Administered by:
Ethically sourced goods with Fair Trade labels may cost more, but they help ensure better conditions for farmers in impoverished countries. And that’s important, considering how many things, like sugar and chocolate, are farmed.
I like to cultivate the attitude that, if I can’t afford something without relying on post-imperialist systems of exploitation, then I can’t afford it at all.
Chocolate is a particularly egregious example. The farmers in Ghana and Côté d’Ivoire are paid nearly nothing for all of their hard work, and many have never even tasted the chocolate which their labour produces. It’s not much better than slavery, and it’s all for a luxury. I think it’s worth paying a couple more euros for a bar of chocolate if it helps to change that.
Since that one iOS update, autocorrect has been so weird for me. Why would it put that é in Côte d’Ivoire? Pretty sure it’s deliberately trying to make me look like a clown.
I forgot to mention, there's an organisation called Slave Free Chocolate, founded in 2007. They aim to make people aware of child slavery in West African chocolate farms and work to eradicate it. They also keep a list of ethical companies so you can help support the farmers and avoid any exploitative corporations.
@InvaderXan growing these crops in passively heated greenhouses is also something that can be done in temperate climates. i've seen bananas and plantains growing outdoors in oregon even. we grow cacao and sugar cane here on the farm and make roasted cacao nibs sometimes
@InvaderXan or another thing you can do if you have the space is keep the trees potted and then bring them inside when there might be a frost
@InvaderXan Because Côté is a french word meaning "side"? x)
@InvaderXan it's probably a language detection thingy imo
@furkachi Ouais, je sais, mais ce n'est pas le bon mot. Autocorrect does this to me in more than one language!
@InvaderXan I mean, in my experience, polyglot auto-correct has always been derpy tbh
It is weird that it'd be in the recent update that it got worse tho
@InvaderXan agreed. I like to think of this as not allowing the supply chain to externalize its costs to the marginalized
If you're not willing to bear the full costs of the goods you buy, then you can't really afford it
(With the usual caveats around necessity items you couldn't otherwise afford)
@Calcifer @puffinus_puffinus True, it's harder to avoid if you're poor and you need clothes, for example. But for anyone who can afford to make a choice, buying something from an unethical source just because it's cheaper is being complicit in exploitation. I think there are still people who don't realise this. Or worse, who don't care.
@InvaderXan oh absolutely, that was the main thrust. When one willingly buy something that externalizes its costs to the poor or marginalized, one participating in and benefitting by that exploitation
The only difference between willing consumers and the suits that are enriching themselves this way is one of scale
I just think it’s important to remember the “willing” part, to avoid unfairly judging those that can’t make a meaningful choice
@InvaderXan
The price is just a "proper " price. Indeed we take for granted the fact that we can buy cheap chocolate, coffee, even exotic fruits. But as for many products, that's only because the producers earn nothing. We must reconsider what is a price, and how we want to spend our money.
" We must reconsider what is a price, and how we want to spend our money." - is right!
I usually think of it as "if you pay a too-low price for something, the part you didn't pay is instead causing problems for a worker, a community, an ecosystem, or all of the above."
When corners are cut , someone or something has to pay the cost.
@wednesday
Exactly, that's the point. Once you become conscious of this, you start reconsidering your every Day shopping. For instance, I'm very far to be rich but coffee, tea, sugar or chocolate we almost always buy from fair trade.