Most of the time, when I start talking about buying fair trade, and avoiding supporting huge corporations who's only consideration is their bottom line (not the dignity of their workers), I get to seeing the rolled eyes. I can almost hear my friends and family saying to themselves, "Oh Lordy Lord! Here goes Casey again on another one of her liberal rants!" No matter who it is that I am talking to about these issues, especially those people I love, please understand that I am still learning and growing. I know I need to learn how to better communicate my ideals and concerns with this world's atrocities. Mostly I need to learn to speak with humility, love and grace - especially when I am trying to communicate the things I feel so passionately about, its too easy to let my emotions take over.
HOWEVER, I have been thinking about two excuses I was given this past Friday night.
As I was talking about the need to buy fair trade (at this time the only edible goods that can even be certified fair trade (that I know of) are coffee, chocolate, sugar, tea, produce and vanilla), I was first given this excuse by someone who I love to and look up to very much: "I don't know where to buy it. The only store I go to is Food Lion and they don't sell it." (In this case, the "it" was fair trade coffee.) I don't really want to dive into this argument right now because it seems so obvious that another human's dignity and survival is worth the inconvenience of going to a different store - or even better, buy it online then you don't even have to go out of your way!
So instead I will focus on the second excuse I heard Friday night, and that argument was this: Different Christians are called to do different things. Everyone can't be called to do everything (we are one body, but many parts - 1 Corinthians, Chap. 12). The excuse included the fact that there are so many injustices in the world, that it just isn't practical to think that one person could take them all into account.
I do agree, with both parts of this excuse. Yes we are one body, with many parts (the body of Christ), and we are not all called to do the same thing - we have unique gifts and passions. Also I agree that if one person knew of all the atrocities in the world - the only thing they could be left to do is scream and holler their way into their own literal insanity. BUT, I do not believe that excuse is even close to being applicable in the case of buying fair trade.
The fact that a product even needs to be certified as fair trade means that there are unfair trade practices taking place. Fair trade certification is not perfect, but it takes into account paying growers, workers and producers of products a fair price (living wage) in addition to setting up fair social and environmental standards related to the productions of those goods. The reason we ALL must care whether or not what we buy is fair trade, is because in this case, if you are not being an active part of the solution, you are an active part of the problem. Every time you buy a shirt from Old Navy, a Hershey's chocolate bar, or a coffee from Starbucks, you are saying that you are okay with the exploitation of other people in the name of your convenience. It is convenient and trendy to buy a cheap shirt. It is convenient and yummy buy the same chocolate bar you've always bought. It is convenient and fun to buy your skinny latte. But if you are a Christian, the Bible does not give a lot of room for us to compromise on this - and Jesus states many times during His ministry that taking up your cross and following Him will NOT be convenient.
Malachi 3:5
"So I will come to put you on trial. I will be quick to testify against sorcerers, adulterers and perjurers, against those who defraud laborers of their wages, who oppress the widows and the fatherless, and deprive the foreigners among you of justice, but do not fear me," says the Lord Almighty.
So this puts every American who knowingly and willingly buys unethically sourced goods, on the same level of adulterers, sorcerers, liars and people who oppress widows and orphans. This is tough stuff.
James 5:4-5
"Look! The wages you failed to pay the workers who mowed your fields are crying out against you. The cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord Almighty. You have lived on earth in luxury and self-indulgence."
This speaks to the idea that people don't want to buy fair trade because it is more expensive and inconvenient. Perhaps if we got over indulging ourselves on unnecessary luxuries, we could afford to grant justice to the people who grow and harvest our food.
Isaiah 58:3-7
"Why have we fasted," they say,
"and you have not seen it?
Why have we humbled ourselves,
and you have not noticed?"
Yet on the day of your fasting, you do as you please
and exploit all your workers.
Your fasting ends in quarreling and strife,
and in strking each other wtih wicked fists.
You cannot fast as you do today
and expect your voice to be heard on high.
Is this the kind of fast I have chosen,
only a day for people to humble themselves?
It is only for bowing one's head liek a reed
and for lying in sackcloth and ashes?
Is that what you call a fast,
a day acceptable to the Lord?
Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen:
to loose the chains of injustice
and untie the cords of the yoke,
to set hte oppressed free
and break every yoke?
Is it not to share your food with the hungry
and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter-
when you see the naked, to clothe them,
and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?
Here, we learn that God doesn't even want our worship if we aren't loving God and loving our neighbors with our WHOLE lives (including the decisions we make with what we buy). We cannot worship God on the one hand and support the exploitation of workers, His children, on the other.
