by Michael Smith (Veshengro)
For those of us who socially conscious shoppers, heading to the grocery store can often seem like a daunting task.
How do you know that what you're buying is not the direct product of shady labor practices, exploitation, or even worse, forced child labor and slavery?
But there are a number of ways that you can make sure that your grocery bag does not contain slavery-made goods.
I must say that I am not a friend of shopping, grocery or other, unless I am on a market, such as a daily or weekly one or a farmer's market, but still I want to know that my purchases are slavery-free and such.
Here are a couple of items at a grocery store to pay special attention to if you are looking to shop slavery-free.
(1) Coffee: Coffee may just about be the most famous food product for having a high incidence of slavery involved in its production. Luckily, noways, most grocery stores carry Fair Trade and ethically-produced brands of coffee which are a better choice for workers, and some of those, such as the FFI Fair Instant Granules sold, for instance, via Sainsbury's in the UK, where 20p from the purchase of every 100g jar goes to the “Save the Children” charity, are even cheaper than the likes of Nescafe Gold. So I rather buy the FFI one.
(2) Chocolate: As more and more chocolate companies begin to introduce greater responsibility into their production, finding slave-free chocolate is getting easier. However, the candy isle at the grocery store is still covered with chocolate from companies like Hershey and Nestle who have no supply chain transparency. So, when looking for chocolate look for the Fair Trade brands or, if in the UK, go to the Co-Op for chocolate.
(3) Tea: Like coffee, the tea industry has seen a lot of slavery, and because tea is the most popular beverage in the world, the profits from exploiting tea growers and harvesters are high. Many teas now are coming out with better labels indicating how they were produced. In the UK all teas under the Sainsbury's own label are now Fair Trade and the quality of those, to an ardent tea drinker like myself, are all very good. Why pay over the odds for Fair Trade when you can get Fair Trade under a supermarket own label. The same is true for all bananas sold by Sainbury's in the UK, including their Basics own label.
(4) Sugar:The slavery on sugar cane plantations in the Caribbean never quite went away. Slaves grow and harvest sugar in Caribbean, Africa, and Central America. Some grocery stores may carry Fair Trade or ethically-sourced sugar, but you might have to seek out a specialty store in some areas.
Remember, slavery can be found in any industry, but these are a few of the common offenders, when it comes to grocery shopping.
Other goods also can be and are being produced by slave labor, such as, and especially, carpets, especially in places such as India, Pakistan and Afghanistan.
There are also slave labor condition on many farms and estates in many countries producing this or that crop. We need to have a much closer check on all industries in order to ensure that slave labor is not being used.
In the clothing industry the so-called sweatshop labor is nothing else but slavery and often involves small children being forced to do the work for a pittance often for more hours a day that any of us adults would even wish to work for whatever good salary and overtime pay.
Knowing where to look for slavery is the first step toward being a conscious consumer of slave-free goods. It does take some effort though.
Ethical shopping, obviously, goes further than just looking to buy slavery-free. We also must look at other conditions, whether it be the way livestock is being reared for food, how fish is caught and processed or whatever.
© 2009
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