Buying Toms Shoes Is A Terrible Way To Help Poor People

Recently people have become more and more conscious of what they put into their bodies and where it comes from. An unprecedented amount of information is now readily available to most Americans with the advent of the Internet. This has resulted in a great increase in transparency of the many aspects of imported products. Consequently, programs have been established to help ensure that these products are produced in more ethical and humane ways. To many Americans, the Fair Trade labeled bags of coffee they purchase that give them the energy they need to go about their day in addition to being a socially conscious decision but to many it is a means for survival and an escape from a cycle of debt that traps many similar non-Fair Trade growers generation after generation

I researched Metropolis Coffee Company and the sourcing process that their beans took to get into their shop. In this case, the coffee beans were sourced from countries across South America and Africa. This exercise displayed how we directly influence other people in society through our consumerism. More so, this exercise raises concern to the issues surrounding low wages towards the workers of these food products as well as harsh work conditions they are exposed to. If we were aware of our consumer influence for supporting ethical companies, we could effectively work to support companies whose product comes from an ethical means of

After many years of customer requests, Company Q began selling a very limited amount of health-conscience and organic products. When local food banks asked for donations of day-old products, management declined due to worries over employee theft and fraud. If Company Q had looked at this request through the eyes of a socially responsible business, they could have donated the left over products to those in need, which in turn, would have given the perception that Company Q is concerned about the people in the neighborhood. When the residents of a neighborhood see or feel that a company is giving back to the community, they are more willing to patron the business. “The actions of a company color the perceptions, behavior, and well-being of its customers, prospects, and the community at large, affecting its own health as well as that of the world around it.” (McKee, 2012) Employees who work in the grocery store would also feel a sense of pride that their employer is giving back to the people who spend their hard earned money at their store. Employees who are happy and proud of where they work have less

2. Most successful companies like Starbucks have started programs to oversee and make sure their farmers are treated well. C.A.F.E.( Starbucks ' program) is Coffee and Farmer Equality this program ensures the farmers safety and the quality if the product. This program has shown to boost productivity between the company and the grower and between the workers and the owners of the plantations. Even though this program is in place the workers are still paid poorly. An expert picket can collect about 6-7 baskets of coffee berries a day, yet they are paid very little. 71% of farms in Brazil are less than 10 lectares, 25% of them are less than 50 lectares and 4% are more than 50 lectares.*

According to Lyon, Bezaury, & Mutersbaugh (2010), Fair-trade is a “process which helps improve the well-being and economic stability of disempowered farmers, by using certified commodity-chains to foster development”. For the KHC company, Fair-trade is essential because they want to provide and endorse exceptional coffee beans that they are proud to use; that means, “using coffee that is good and fair for both our coffee drinkers and for farmers are essential” (Kicking Horse Coffee, n.d.). In fact, over the past 20 years, Kicking Horse won numerous awards in many categories, including Canada’s Fastest- Growing Companies, Canada’s Top Women Entrepreneurs, Canada's Favourite Fair-trade Product and number 15 Best Workplace in Canada (Kicking Horse Coffee, n.d.).

Shawn Humphry’s The Do-Gooder Industrial Complex describes the current way that many people “do good” in relation to global poverty. Humphry argues that we should move from “Be a voice for the voiceless” to “Why not try listening?” and “Barefoot

The corporate world has an unfavorable view of itself by being selfish, evil, and against the average American. Companies market themselves and their products in certain ways that makes them and their products appealing to everyone and if not everyone then a certain group of people. Every company has a mission to follow and values to go by, but some companies lack ethics and morals. In this paper I am going to talk about one company that engages in ethical behavior and another that doesn’t.

The documentary Black Gold, is about the world coffee market and an Ethiopian fair trade cooperative. Ethiopia being the birthplace of coffee is the largest producer of coffee in the world, producing some of the highest quality of coffee beans in the world, like Harar, Yuban and Sidamo types of coffee. The significant problems pointed out in this documentary show what is wrong in the global trading system. Mainly, while most of us continue have our lattes and specialty coffees, the amount paid to the Ethiopian coffee farmers is so low that a lot of them have been forced to chop down some of their coffee fields and rely on other crops to help them survive. The Ethiopian people are malnourished; they have no clean water, no healthcare, and no schools for their families. As quoted in the film, “They are living hand to mouth”.

Poverty is a major global problem, with over 4 billion people currently living in it. The poverty level is set at people living on $2 a day. Yet, like most people, they too need to buy the essentials and other items for daily uses. Companies realize that there is a market out there for these impoverished people. Some of them might take advantage of them, and some have a little humanity in them. There are several ethical ways to target them without putting a hefty price on their budget and at the same time, companies can make a profit on these products.

With no choice families have to work in labour to pay off debts or to support life in a family. An example is Mohammed Ali Indris, 36 year old Ethiopian coffee farmer who has 12 children. Mohammed's year profit of selling coffee beans decreased from US$320 to US$60. He stated "I had to sell my oxen this year to pay for the loan I took out for fertiliser and pesticides that I needed. If I couldn't pay the loan I would have gone to prison." This evidence shows how socioeconomic conditions of the farmers are the factors of citizens in developing countries growing coffee beans. Poverty must be considered one of the primary causes contributing to the linear global spatial pattern of this topic. However, the coffee producing countries form a linear pattern around the equator line, with a large quantity of the countries being part of South America. Regions

Finally, global economic issues have an immense influence on the world of coffee. Throughout history there has been a pattern that coffee producing countries are economically worse off than those that are consuming the coffee. Pendergrast mentions that “in 1950 the average income in consuming countries was three times that of coffee-growing nations. By the late 1960s it was five times great” (270). With that said, many producing coffee countries were facing endemics and malnourished peoples because workers were receiving absurdly low wages thus placing them into poverty and human suffering (271). Specifically, although 90 percent of El Salvador’s exports consisted of coffee in the 1930s, they agonized from “‘low wages, incredible filth…[under] conditions in fact not far removed from slavery’” (168). Global economic issues of these producing countries lead to dictators easily gaining power such as those in Guatemala, Nicaragua, and Honduras (170). Not only was politics a matter that resulted from global economic issues, “the high interest rates from financial institutions and price [squeezes]” lead to the economic struggle of farmers like those from Colombia due to

Fair Trade Coffee Fair Trade promotes socially and environmentally sustainable techniques and long-term relationships between producers, traders and consumers The world coffee industry is in crisis. A flood of cheap, lower-quality coffee beans have pushed world market prices down to a 30-year low. Many now earn less for their crop than it cost them to grow. Many coffee farmers around the world receive market payments that are lower than the costs of production, forcing them into a cycle of poverty and debtWithout urgent action, 25 million coffee growers' face ruin.

Fair trade and free trade are very similar terms and are often confused and misunderstood. They can often be heard as terms being used interchangeably in the context that is completely irrelevant to their definitions. Both freedom and fairness are always coveted by the masses, but these concepts address the same subject from very different perspectives. The definition of free trade and fair trade are consistent with most articles and websites such as “Investopedia” and “Fair Trade Federation”. Fair trade focuses on restricting producers and farmers in poor or developing countries by forcing them to adopt safe working conditions, provide service to planetary protection, and pay minimum wages. Free trade removes the boundaries between all

The film highlights the fact that coffee is the most valued word commodity, second to oil. The beginning of the film shows the process in which coffee is made- from bean harvesting by workers in Ethiopia who make next to nothing, through several intermediated stages, and into the market. Although we spend countless amounts of money on coffee without thinking twice, the price that coffee farmers who produce this commodity are getting paid, is disgustingly low. Some of them have even been forced to walk away from their fields. There is no better place to see this

Due to how poorly workers are treated, unions have started to be organized, though they are still uncommon. People who are planing a union are almost always fired and added to a list that is accessible to all the free trade zones. The woman interviewed is currently working in a free trade factory. She was part of a union that was successful and was able to demand a medical clinic, a person workers could go to with any problems, higher quality safety equipment, subsets for food and transit, and was not required to work overtime.