I have gotten a lot of information and inspiration for my latest blog posts from Julie Clawson's book, Everyday Justice. So I will end this post with an excerpt from that book:
"Taking care of the needy, and treating others with love and fairness, are central attitudes and actions in the type of worship God insists on. Yet how often during our Sunday morning worship services do we even think about such things? As we clap our hands in rhythm with the latest uplifting worship song, does it ever cross our minds whether or not the coffee served out in the lobby came from farmers who received a fair wage for their work?
Those might seem like strange questions, but they haunted me as I watched the documentary about Ethiopian coffee growers, Black Gold. At one point the film shows a family praying that they can sell their coffee for a fair price so that their children can attend school. It seemed strange to me that our churches can participate in worship as usual while at the same time depriving these workers of their wages. If I could be the means through which God answers their prayers, by paying a fair price for my coffee, why wouldn't I do that?"
Sunday, November 6, 2011
Coffee and Chocolate: America's Two Addictions
My whole life I have loved chocolate. As a teenage and young adult woman, I have made many light-hearted comments about how I need chocolate when I'm stressed or when I'm "PMS-ing." And I've even joked that the best way to a woman's heart is through chocolate.
And how many of us had woken up in the morning and let a roommate or significant other know to "not talk to us until we've had our coffee." How many of us have used coffee shops as a place to hang out, or dropped $4 or $5 on a Starbucks drink?
On average, Americans spend $13 billion per year on chocolate and $18 billion on coffee. With all of that money being spent, you would think that the farmers who grow cocoa and coffee beans would have a stable crop with which to make a living wage and support their families. However this couldn't be further from reality. The huge corporations that sell chocolate (Mars, Nestle, Hershey's) and coffee (Nestle, Kraft, Procter & Gamble, Sara Lee) are the ones who pad their pockets (and the pocket's of their investors) and the farmers that grow these crops are barely maintaining a life of poverty.
The U.S. State Department has investigated the labor practices on Cocoa farms in West Africa (where the majority of the world's cocoa beans come from) and found them to include child labor, human trafficking and forced labor. The International Institute of Tropical Agriculture also found that an estimated 284,000 children are working on cocoa farms, and that these children were most likely kidnapped from their homes under false pretenses, smuggled across international borders, and forced to work as slaves on the cocoa farms (that produce your Crunch bar, M&M's and Reese's).
If the U.S. State Department and a legitimate International Organization know about these atrocities, why has nothing been done? Things have tried to be done, but the Chocolate companies have hired lobbyists and reached "compromises" where Hershey's, Mars and Nestle PROMISED they would do better to ensure ethical labor conditions on the farms where their beans are sourced. However since the U.S. State Dept's first investigation in 2000, they had found no significant improvement in labor practices as of 2009.
How could these companies get away with this?? The answer is simple, Americans keep buying their products.
Before 1989, the International Coffee Agreement held the price of coffee steady. Western Countries put this agreement into affect because they believed that if the coffee growers could earn a living wage and stayed out of poverty, they could avoid the economic instability that Communists might take advantage of. Also around the late 80's and early 90's, Western consumers began their addiction the hot beverage. About this time developing countries were encouraged to produce more coffee to respond to the increased demand. However they produced too much. Combine this surplus of supply with the U.S. abandoning the International Coffee Agreement at the end of the Cold War, and the price of coffee plummeted. Families in Africa, Central and South America who had been coffee farmers for generations could no longer sell their coffee for a price greater than the amount of money they had invested into growing the crop. However, with few other choices on where to sell their crop, they had to sell it at a loss to Western Corporations to at least salvage what little they could. In essence, the West was stealing from them. Not only stealing their crop, but stealing their livelihood and their dignity.
How could these companies get away with this?? The answer is simple, Americans keep buying their products.
And how many of us had woken up in the morning and let a roommate or significant other know to "not talk to us until we've had our coffee." How many of us have used coffee shops as a place to hang out, or dropped $4 or $5 on a Starbucks drink?
On average, Americans spend $13 billion per year on chocolate and $18 billion on coffee. With all of that money being spent, you would think that the farmers who grow cocoa and coffee beans would have a stable crop with which to make a living wage and support their families. However this couldn't be further from reality. The huge corporations that sell chocolate (Mars, Nestle, Hershey's) and coffee (Nestle, Kraft, Procter & Gamble, Sara Lee) are the ones who pad their pockets (and the pocket's of their investors) and the farmers that grow these crops are barely maintaining a life of poverty.
The U.S. State Department has investigated the labor practices on Cocoa farms in West Africa (where the majority of the world's cocoa beans come from) and found them to include child labor, human trafficking and forced labor. The International Institute of Tropical Agriculture also found that an estimated 284,000 children are working on cocoa farms, and that these children were most likely kidnapped from their homes under false pretenses, smuggled across international borders, and forced to work as slaves on the cocoa farms (that produce your Crunch bar, M&M's and Reese's).
If the U.S. State Department and a legitimate International Organization know about these atrocities, why has nothing been done? Things have tried to be done, but the Chocolate companies have hired lobbyists and reached "compromises" where Hershey's, Mars and Nestle PROMISED they would do better to ensure ethical labor conditions on the farms where their beans are sourced. However since the U.S. State Dept's first investigation in 2000, they had found no significant improvement in labor practices as of 2009.
How could these companies get away with this?? The answer is simple, Americans keep buying their products.
Before 1989, the International Coffee Agreement held the price of coffee steady. Western Countries put this agreement into affect because they believed that if the coffee growers could earn a living wage and stayed out of poverty, they could avoid the economic instability that Communists might take advantage of. Also around the late 80's and early 90's, Western consumers began their addiction the hot beverage. About this time developing countries were encouraged to produce more coffee to respond to the increased demand. However they produced too much. Combine this surplus of supply with the U.S. abandoning the International Coffee Agreement at the end of the Cold War, and the price of coffee plummeted. Families in Africa, Central and South America who had been coffee farmers for generations could no longer sell their coffee for a price greater than the amount of money they had invested into growing the crop. However, with few other choices on where to sell their crop, they had to sell it at a loss to Western Corporations to at least salvage what little they could. In essence, the West was stealing from them. Not only stealing their crop, but stealing their livelihood and their dignity.
How could these companies get away with this?? The answer is simple, Americans keep buying their products.
Thursday, November 3, 2011
Living Verse
My living verse, without a doubt, is Romans 12:1-2. Paul writes, "Therefore brothers and sisters I urge you, do not conform any longer to the patterns of this world. But be transformed by the renewal of your mind that by testing you may be able to discern what is God's good, pleasing and perfect will." (at least, that's my paraphrase of the verse) Some might call it a "life verse," but I think it should be a verb so I call it a living verse.
So in order to resist conforming to the patterns of this world, I have to figure out what the patterns of this world are, right? I will say that everything I say, is said from the worldview of a white, female American that was raised in middle-class suburbs. I always had more than enough, and I had two loving parents who raised me in a Christian household, to be the woman I am today. Also I believe that everything that is good, is from God. There are some things that we think are good, that really are not. And everything that is evil is from the deceiver, the prince of darkness, aka the devil.
That being said, three main patterns of this world that I see around me on a daily are self-preservation, self-fulfillment and materialism. I see self-preservation every time someone lies or bends the truth to save face (C.Y.A.). I see it every time someone makes a deposit into their 401-K or other retirement account. I see self-fulfillment every time someone goes shopping to seek the newest fashion, decor or technology. I see it every time a man or woman is unfaithful to their spouse. And I see materialism as people sacrifice self and family for upward mobility in their career, and as people go further and further into debt to buy things that will only leave them wanting more. Honestly I see all three of these things in the "American Dream." Buy a house, have a good job, have expendable income so you get a chance to do fun things, have the freedom to make yourself happy no matter what brings you that happiness...isn't that the American dream? Isn't that what society is telling us we are all living for?
If I'm wrong tell me, convince me that this culture built on capitalism, exploitation and greed is selling you something else.
I'll leave it with a verse from Lecrae
"If you making a lot money hope you doing it right
Because the money is God's you better steward it right
...
People living life for a job
Make a lil money start living for a car
Get em a house, a wife, kids, and a dog
When they retire they living high on the hog
But guess what they didn't ever really live at all
To live is Christ yeah that's Paul I recall
To die is gain so for Christ we give it all
He's the treasure you'll never find in the mall"
So in order to resist conforming to the patterns of this world, I have to figure out what the patterns of this world are, right? I will say that everything I say, is said from the worldview of a white, female American that was raised in middle-class suburbs. I always had more than enough, and I had two loving parents who raised me in a Christian household, to be the woman I am today. Also I believe that everything that is good, is from God. There are some things that we think are good, that really are not. And everything that is evil is from the deceiver, the prince of darkness, aka the devil.
