A child harvests coffee beans in Honduras' El Paraiso region. Honduras, a country that hopes to become the the leading coffee exporter in Central America, does not regulate child labor.
I don’t know about you, but in the morning the first thing I do after hitting snooze a few times is start to dream about my first cup of coffee. I jump from the bed all energized thinking about the aroma of that hot cup of dark wonder… as if I can already smell it. However, as soon as I get downstairs I find my energy suddenly gone and there is only one cure to make me whole again: that is my first cup of coffee. That essential first cup is the thing to get my now heavy feet moving, turning me from the bleary eyed slug into a human.
If you’re anything like me then you cannot live without one of the world’s most traded commodities. However, for me each sip comes with a secondary level of comfort, as I know that my ‘life’s water’ is slave and child labor free- for I drink nothing less than organic fair trade coffee. Yes, it may cost me a bit more, but it’s a small price to pay when I think of the 27 million men, women and children that are held by the chains of modern slavery. My friends even have a running joke that with the amount of coffee I drink I could support a whole fair trade coffee co-op by myself. The joke makes me smile as I know I really am making an impact, and to be honest, fair trade also tastes better than any regular old cup of Joe.
Why should you drink fair trade coffee?
Child labor and slavery continue to plague the coffee industry, often forcing children to harvest what will soon become that inexpensive cup of Joe you sip on as you trudge through the day. Child labor in the agricultural industry consists of children being bought and sold as slaves or bonded laborers, and as migrant or estate workers (usually with their families). Many children work for commercial farms and plantations that produce our commodities and are estimated to comprise 7-12% of the work force. In addition to coffee, children are often found as laborers in the harvest of commodities such as: cocoa, coconuts, cotton, fruit and vegetables, jasmine, palm oil, rubber, sisal, sugar cane, tea, tobacco, and vanilla.
According to the ILO, over 132 million children aged 5-14 years old work in agriculture around the world; however they are only half of an the estimated 246 million child laborers around the globe. UNICEF estimates that some 200,000 children are victims of trafficking each year in West and Central Africa alone, for the purpose of working in the supply chain for products such as cocoa and coffee. Global March Against Child Labor estimates that one in every eight children from 5 to 17 years old, some 179 million, work in the worst forms of child labor. These children are placed in hazardous working conditions in order to ensure that we have our sweet treats; it is truly a bittersweet story.
Fair trade is everyone’s issue, it is more than looking at the world through the lens of organic and healthy food, it is more than a fair wage for farmers; fair trade is the way to a sustainable future for the world’s children. So join the fight for children across the globe, join your global citizens for coffee with a cause, and make the switch to fair trade coffee today!
Take the opportunity to learn about Fair Trade with your children and go on a few of the great sites out there that have games and resources for kids, such as Oxfam’s Cool Planet and Kidz @ Work . Please see my Fair Trade and Slave Free Links for more information.
Please also see previous posts on Child Trafficking, Child Labor and don’t forget to check out the following resource pages:
