Tag Archives: fair trade

5 Resources about how our consumption affects others

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Migrant workers' childrenSince I can’t speak from expertise nor experience, let me share some resources with you on the issues I’ve been discussing this week.

  1. Francis Lappe’s Why Can’t People Feed Themselves is a must read. Just one article, and I’m sure it’s open to charges of bias and inaccuracies. But I think we need to think along historical lines and realize that, to some degree, we and our forefathers share some responsibility for the current state of the world.
  2. Slavery Footprint is a good site to make you think about how your possessions and your consumption affect people in other countries.
  3. The Story of Stuff presents a view point of the consumerist society. You might also want to see Lee Doren’s rebuttals on his YouTube channel; he calls The Story of Stuff a “leftist indoctrination movie.”
  4. The book 7 : An Experimental Mutiny Against Excess has caused many to think about their lifestyle. Author Jen Hatmaker’s website has additional resources.
  5. The American Way of Eating: Undercover at Walmart, Applebee’s, Farm Fields and the Dinner Table brings the discussion back home, focusing on the exploitation of the poor in America and how that relates to our food supply.

So if any of this discussion has sparked your interest, you’ve got some places to go for more information.

My lifestyle hurts other people

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povertyContinuing the thought process from yesterday, I can’t help but think that I am often oblivious to how much my comfortable lifestyle depends on other people. Like it or not, there is a correlation between my prosperity and the poverty of others. I won’t claim a direct correlation, but the two are related.

I think that’s part of the point being made in the Hunger Games books (and movies). The people of The Capitol* live lives that go beyond abundance; they are lives of gluttony and excess. Those lives are made possible by the slavery of the peoples in the other districts. I won’t claim to know the author’s mind, but I couldn’t help but see parallels to our world situation. The gulf between haves and have nots grows by the day.

I mentioned going to the Hermitage last year, seeing Andrew Jackson’s amazing plantation. While there, they told us how this extravagant lifestyle was made possible by the work of 150 slaves, with lives of hardship and struggle. That seemed normal to them, something that was to be defended and preserved. Some fought the Civil War for that very privilege.

All I know is that there are people in Bangladesh and other places who lead lives of misery, working in horrid conditions, producing cheap goods for me to consume. There are farmers on the brink of starvation so that I can have a variety of foods from around the world and eat myself into obesity.

And I don’t like to think about it nor to want to think about it. But I do need to think about it.

*I write that one while gritting my teeth. Mrs. Crenshaw drove home to us in 5th grade English the point that “capital” is the city while “capitol,” with an O, is the place with the offices. My son, who is an English major and a writer, claims this is a stylistic device, so I’ll just grit my teeth and write it as written in the book.

photo by Leonardo Gomes

Do you think about where your stuff comes from?

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Dhaka_Savar_Building_Collapse_5678Back in April, we were all shocked to hear about the killing of more than 1000 people in the collapse of a garment factory in Bangladesh. Though frankly, with the Boston marathon bombing and the explosion in West, Texas, we were more focused on things closer to home.

I couldn’t help but remember that those people were working in terrible conditions so that I can buy cheap clothing. I don’t spend much time thinking about why so many things are available to me at such low prices. I don’t like to think about who had to work so that I could have an abundance of things to choose when I go to the store.

Do you think about those things? Have you intentionally purchased any sort of “fair trade” products? Do you think Christians should be involved in helping improve the working and living conditions of people in other countries?

What responsibility do we bear for the “production chain” behind the goods we consume?

photo by Jaber Al Nahian