to go into the menial work force or to enter early marriages. They have no hope for a better future. A society suffers when its women are uneducated. Click here if you’re interested in reading some of the statistics from the UN about the status of women globally. Education empowers. Women who are uneducated are more vulnerable; and they have very limited choices. Gender discrimination in education is an unintended consequence of Structural Adjustment Programs throughout the developing world. Per the UN website, “women account for nearly two-thirds of the 776 million illiterate adults in the world”. I’m not blaming the IMF and the World Bank’s Structural Adjustment Programs for world-wide gender discrimination in education- but they are certainly a significant contributor to the problem.

It seems to me (and to many others) that if you are trying to boost your economy, taking money out of education would be a last resort. To be fair, these austerity programs probably are a last resort. But, the IMF and the World Bank are not helping the population that they’re meant to help. Indeed, their austerity programs seem to contribute to keeping the poor in poverty.

To read the other two part in this series, please click on the links below:

 

Fair Trade Part 2:  Free Trade Zones and Sweat Shops

Fair Trade Part 3:  Why Fair Trade?

The Tension of Telling our Fair Trade Story

 

To say that I had a freak-out yesterday would be a gross understatement.

I put out HELP! text to my sister and a dear friend to request prayer.  I desperately needed clarity and wisdom.  Thank goodness for people who love me and want to be in this with me.

So, why the freak out?  I’m writing a booklet.  Trying to tell the story of the people who make our soap ingredients.  Trying to tell the story of how sustainable work transforms people’s lives.  Trying to tell the story about how people become less vulnerable when they have an ongoing income.  How fraud is an integral part of most trafficking.  It’s getting a loan for medical care that you don’t realize you will never ever be able to repay.  It’s saying yes to the person who is offering to educate your daughter in the city.  It’s letting your daughter go to the city to work in a friend’s friends restaurant because you can’t afford food and school fees.  This fraud is the backbone of how so many traffickers operate.  Our soap is about slow hope.  It’s not charity that gives the poor a hand-out today.  It’s development that provides a sustainable job, which brings hope and dignity over time.  It’s the fact that when you can afford to feed and educate your child, you don’t need to believe the traffickers.  You don’t need your daughter to go to the city for an education if you are already feeding her and paying her school fees yourself.

Discipleship sits right in the middle of our business.  Stewarding our business and telling our story well.  There’s the diligence of bringing every resource that we have to the table.  It’s listening to the hard critique (for which I’m incredibly grateful) and leaning into how I can better articulate what we’re doing.  But, after we bring every resource that we have into doing the very best job that we can do, there’s relinquishing the result.

Because I’m stepping into a story that I didn’t write.  Way, way, long back, there was a crack in the Fall of humanity.  As still happens today, it was rooted in deception, lies and finger-pointing.  And since that brutal Fall, God has been at work using His people to make it right.  We are His plan for redemption.  And that’s the genesis of so many redemptive stories.  From Moses to William Wilberforce to Harriet Tubman to Gandhi, God uses people to bring redemption to the world.  So, yes, I need to tell the story in the very best way that I can.  I need to connect the dots for people.  But, in the end, the story of our company is just a subplot in God’s much bigger redemptive story.  Which helps me breathe and remember that the story is way bigger than I am.

So, I’ll tell the beginning of that story with the knowledge that it’s my best shot today, and then I would love to talk with you.  I would love to hear from you about the parts that aren’t hanging together.  Because I want to do the people involved in this story justice.

 

Fair Trade Chocolate Ghee

It’s sin in a spoon.

We used to buy chocolate ghee from Real Food Bay Area.  We wanted to see if we could make it ourselves, so we tried it this morning.

So, so yummy.  Think of nutella, only better.  It has no hydrogenated anything, and the chocolate is Fair Trade.  The ingredients are incredibly simple.

Organic Butter- 1 c (2 sticks)

Organic Fair Trade Chocolate Chips- 1 c (I used 42% cacao- I think it would be even better with a higher percentage of cacao).

Place the butter in the pan.  Heat it gently.  Little by little, the milk solids will separate from the butter fat.  Skim off the milk solids as they bubble to the top.  Eventually the fat will separate from the milk solids (the white part).

