Answer: they all scored very poorly in a recent survey designed to find out how high street retailers treat their foreign workers. The survey, carried out by Labour Behind the Label, reported that:

“The scandalous truth is that the majority of workers in the global fashion industry rarely earn more than $2 a day in an industry worth more than £36bn a year, in the UK alone.”

For more on this, visit Money Central.

(source: Money Central. Image: Dan Lockton)

Rowan Williams, The Archbishop of Canterbury, has been directing attention recently to environmental issues and our responsibility to reduce our ‘footprint.’ One of his suggestions (in a recent interview with The Times) could take a serious toll on the livelihood of many African farmers:

He said that the carbon footprint of peas from Kenya and other airfreighted food was too high and families should not assume that all types of food would be available through the year.

As James MacGregor points out in The Guardian today:

Stopping this trade would make hardly any impact on climate change but would harm over one million people in sub-Saharan Africa who depend on it for their livelihoods, and to pay for healthcare and the education of their children, girls in particular.

He adds that:

Air-freighted fruit and vegetables contribute less than one-tenth of one percent of the UK’s greenhouse gas emissions.

This is one of the great tensions between international development and environmental sustainability.

It’s no recent news, but the EU, China and the USA provide their farmers with subsidies which allow them to compete in a world market. These subsidies mean that the farmers can charge far less for their produce than they are actually worth. Any surpluses are then dumped on developing markets at a much lower price than local farmers can afford.

Are we to continue with these structural injustices and at the same time cut back on consumer spending on African produce?

(Source: The Guardian Online, The Times. Image: Steve Punter)

Time reports that in Kenya a seed that was recommended by scientists and the government as an ideal Biofuel for growth in arid areas is actually heavily dependent on water.

“Convinced they could reap large profits from the plant in the global craze for alternative energy sources, hundreds of farmers turned over acres of their small farms to jatropha. But it didn’t take them long to realize what scientists have come to realize in recent months: what was once touted as a miracle plant that needed almost no water has turned out to be anything but that.”

Read full article here.

The Guardian reports on the current state of life in Southern Sudan. While the SPLA are said to be disarming, peace is threatened from all sides by poverty, disease, interference from neighbouring territories, and the arrival of Uganda’s LRA. People are displaced and children are stolen and traded as commodities:

“We were coming home from school when some men came out of the bushes in torn clothes. They were calling and offering us soda. We were very scared so we ran,” said Susan Achan, 12.
Last month two of her friends were not so lucky. “We were picking mangoes,” said Sebit Quintino, 13. “We saw the men, they were Murle tribe, and we shouted to each other and ran, but three were playing in the water and didn’t hear. One of the boys turned up days later after managing to escape; the other two have never been seen again.”
The boys are traded for cattle and made to work, and the girls are also sold off for a dowry of cows.

(Source: The Guardian Online. Image: Finbarr O’Reilly/Reuters)

Adbusters recently published this article about the bloodthirsty conflict over diamonds in Zimbabwe.

Robert Mugabe’s ruling party, Zanu-PF, has recently renewed its interest in diamonds. Diamonds are a valuable asset for foreign exchange, especially when a government has been cut off from the international community by sanctions.
Late last year the military moved into Chiadzwa and began confronting and arresting independent miners. A helicopter attack in December left 200 dead and there are assertions that the military has claimed more victims. Zimbabwe’s opposition party Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), for example, says that hundreds more miners are buried in mass graves.

According to an article today from Time, the Zimbabwean economy may be on the up, thanks to a decision to scrap the Zimbabwean Dollar and instead use US Dollars and South African Rand.

“I am earning in real money, it feels good,” says Majuru. “I can now put food on the table and feed my family.” A smile spreads across his face.

(read more here)

Carl Medearis has been traveling between Bethlehem and Jerusalem, witnessing first hand the kind of discrimination faced by the Palestinian people:

We noticed as we were getting in that this bus was extremely dirty. Filthy actually. And there was no air conditioning. As soon as we got on I noticed that they were all Palestinians on this bus. Immediately a lady holding her young son said to us in near-perfect English, “This is the bus for the Palestinians. You need to be on that other bus. It’s for foreigners and tourists.” I responded, “Oh that’s okay, we don’t mind coming with you”. She said, “Well, thank you, but you can’t. You HAVE to go on that bus.”

(read more here)

The guardian recently published this interview with five couples who have attempted to minimise the environmental impact of their wedding day:

The idea of exploiting others to enjoy the most special moment of your life seems entirely alien to me. An ethically sound wedding was the only option. Fairtrade was the name of the game – our roses, wine and wedding rings were all sourced with ethics in mind.

(read more here)

Communities in Nigeria, Papua New Guinea and Brazil, are being robbed of their sustainability by the practices of large scale Soap, Toilet Paper and Tyre manufacturers:

In the case of Nigeria, in 2007, the French tire maker Michelin came in to the Iguóbazuwa Forest Reserve, a biologically diverse region supplying food for around 20,000 people. Michelin bulldozed the forest and local farm lands to convert them into rubber plantations. Women living there lost their subsistence farms and the local forest which provided medicinal herbs and plants.

~ Sustainablog

At last dreams are coming true! The Big Boys are joining in the fun. Cadbury’s Dairy Milk is becoming Fairly Traded:

100 years ago William Cadbury chose beans from Ghana. A year ago we founded the Cadbury Cocoa Partnership. And from Autumn 2009 Cadbury Dairy Milk will be Fairtrade certified. Welcome aboard.

Click here for more (Thanks, @nomesbaker)