Cocoa | International Labor Rights Forum

More than 70% of the world’s supply of cocoa comes from two countries nestled on the southern shore of West Africa: Cote d’Ivoire and Ghana. There, whole communities are dedicated to growing the crop that is lucrative for governments and international traders, but brings below-poverty wages for the farmers who produce it. Low wages mean farmers cannot hire the labor needed to harvest the crop, and perpetuates the child trafficking and worst forms of child labor that have plagued the industry. Children are exposed to chemicals, long working hours, and the denial of a decent education. Low prices in the cocoa industry have left smallholder farmers with impoverished incomes and with no choice but to pull their children from school and have them help on the plantation. With low educational access and attendance, families in the cocoa sector are caught in a vicious cycle of poverty. Cocoa producers have little bargaining power against the few large multinational companies that control the supply chain and ultimately determine the livelihoods of farming families.

ILRF helped bring this problem to national attention more than a decade ago and is committed to bringing justice to cocoa farmers through public education, corporate campaigns, and engagement with partners organizing farmers on the ground.

…(read more).

See related:

• Cocoa | International Labor Rights Forum
• New Report on Cocoa & Child Labor Shows Problems | International Labor Rights Forum
• Cocoa Activism Moves to the Next Level! | International Labor Rights Forum
• Child Trafficking in the Cocoa Industry Continues, but There’s a New Way to Take Action! | International Labor Rights Forum
• Blog: Cocoa
• Publications | International Labor Rights Forum

Food-Matters

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Cocoa – A guide to trade practices

Cocoa – A guide to trade practices is often referred to as ITC’s Cocoa Guide. The most recent version, from 2001, is still in demand.

The guide describes trade and industry practices, as well as regulations applying to cocoa. It traces customs procedures, systems and techniques used at each stage of the cocoa supply chain. It reviews trends in cocoa manufacturing and processing, cocoa organic farming, fair trade, sustainable production and environmental issues. It also provides a list of main sector-related trade and industry association and their websites.

The Cocoa Guide is available in English, French, Spanish and Russian. Many users of the Cocoa Guide have shown interest in ITC’s more comprehensive Coffee Guide. It is continuously updated at http://www.thecoffeeguide.org/ – in English, French and Spanish. The Coffee Guide’s extensive information on, for example, sustainability schemes (labels), climate change and coffee, futures, hedging and risk management are also relevant for cocoa.

http://www.intracen.org/Cocoa—A-guide-to-trade-practices/

Publication Date: 13 Aug. 2001

PDF of full report

Food-matters

 

Climate change and the melting glaciers in Switzerland – Docu – 2018

vpro documentary

Premiered Nov 9, 2018
Climate change is causing glaciers to melt in Switzerland. In the summer of 2018, a mudflow has hit the village of Bondo in Switzerland. Climate change is in full swing. Can we still avert this or is climate change already too advanced so that we simply have to live with it? Are the melting glaciers in Switzerland one of the many consequences of climate change?

Climate change creates melting glaciers in Switzerland. We must quickly get a grip on global warming. According to the Indian writer Amitav Ghosh this is because we cannot imagine that our children will live in an unlivable world. Our endless desire for things like cars, meat and luxury goods are the main causes of the climate crisis. ‘Everyone wants to be part of the good life’, says Ghosh. “We are like a turkey for Thanksgiving. We are getting nicely stuffed but one day the head goes off. ‘

A mudflow from a melting glacier was the summer of the Swiss village of Bondo. Eight people died and the village was uninhabitable for months. Yet many do not want to see the consequences of the climate crisis. According to Ghosh, eating no meat or not driving is not enough to break the vicious circle. He thinks it is of the utmost importance that we oblige our authorities to take draconian measures and, if necessary, enforce them. It is ill to place all responsibility with the individual.

An example of enforcing government responsibility is the famous ‘Climate case’ that environmental organization Urgenda with lawyer Roger Cox brought against the Dutch State. Many legal procedures are now taking place worldwide. For example, a Peruvian mountain guide Saul Luciano Lliuya, whose village is also threatened by a melting glacier, has filed a lawsuit against the German RWE. The energy giant with its many coal-fired plants is responsible for 0.5% of global CO2 emissions. The Peruvian Lliuya states that RWE is also responsible for 0.5% of the damage that his village experiences. A German judge agreed with him and declared his request valid. A climate story about how we can turn the tide just in time.

With: Roda Verheyen (lawyer), Bruno Renggli (mountain guide), Amitav Ghosh (writer), Saul Luciano Lliuya (mountain guide from Peru).
Originally broadcasted by VPRO in 2018.
© VPRO Backlight March 2018

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Global Dimming – The Aerosol Masking Effect

Tim Bob
Published on Sep 21, 2018

From 2005 BBC Documentary Global Dimming – The Cause of Contrails & Chemtrails

Why we’re heading for a ‘climate catastrophe’

Published on Oct 8, 2018
BBC Newsnight

Scientists say the world is completely off track.
A damning report from the the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has put the world on the path to a ‘climate catastrophe’ as global warming nears 3C. As scientists say global warming must be limited to 1.5 C, we investigate if it’s too late to turn back.

The Heat is On with Peter Wadhams

UPFSI
Published on Oct 31, 2018

This year’s devastating fires in California are a taste of things to come, as insolent politicians continue to ignore and deny climate change as the cause. Here Peter Wadhams and I discuss the unimaginable stupidity that is allowing us to descend into a hell-on-earth.

Peter Wadhams on Our Last Ditch Hope

UPFSI
Published on Nov 8, 2018

Welcome to http://ScientistsWarning.TV where Peter Wadhams and I discuss the grave threats to human survival, from Trump’s pernicious attack on Nature, to the Paris Agreement mightily kicking the can down the road. And Peter discusses what he considers our last ditch hope.