That being said, three main patterns of this world that I see around me on a daily are self-preservation, self-fulfillment and materialism. I see self-preservation every time someone lies or bends the truth to save face (C.Y.A.). I see it every time someone makes a deposit into their 401-K or other retirement account. I see self-fulfillment every time someone goes shopping to seek the newest fashion, decor or technology. I see it every time a man or woman is unfaithful to their spouse. And I see materialism as people sacrifice self and family for upward mobility in their career, and as people go further and further into debt to buy things that will only leave them wanting more. Honestly I see all three of these things in the "American Dream." Buy a house, have a good job, have expendable income so you get a chance to do fun things, have the freedom to make yourself happy no matter what brings you that happiness...isn't that the American dream? Isn't that what society is telling us we are all living for?
If I'm wrong tell me, convince me that this culture built on capitalism, exploitation and greed is selling you something else.
I'll leave it with a verse from Lecrae
"If you making a lot money hope you doing it right
Because the money is God's you better steward it right
...
People living life for a job
Make a lil money start living for a car
Get em a house, a wife, kids, and a dog
When they retire they living high on the hog
But guess what they didn't ever really live at all
To live is Christ yeah that's Paul I recall
To die is gain so for Christ we give it all
He's the treasure you'll never find in the mall"
The Price
"Every decision we make does carry a price, but that price is often paid by the people whose lives are affected by our actions."
This is taken from the introduction of Juila Clawson's Everyday Justice. I found out about this book through a new friend I just met while visiting a church (Steve and I are currently searching for our new church home, as we've recently moved to Norfolk). So far I've read the forward, intro, and two pages of the first chapter...and I'm thrilled! I'm thrilled because someone else wrote this book!
"We effectively deny the image of God in those workers (that make our clothes and grow our produce) by telling them that our shopping habits and consumer needs are more important than their dignity of life."
For a few years now I've toiled with the implications of our consumer habits on our global brothers and sisters. I've struggled for ways to communicate this fire that the Holy Spirit lit from within me, to others. I've felt discouraged when friends and family members just shrug their shoulders and tell me that the problem is too big. I've felt angry when friends and family members roll their eyes at me and chalk it up to my "liberal tendencies." I've felt dismayed at the fact that so many Christians in the U.S. can simply ignore the fact of who and what their money is supporting. And I've felt overwhelmed when every time I change a habit or choice, another injustice just shows itself.
So I'm glad that someone else wrote this book, because I didn't want to do the research to write it myself, haha. And I'm glad someone else wrote it, because I need it. Already it has encouraged me! God has really been strengthening me and lifting me up these past few weeks. Its comforting just to know that there are other people out there that are also trying to be "ethical consumers;" it makes the problem seem surmountable to know that we are working together to overcome it! And I can't wait to read more to find out another person's ideas for how to chip away at the greed and materialism that enslaves this world, especially the "Western" world.
"Ethical consumption: the application of our moral values and ethical standards to our consumer habits."
This is taken from the introduction of Juila Clawson's Everyday Justice. I found out about this book through a new friend I just met while visiting a church (Steve and I are currently searching for our new church home, as we've recently moved to Norfolk). So far I've read the forward, intro, and two pages of the first chapter...and I'm thrilled! I'm thrilled because someone else wrote this book!
"We effectively deny the image of God in those workers (that make our clothes and grow our produce) by telling them that our shopping habits and consumer needs are more important than their dignity of life."
For a few years now I've toiled with the implications of our consumer habits on our global brothers and sisters. I've struggled for ways to communicate this fire that the Holy Spirit lit from within me, to others. I've felt discouraged when friends and family members just shrug their shoulders and tell me that the problem is too big. I've felt angry when friends and family members roll their eyes at me and chalk it up to my "liberal tendencies." I've felt dismayed at the fact that so many Christians in the U.S. can simply ignore the fact of who and what their money is supporting. And I've felt overwhelmed when every time I change a habit or choice, another injustice just shows itself.
So I'm glad that someone else wrote this book, because I didn't want to do the research to write it myself, haha. And I'm glad someone else wrote it, because I need it. Already it has encouraged me! God has really been strengthening me and lifting me up these past few weeks. Its comforting just to know that there are other people out there that are also trying to be "ethical consumers;" it makes the problem seem surmountable to know that we are working together to overcome it! And I can't wait to read more to find out another person's ideas for how to chip away at the greed and materialism that enslaves this world, especially the "Western" world.
"Ethical consumption: the application of our moral values and ethical standards to our consumer habits."
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