Measure the chocolate chips into a pan.  When you have the ghee (clarified butter fat) all separated, pour it over the chocolate chips.  Stir as the chocolate chips melt.  You may need to turn on the heat a bit for the chocolate chips to melt completely.  Watch the pan very closely- you don’t want it to burn.

When the chocolate chips are completely melted and the ghee and chocolate are well mixed, pour the chocolate ghee into a small jar or a ramekin.  Let it harden in the fridge, the cover.  Ghee is very stable in the fridge.  This mix will keep for at least a couple of months.

Chocolate ghee is super yummy on toast.

Mata Traders

The recent garment factory tragedy in Bangladesh has taken me out.  The most recent death toll was at 1,127.  Staggering.

The tragedy has left many wondering about the power of their consumption.  Who do you vote for with your wallet?

In large part because consumers are asking these questions, big players in the market are starting to move toward a more ethical supply chain.  Which is a good thing.

I want to leave room for big players like Gap and Nordstrom to come to the table.  I want to leave ethical/spiritual room for those who previously may have been solely profit-motivated to begin to factor in the human and environmental impact of their supply chain.  For now, though, (when possible) my financial vote is for ethical companies who have been doing the right thing all along.  Companies like Mata Traders.

Mata Traders is a wonderful clothing and jewelry company.  They’re members of the Fair Trade Federation, and their mission is “to work with organizations that educate, employ, and empower women.”  Their organization is wonderful, and they have really cute clothing.  Here are two of their best sellers:

This is the Jin Jin Ruffle Dress in red.

Here is the Shibuya Street Dress.

Next time you’re in the market for women’s clothing or jewelry, take a look at the Mata Traders website.  Super cute and super ethical.

I would love to hear from readers who purchase from other ethical clothing companies.

Fair Trade Federation Conference

I’m off to Seattle today to go to the Fair Trade Federation Conference. Click here if you’re curious about what I’ll be doing. This event truly is like drinking from a fire hydrant. I learned as much at this conference last year as I could have learned on my own in probably six months to a year. It promises to be a time of wonderful learning, along with connecting with others who are passionate about poverty alleviation. So many knowledgeable people who have been a part of the Fair Trade movement for many, many years. I’m also looking forward to seeing and visiting with three of Frustrated Farmgirl’s vendors.

I have so much to catch you up on. I’m looking forward to sharing with you what we’ve been up to.

Fair Trade Marketplace

Menlo Park Presbyterian Church has opened a temporary Fair Trade store for the holiday season, and I wanted to let you in on it.  We are located at 846 Santa Cruz Avenue in Menlo Park. The church is partnering with two Fair Trade organizations: Trade as One and Heavenly Treasures. Our primary goals include the alleviation of poverty for the poorest for the poor and the prevention of human trafficking. If you live in the Bay Area and still have holiday gifts to buy, we would love to see you! You can read about the store here.

Marigold Fair Trade

I bought a fabulous table cloth and napkins over the weekend from Trade as One. As some of you know, I’m on a bit of a minimalist journey, trying to simplify our possessions to only those items that we love. Items that will be well-used. I was a bit skeptical about these linens. LOVE the colors, but I was afraid that the pigments would bleed. I was concerned that the red and blue napkins would soon be purple. So, the first thing I did was to soak my new linens in a solution of water, vinegar and salt to try my best to set the colors. What I was surprised by was the fact that I didn’t really even need to do this. In my 24 hours of soaking the fabric, the water wasn’t even pink.

Marigold Fair Trade sells goods from a women’s cooperative in Mumbai. A way out of poverty for the poorest of the poor. Half of the population of Mumbai lives in the slums. Marigold provides these women with training so that they’ll have a marketable skill as an embroiderer or a seamstresses. They also have other businesses, such as Asli Foods, which serves lunches to local offices.

