Fair Trade

<h1 class="widgetheadline h1" style="margin: 10px 0px 0px 10px; padding: 0px; font-size: 18px; font-family: Helvetica; color: rgb(31, 31, 31); cursor: pointer; overflow-wrap: break-word; line-height: 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a class="widgetheadline-text custom-post-headline" href="https://www.ecowatch.com/slave-labor-starbucks-certified-brazil-coffee-plantation-2606260085.html" style="color: rgb(31, 31, 31); text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word; overflow-wrap: break-word; font-size: 25px; padding: 0px; margin: 0px; line-height: 31px;">Investigators Find Slave Labor on Starbucks-Certified Brazil Coffee Plantation</a></h1><div class="body js-expandable clearfix js-listicle-body js-update-url" data-elid="2606260085" data-authors="Mongabay" data-headline="Investigators Find Slave Labor on Starbucks-Certified Brazil Coffee Plantation" style="font-size: 16px; margin: 10px; line-height: 24px; color: rgb(31, 31, 31); font-family: Helvetica; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div class="body-description"><div class="widgetbrief">By Daniela Penha and Roberto Cataldo, TranslatorThis story was produced via a co-publishing partnership between Mongabay and Repórter Brasil and can be read in Portuguese <a href="http://reporterbrasil.org.br/2018/08/fazenda-de-cafe-certificada-pela-starbucks-e-flagrada-com-trabalho-escravo/" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(82, 149, 70); text-decoration-line: none; overflow-wrap: break-word;">here</a>.
At first sight, the Córrego das Almas farm in Piumhi, in rural Minas Gerais state, seems to be a model property. "No slave or forced labor is allowed," reads one of several signs that display international certifications—including one linked to the U.S. based company Starbucks corporation.</div><div class="js-appear-on-expand" style="transition: all 350ms ease 0s; height: 0px; overflow: hidden; opacity: 0;" /><div class="widgetshow-more with-primary-color js-keep-reading js-page-view-and-reload-embeds" style="color: rgb(91, 91, 91); cursor: pointer; border-radius: 15px; font-size: 14px; float: left; padding: 7px; font-weight: 600; background-color: rgb(240, 240, 240);">Keep reading...</div></div></div>

<a href="https://www.alternet.org/hunger-games-child-labor-poverty-and-terrible-working-conditions-lie-behind-all-sugar-you-eat" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">https://www.alternet.org/hunger-games-child-labor-poverty-and-terrible-working-conditions-lie-behind-all-sugar-you-eat</a>Reach for a packet of sugar in the café, browse the shelves at supermarkets, or take a look at the packaging of your favourite sweet treat, and you are likely to see <a href="https://www.fairtrade.org.uk/Buying-Fairtrade/Sugar" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">the Fairtrade label</a>. What’s more, the UK’s <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/modern-slavery-bill" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">Modern Slavery Act</a> requires large companies to publicly report on the steps they take to ensure that forced labour is not a part of their products. The EU’s <a href="https://ec.europa.eu/info/business-economy-euro/company-reporting-and-auditing/company-reporting/non-financial-reporting_en" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">non-financial reporting requirements</a> broaden out from modern slavery to include many issues related to social responsibility and human rights.Provisions such as these, as well as a multitude of corporate social responsibility programmes and industry specific commitments, have been put in place as measures to correct the longstanding social risks and challenges faced by the people who produce the goods we consume. To deepen our understanding of the status of those risks and challenges, our team has, for the past nine months, taken a close look at the sugarcane consumed in the UK.<div id="TeadsNative" style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">About <a href="https://www.absugar.com/sugar-markets/uk-sugar-sector" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">25%</a> of the UK’s sugar comes from sugarcane imported from outside the EU, while the rest comes from sugar beet grown in the UK and other EU nations. Consequently, given the prevalence of the Fairtrade mark and supply chain reporting requirements, most of us are likely to have the impression that sugar is produced in a socially responsible way.But unfortunately, serious problems including forced and child labour, poverty, and dangerous heat-related illnesses persist in today’s sugarcane industry.In 2014, Fairtrade International discovered that <a href="https://www.fairtrade.net/new/latest-news/single-view/article/belize-sugar-cane-farmers-aim-to-be-best-in-class-for-protecting-children-and-young-people.html" style="text-decoration-line: none; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">children were working during school hours</a> on certified farms in Belize, in direct violation of Fairtrade standards. Fairtrade suspended the certification of the entire Belize programme while the local industry worked to address the problem and the programme has since been reinstated. Belize, a Commonwealth country bordered by Mexico and Honduras, has long been a key provider of sugarcane to the UK market – in 2016 it <a href="https://atlas.media.mit.edu/en/visualize/tree_map/hs92/import/gbr/show/170111/2016/" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">accounted for 14%</a> of UK imports of raw sugarcane. Yet, that same year, while the <a href="https://foodtank.com/news/2017/06/fairtrade-farmers-spur-big-change-child-labor/" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">Belize sugar industry was already making considerable efforts</a> to eliminate child labour within sugarcane, <a href="https://www.dol.gov/agencies/ilab/resources/reports/child-labor/belize" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">the United States Department of Labor (US DoL) found</a> that the country as a whole had made minimal progress in eradicating the worst forms of child labour, including within sugarcane.Another report by the US DoL <a href="https://www.dol.gov/sites/default/files/documents/ilab/reports/child-labor/findings/TVPRA_Report2016.pdf" style="text-decoration-line: none; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">also documented child labour in sugarcane in Guatemala and El Salvador</a>, which together provided <a href="https://atlas.media.mit.edu/en/visualize/tree_map/hs92/import/gbr/show/170111/2016/" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">14%</a> of the 2016 UK supply. This means that child labour was documented in countries that supply nearly one-third of UK sugarcane in 2016. Additionally, the US DoL found forced labour in Brazil (<a href="https://atlas.media.mit.edu/en/visualize/tree_map/hs92/import/gbr/show/170111/2016/" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">12%</a> of the UK supply). <a href="https://ethicalsugar.files.wordpress.com/2016/05/ethical-sugar-violations-of-labour-and-environmental-law-5-0.pdf" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">Previous research suggests</a>that this is a recurring problem in this nation, even among operations that are certified by the rigorous <a href="https://www.bonsucro.com/production-standard/" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">Bonsucro production standard</a>, which uses six principles to achieve environmental, social and economic sustainability in the production of sugarcane.The hunger cropSugarcane is known as “<a href="https://policy-practice.oxfam.org.uk/publications/the-hunger-crop-poverty-and-the-sugar-industry-121196" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">the hunger crop</a>” due to the low prices paid to farmers and low earnings among workers. Because they earn so little, those producing the sugarcane we consume – and their children – are often forced to go without adequate food and nutrition.Our preliminary research indicates that even among Bonsucro-certified sugar mills in Minas Gerais, Brazil, </div>