I bought a cup of coffee from the Urban Kitchen earlier today – it had a code – lot 879 -attached to it – so I was able to look up details of where the coffee came from online.
http://www.coffeereal.co.uk/kenya-gethumbwini-estate-aa-lot-no879-p-260.html
How often can you say that about a product! This seams to me as one of the best types of fair trade out there – full information about where the product came from – and no attempt to brand it and associate it with a certain lifestyle – you go into a shop – get a menu which roughly outlines the flavour of the coffee – providing you with the option of looking into the productive processes under which the coffe was produced – and you drink it! No lies, no excess – just fair and simple.
Obviously where the product is fair trade – it is in the interests of the companies invovled to publicise details of the productive process – this is quite the opposite with many TNCs – who spend billions of dollars each year promoting their corporate brands but try to hide from view details of the lives of workers who produce the things that you and I (probably you more than I!) consume in our ignorance.
Perhaps apple should attach details to every ipod or pad outlining the conditions under which their ipods were produced – maybe including the name of one of the ten workers who have committed suicide after working in the aweful conditions in the Chinese factories where they are produced – maybe including the option to contribute to the family of the deceased?
Perhaps Coke should put photos of the farmers who no longer have access to water because their local Coke bottling plant drained all the water to make that aweful beverage? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wyFsodVUd-o&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZRFyfTnxj80&feature=related
Surely consumers need access to such information in order to make informed choices about the products they buy! And I’m sure there’s some economic theory out there somewhere that market actors require effective access to information in order for the system to work more efectively??
Anyway, the message is – research before you buy – and then buy ethically – and if you can’t give up unethical products completely at least buy less of them or contact the companies and ask them to start treating their workers and neighbours with some respect – you would demand the same of others I am sure!
Karl.