I was so impressed by the look and feel of these linens that I wanted to share them with you. Above, you can see the pictures from Trade as One. I’m picky about my linens. As some of you know, I have sensory issues. We only use cloth napkins in our house, so they see a lot of use. A couple of years ago, I purchased some napkins on-line. When I got them, even though they were cotton, they were rough and scratchy. They also had some sort of coating on them that gave them a strong chemical smell. Took at least ten washes to get the nasty smelling stuff off them, and none of us ever liked using them. After holding on to them for a couple of years, I finally got rid of them as part of our preparation for the move. Now, we have wonderful new organic cotton napkins. I love using them. They’re soft and beautiful. As I look at them each time we eat, I think about the women who made them. It reminds me to be thankful for each meal. Reminds me that there are people around the world who aren’t able to sit down to a meal with their family. Renews my commitment to action.

I think that one of the barriers to people buying Fair Trade items is that many of the items look like what you would get at World Bazaar. Makes you think about a hookah and the smell of incense. The more that I immerse myself in the world of Fair Trade, the more I’m discovering some very high quality products. In fact, this is one of the things that Nathan George at Trade as One is committed to. Items that are high quality and that you will actually use.

I would encourage you to check out Marigold. They have some very cute clothing. The next time that I buy something new to wear, they will be a prime place that I will shop. And if the quality of the table cloth and napkins that I purchased is indicative of all of their products, then you’re in for a treat.

Fair Trade Part 3: Why Fair Trade?

Over the last two days, I’ve discussed here and here some of the structural economic challenges in the developing world. Today, I want to talk about why I think that Fair Trade is a helpful solution in dealing with poverty in the developing world. This post only makes sense in the context of the previous two blog entries.

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So, we have an uneducated (or under-educated) population. Significant unemployment (outside of Free Trade Zones and sweat shops). Struggling healthcare. Environmental injustices. Your best options have you living well below the poverty level.

The developed world often approaches the developing world as a problem to be solved- we come in with our ideas about how they need to be fixed. Here’s the thing: it’s not that people in developing countries don’t have great ideas about how to solve their own problems. They do. They have smart people just like we do. They’re just working with both hands tied behind their backs. It’s really, really hard to get ahead as an individual and as a country if you have poor healthcare and poor education. They are smart. They have ideas. We need to listen to them. Find out what they need. Support them as they solve their own problems. I’m not being glib- there are many obstacles, to be sure. Brain drain (where the best and the brightest move to the west for education- and then wind up staying there) and corruption are issues that have to be addressed. But, we can’t give up.

We need to be thinking about what we can do to support innovation in the developing world. What can we do to support them as they create their own industry? As people in the developing world create their own industry, I’m hopeful that we’ll see some real solutions to poverty. Job creation. Hopefully more resources for education. Improved healthcare.

I think that Fair Trade is a part of this. Supplying a market for goods made in the developing world. Pay them a wage that they can live on. It’s a win/win for the producer and the consumer. Frankly, if you go into your local big box store and buy an item of clothing, unless it has a union tag on it, it’s really hard to know if it was made in a way that exploited neither a human nor the environment. If you buy an item that is fairly traded, you can be sure that everyone from the person who extracted the raw ingredients to the person who crafted the item was fairly compensated. It’s not without its problems, but I think that it’s a step in the right direction.

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So, what and who has influenced my thinking surrounding development and Fair Trade?

Probably the first person I need to mention is my friend Wanjiru Kamau-Rutenberg, who is a Political Science professor at the University of San Francisco. We’ve had lots of conversations on our morning walks surrounding the issues that I’ve been discussing over the last few days. I remember quite well our pre-dawn conversation where she introduced me to structural adjustments. It was in the context of explaining the need for the non-profit Akili Dada that she founded and runs. Akili Dada was founded in large part to address the educational inequities which were exacerbated by Structural Adjustment Programs in Kenya.

I’ve mentioned Life and Debt before. But, it’s a documentary worth seeing. While the negative tone towards tourists has irritated some reviewers, I think that the documentary is worth your time. Stephanie Black does a great job of illuminating the economic, social and political climate in Jamaica.

Wikipedia is my friend. And, it’s been very helpful for me in understanding more about a lot of things- including economic challenges in the developing world. I love the transparency and the open format. Indeed, the open source format lends wikipedia credibility (multiple authors and peer review are a part of the package).

I’ve also been influenced by Annie Leonard’s book The Story of Stuff. You may have seen her viral internet video from a while back. Her book hashes out her arguments in much greater detail.

Bill McKibben’s books have also influenced my thinking on consumption and stuff. The books Hundred Dollar Holiday and Eaarth have been both helpful and informative. As I write, Deep Economy is waiting to be read on my bed side table.

I also want to mention some new friends.

Click here if you want to read about the story behind Trade as One, which was started by Nathan and Catherine George. They are already doing what my husband and I are hoping to do.

Also, Todd Johnson is thoughtfully blogging about economic development in Ethiopia on his Business For Good blog.

 

To read the other two articles in this series, please click on the links below:

Fair Trade Part 1:  Structural Adjustment Programs

Fair Trade Part 2:  Free Trade Zones and Sweat Shops

 

Fair Trade Part 2: Free Trade Zones and Sweat Shops

This is the second part of a discussion on economic challenges in the developing world- and some hopeful alternatives. I wrote about Structural Adjustment Programs yesterday. Click here if you want to read that post.

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Free Trade Zones and sweat shop labor are two other challenges in developing countries. Free Trade Zones are meant to help developing countries, but they are problematic. Wikipedia defines Free Trade Zones as “labor intensive manufacturing centers that involve the import of raw materials or components and the export of factory products”. Most Free Trade Zones are located in developing countries. Free Trade Zones are areas that are designated for the production of goods. Trade barriers have been lowered in these areas in the hope of attracting business. Globally, as of 2003, Free Trade Zones employed 43 million people in 116 countries. Wikipedia says that “usually, these zones are set up in underdeveloped parts of the host country; the rationale is that the zones will attract employers and thus reduce poverty and unemployment, and stimulate the area’s economy. These zones are often used by multinational corporations to set up factories to produce goods (such as clothing or shoes).” Sounds like a good thing, doesn’t it? More jobs?

In the documentary Life and Debt, Stephanie Black discussed some of the problems with Free Trade Zones. Because Free Trade Zones are not technically a part of the host country, the workers have no representation. When companies don’t pay their workers fairly, the workers have no recourse. They have neither a union nor a country to protect them- they have no voice. Also, of the 43 million people that are employed in Free Trade Zones, many of these people don’t make a living wage. There have also been reports of workers having their pay withheld unless very high quotas are met. Nike, Osh Kosh and Eddie Bauer are notorious for their presence in Free Trade Zones.

I couldn’t confirm whether Disney has a presence in Free Trade Zones or not, but I am comfortable with identifying them as a company that uses sweat shop labor. Per Annie Leonard’s The Story of Stuff, as of 2009, many workers in their Port au Prince manufacturing plant have been fighting for well over 15 years to get minimum wage. Minimum wage in Haiti is $15 a week– that’s six days a week- 8 hour days. Less than 35 cents an hour. Just like what has been reported in Free Trade Zones, many of the workers in Disney’s Haitian factory reported that they had to make a certain quota in order to be paid minimum wage. Again, Annie Leonard: “even with the horrible working conditions and starvation wages . . . women feared losing their jobs, because they had no other opportunities”. This is something that I want to do something about- this lack of opportunity. It’s just not right for sweat shop labor to be a worker’s best choice- for 35 cents an hour to be your best bet.

It’s worth mentioning that many companies in the United States have moved their production to developing countries in order to avoid the environmental regulations that we have in the US (and, of course, to pay the workers less). Developing countries want companies to set up shop in order to bring in jobs. Indeed, cheap labor and lax environmental regulations are two factors that are a big draw to multinational corporations. Unfortunately, this often means that host countries are left with an environmental mess on their hands. Sadly, there have been cases where it hasn’t just been an environmental mess- but instead an outright disaster. Read here about the Union Carbide disaster that occurred in Bhopal, India.

