Last night, I attended Numi Tea and Alter Eco’s Fair Trade movie night at the Numi Tea Gardens in Oakland and I have to admit, it was a VERY eye opening event. Aside from the beautiful tea and chocolates, the event also featured an amazing speaker line up from Numi, Alter Eco, Peace Corps and TransFair USA as well as documentaries about tea farmers in China, cacao farmers in Peru, and sugar cane workers in the Dominican Republic.
The documentary on sugar cane was especially moving and terribly frightening. It was enough to make you stop eating sugar for the rest of your life (a very good thing, if you ask me!). If everyone were to watch this very moving portrayal of life in the baney, or sugar cane plantations, people would at least boycott sugar coming from the Dominican Republic. Haitian workers are enslaved - they are told they will make great wages in the plantations only to leave their families and friends for a jailed life. Armed guards stand watch over the workers, living conditions are awful - no running water, sanitation - and wages aren’t enough to eat, much less live off of. People are not getting medical care despite all of the terrible injuries that take place from working in the fields day in and day out and the sharp blades of the machetes used to cut the cane. Children are malnourished and chewing on cane is often the only food they eat for days, sometimes even weeks.
This event was another wonderful reminder that there is more to think about than just health and diet when it comes to the food we eat. We also need to be thinking about where it comes from, how it is made and how it is impacting the people and the earth that we live on. If we could all make the small investment to be aware of what we eat, where it comes from and who it impacts, it would be a large change for many people. For some, it could be as simple as air conditioning for a hot factory, schools for underprivileged children or even the end to slavery.
Are you doing your part?
Check out other Fair Trade USA events here: http://www.fairtrademonth.org/
{ 1 comment… read it below or add one }
Hi - Thanks so much for attending Fair Trade Movie Night! Better yet, thanks for letting us know what you learned from the event! Another great way to get involved for Fair Trade Month and beyond is by participating in Alter Eco’s Fair Trade Cooking Challenge. Launched this October, Alter Eco is encouraging chefs of every skill level to create and submit their own unique Alter Eco Fair Trade recipes on altereco-usa.com. The recipes will help to create the first ever Virtual Fair Trade Cookbook, and…those who submit their Fair Trade recipes now - November 14th will be eligible for some great Alter Eco prizes. You can find more information on http://www.altereco-usa.com, or directly at http://www.altereco-usa.com/community/. Thanks so much! I hope you and your readers join us in our Fair Trade Month celebration!