DISPOSABLE PEOPLE Modern Day Slavery

Fall 2009 What is your socioeconomic class? Upper (family income greater than $200,000) – 17.4% Upper middle (family income between $100, ,000) – 37.7% Middle (family income between $40,000-99,000) – 34.8% Lower middle (family income between 16,000-39,000)- 7.8% Lower (family income lower than $16,000) – 2.3%

SPRING 2009 If I had the option of purchasing an item at Wal-Mart for half the price it would cost at a small store downtown I would do so, even if I knew that the Wal-Mart item was produced by slaves (much like goods were produced by slaves 200 years ago). Strongly Agree – 14.0% Agree – 45.3% Neutral – 22.0% Disagree – 12.6% Strongly Disagree – 6.1%

FALL 2009 If I had the option of purchasing an item at Wal-Mart for half the price it would cost at a small store downtown I would do so, even if I knew that the Wal-Mart item was produced by slaves (much like goods were produced by slaves 200 years ago). Strongly Agree – 13.8% Agree – 1.1% Neutral – 40.7% Disagree – 37.6% Strongly Disagree – 6.8%

“Material World” “Material World” Tracy Chapman

“Material World” – Tracy Chapman You in your fancy Material world Don't see the links of chain Binding blood Our own ancestors Are hungry ghosts Closets so full of bones They won't close

“Material World” – Tracy Chapman Call it upward mobility But you've been sold down the river Just another form of slavery And the whole man-made white world Is your master You in your fancy Material world Create in your own image A supreme god

“Material World” – Tracy Chapman Your Virgin Mary Your holy ghosts Claimed to be pure of heart Have hands that are stained with blood You in your fancy Material world Don't see the links of chain Binding

Eat the First Piece of Chocolate

Cocoa + Slavery What do we know? What can we do?

Cocoa Production in 2004 Ivory Coast – 1,250 Ghana – 410 Indonesia – 410 Nigeria – 170 Brazil – 135 Cameroon – 125 Ecuador – 95 Malaysia – 80 Dominican Rep – 47 Colombia – 40 (thousands of tons) Farms in the Ivory Coast produce about 43 percent of the world’s cocoa. The U.S. State Dept. and the Intl. Labor Org. estimate that West African cocoa revenues average $ per year per household member (for cocoa producing households). Most child cocoa workers don’t attend school b/c their parents don’t have $

Ivory Coast and Slavery The U.S. State Dept. estimates that at least 15,000 children between the ages of 9-12 have been sold into slavery to work in the Ivory Coast, which has a total of 600,000 cocoa farms. Amnesty International estimates that upwards to 200,000 slaves work on plantations in the Ivory Coast. Most slaves are people from the countries of Burkina Faso, Mali, and Ghana.

People in the United States spend approximately $13 billion each year on chocolate. We import over 400,000 tons of chocolate each year

Fair Trade Chocolate Cocoa producer poverty comes at the hands of large chocolate corporations, such as M&M/Mars, Nestle, & Hershey – who manipulate the market to keep the price of cocoa low and their company’s profits high. This is “good” business practice because low costs = high profits = happy investors. …and happy consumers!!!

Harkin – Engle anti-slavery Cocoa Protocol Perhaps the first time in history that anti- slavery activists, industry leaders, and government law makers sat down to hammer out some sort of agreement to stop slavery. They’re still hammering it out…

Fair Trade Chocolate FAIR TRADE products ensure that producers earn enough to send their kids to school and pay their workers (i.e., producers receive a “fair price” for their goods, whether it’s cocoa, coffee, or soybeans). Thus far, the U.S. Chocolate Manufacturers' Association (CMA) has pledged to help fight child labor and slavery, but have done little. However, prices remain at a 15 year low, and this creates a breeding ground for slavery.

A “lot” of commodities have a “little” bit of slavery in them. Cotton Sugar Timber Beef Tomatoes Lettuce Shrimp Coffee Iron Steel Gold Tin Diamonds Shoes Sporting Goods Carpets Rice Rope

Roses and Child Labor In Malur, India, some 1,000 female children work in the export rose production market—plucking and packaging. They prepare up to 10,000 roses per day. Girls are paid between rupees per day (about fifty cents). A single rose can sell for 100 rupees. QUESTION: Are they different from slaves?

In 1960, the richest 20% of the world’s population owned about 70% of global wealth. Today the richest 20% owns 86% of the world’s wealth (which means they consume 86% of all goods and services)

By contrast, in 1960 the poorest 20% of the world’s population owned just 2.3% of our global wealth. Today the poorest 20% controls less than 1% of the world’s wealth.

The bottom 10% of people living in the U.S. are better off than two- thirds of the world’s population. The wealthiest 1% of Americans own more than the poorest 92% combined. ~ World Bank

Education and Global Poverty Of school-age children in developing countries, 55% of boys and 46% of girls are enrolled in school. 1 in 3 children will never set foot in a school Worldwide, more than 130 million children ages six to eleven are not attending school. Nearly 60% are girls. Educated females are more likely to have smaller families and healthier, more educated children. Two-thirds of the world's 855 million illiterate adults are women. - Data are from UNICEF