Playing the devil’s advocate, you could say that countries know about these draw backs on the front end. My point here is that just because a multinational company can get away with something doesn’t mean that they should. As consumers we have a choice each time we make a purchase. And I’m hopeful that we can participate in meaningful development that will give workers a more hopeful future than being sweat shop laborers. Development that will give consumers high quality products and workers in the developing world a wage that they can actually live on.

 

To read the other two parts of this series, please click on the links below:

 

Fair Trade Part 1:  Structural Adjustment Programs

Fair Trade Part 3:  Why Fair Trade?

Why Your Halloween Candy Matters

This is a re-post from several years ago.  With Halloween coming up, I wanted to re-visit child slavery in the chocolate supply chain.  It remains to be a problem.  It is possible to get slave-free chocolate by either buying organic or fair trade chocolate.  Equal Exchange makes yummy trick-or-treat chocolate that you can purchase here.  Or, just don’t buy chocolate.  With that, I hope you find this article helpful.  I also recommend The Dark Side of Chocolate, which you can watch here. 

I’ve been putting this post off for a long time.  Truthfully, it’s a bit overwhelming.  The subject matter is overwhelming, as is the amount of information that is available.  So, instead of writing a dissertation (I know you’ll thank me), I decided to give you just the information that you need to make better purchasing choices.

It’s horrific.  The whole thing.  Chocolate is one of the dirtiest foods that we consume in terms of human cost.

Forty-three percent of the chocolate on the open market is touched by child slavery.  Ivory Coast is known for its chocolate.  It’s a heavy producer, and the cocoa beans are known for being very high quality.  Sadly, many children are trafficked to Ivory Coast (often from Mali, Benin, Burkina Faso and  Togo) and then kept as slaves picking and processing cocoa beans.  According to Wikipedia, they are lured by promises of  “paid work, housing and education”.  I don’t want to inundate you with horrific stories just for the shock value.  I’ll just mention a few key facts.  Children (mostly aged 12-16)  are forced to work up to 100 hour weeks.  When they don’t work hard enough, they are beaten.  To quote one child, “the beatings were a part of my life”.  Children as young as 11 years old are forced to carry heavy bags of cocoa beans, often resulting in sores all over their shoulders.  I’ve read several different sources that stated that there were more than 15,000 child slaves in Ivory Coast working in cocoa  production.  Another common statistic that I’ve read is that there are 200,000 child laborers in Ivory Coast.

According to Wikipedia, “the major chocolate producers such as Nestle buy cocoa at commodities exchanges where Ivorian cocoa is mixed with other cocoa.”  When asked about slavery in their supply chain, they claim that they can’t control the cocoa beans that come into the commodities market.   My heart pounds when I think about this.  It makes me so angry- because it’s a cop out.  The product that they’re selling is profitable, and they are choosing to look the other way. There was lip service given when many of the chocolate manufacturers signed the Harkin-Engel protocol in 2001, which aimed at ending the worst of the abuses. But, no substantive changes have come to date. Many deadlines have been missed. The industry, as a whole, doesn’t seem to be very serious about implementing the protocol. According to Media Freedom International as of October 2010, Hershey’s “still has no certification system in place whatsoever to ensure that its cocoa isn’t tainted by labor rights abuses”.

What you need to know is that it is possible to get chocolate that is cruelty-free.

The two categories of chocolate that are considered to be slavery-free are Fair Trade and Organic.  According to chocolatework.com, chocolate companies who buy from Fair Trade collectives pay prices that bring a living wage to workers, plus money that goes back to the collective.  Often, the monies that go back to collectives are used for education and/or healthcare.  “Because organic farms are subject to an independent monitoring system that checks labor practices, organic chocolate is also considered slave free”.

This is an area where, as consumers, we can have an impact.  First, we can stop supporting companies that aren’t serious about ending slavery in their supply chains.  Then, we can choose to support companies that are serious about making ethical chocolate.  Organic and Fair Trade chocolates are more expensive, to be sure.  For our family, it’s worth it.  We eat less chocolate.  But, when we eat it, we can be sure that it’s cruelty-free.  In the next few days, I’ll be telling you about two chocolate companies that I recommend.

Image by Kirti Poddar via flickr used under a Creative Commons
license.