Points of Analysis - The products that we consume on a regular basis are produced all around the world

The products that we consume on a regular basis are produced all around the world, but we fail to recognize this connection and are oblivious to the way that these products are produced. This does not however change what we consume, and often people are fine with unethical modes of production as long as it is “not in my backyard.”

• “To contemplate one’s kettle and suddenly realize, first, that one is the beneficiary of an unimaginably vast and complex social whole and, second (a point further emphasized elsewhere in the novel), that this means benefiting from the daily labor of the kettle- and electricity-producing workers, much of it unpleasant and underremunerated, is not entirely outside everyday experience. What seems special about the passage is a third realization: that this moment of consciousness will not be converted into action.” (Robbins 85)
• “It’s fine if I know it’s happening, as long as it’s not happening right here” (Robbins 91)

·         Robyn: I currently own four pairs of TOMS, and plan on purchasing more in the near future for winter. When I buy these shoes, I do not think of where they come from or how they are produced. TOMS company mission statement and website presents a global message with its “One for One” philosophy. When buying these shoes online, the site states that the company will “match every pair of shoes purchased with a pair of new shoes given to a child in need” (One for One Movement). There is this sense that in purchasing these shoes, you will positively impacting another part of the world. This is problematic for two reasons. Firstly, while TOMS says that their shoes are produced in Ethiopia, Argentina, and China, the shoes that we receive in North America have been made in China. While TOMS states that its manufacturing standards adhere to human rights, founder Blake Mycoskie has stated that there are no specific fair trade standards for shoe manufacturing (Gordon). TOMS factories are audited by a company called Intertek, but when I clicked on the link provided on their website, it simply lead to the company site, rather than a full report. This leads me to believe that the way that TOMS shoes are produced in China is not as ethical as they want the consumer to believe. Secondly, there is a sense that in buying these shoes, the consumer will have a positive impact on the world. The video “A Day Without Dignity” refutes this assumption, as it demonstrates that by giving shoes to these places we are creating larger problems (“A Day Without Dignity”). There are shoes available for purchase in these countries, and by simply giving away shoes we are hindering the shoe seller’s ability to make a living. Also, the shoes that TOMS donates will eventually break, and then the children will no longer have adapted to walking barefoot. The consumer is clearly unaware of these issues when purchasing TOMS.

·         Kiera: A key point of my research was tracing the actual trade route of the Premium Ceylon tea from Sri Lanka.

ü  From Dimbula, Sri Lanka, and its districts, embracing plantations from around 3,500 to 5,000 feet above the sea level.

ü To Sri Lanka Ports Authority, #19, Chaithya Road, Colombo (twenty-ninth busiest port in the world).

ü  By Container Ship through the Indian Ocean to the Andaman Sea.

ü  Through the Andaman Sea and the Strait of Malacca past Singapore (second busiest port in the world, the first is Shanghai) to the South China Sea.

ü  Through the South China Sea (past Hong Kong, third busiest port in the world) to the Pacific Ocean.

ü  Through the Pacific Ocean to the Port of Vancouver, BC, (fiftieth busiest port in the world)

ü  By Rail to Ottawa, ON

ü  Lee Valley Tools store at 900 Morrison Avenue, Ottawa, ON, where I order the tea via their web site.

ü  To United Parcel Service, the Ottawa, ON, station.

ü  Then to UPS Concord, ON, station.

ü  To UPS Richmond, BC, station.

ü  To UPS Kelowna, BC, station.

ü  Finally to my door, on Baron Road, Kelowna.

• Nick: Global issues as a result of global consumption? There may not be an app for that, but who needs one when the entire product itself is responsible. Repeated constantly throughout my research was evidence that the manufacturing of iPads can be (however indirectly or directly) connected to a huge number of issues worldwide. Starting with environmental damage in almost every major world producer of the ore (which is turned into aluminum), I went on to discover how the refining of those products often had dire ramifications in terms of the health of those workers involved. Lung disease, various types of cancer, blindness and death were all headlines in major locales of bauxite/aluminum production (Jamaica, Australia, India and china just to name a few). The further assemblage of these materials into a final product led to my discovery of sweatshop-like conditions in the factories responsible. Foxconn, the company responsible for assembling all of Apple’s products, has a notorious reputation of working it’s employees literally to death. Long work hours with little pay or escape has led a notorious number of its workers to suicide as their only recourse and the company, upon facing international criticism, reacted to solve the situation only be placing nets between its dormitories. Conditions haven’t changed, the Foxconn ‘campuses’ continue to infringe upon human rights, and workers are still finding ways to kill themselves (strangulation being the new ‘popular’ method). Consumers of the iPad are not informed of this fact, when the purchase the device, and if they do discover it by virtue of further research, media or accident, generally do nothing to solve the problem (Foxconn conditions were the focus of intense media scrutiny, it wasn’t hard to find out what was going on). Why? It’s because of the force behind N.I.M.B.Y. thought. Products like iPads are desirable enough to enable one to ignore the various tragedies involved in their production. The people who are truly affected by iPad production are seen as being so far away, in so alien of locations, that empathy cannot take hold. People talk about how hard these oppressed workers have it, yet do not act upon their words because those people are not their people. Obviously it would be a very different story if we faced the environmental destruction that India and Jamaica do in mining bauxite, or if our workers were dying from noxious chemicals or suicide in our factories as do the ones in China.
• Shauna: In my research, I have found that the growth of cotton is very controversial and the various stages of development are harmful to the environment in many ways. Cotton can be considered one of the worlds dirtiest and most hazardous crop due to its heavy use of insecticides and chemicals. It is also considered to be one of the worlds thirstiest crops. Many of these environment damages are not felt in the countries where cotton is consumed , it is felt in the communities where it is produced (Facts and Figures). “Only 2.4% of the worlds arable land is planted with cotton, yet cotton accounts for 24% of the worlds insecticide market and 11% of the sale of global pesticides” (Chapagain, 192). Pesticides used on cotton crops are hazardous not only to insects but to humans as well. There are four main pesticides used in cotton production:
• Aldicarb, a powerful nerve agent, is one of the most toxic pesticides applied to cotton worldwide and the 2nd most used pesticide in global cotton production. Just one drop of aldicarb, absorbed through the skin, is enough to kill an adult.
• Endosulfan is widely used in cotton production and is the dominant pesticide in the cotton sector in 19 countries. In a single province of Benin, at least 37 people died from endosulfan poisoning in just one cotton season.
• Monocrotophos Despite being withdrawn from the US market in 1989, it is widely used in developing world countries. In 1997, Paraguay’s Ministry of Health and Welfare identified it as being responsible for causing paralysis in children living in cotton growing areas.
• Deltamethrin a nerve agent is applied in over half of the cotton producing countries. Medical analysis in a community in a South African village located on the edge of a major cotton production area found traces of deltamethrin in human breast milk.

(Environmental Justice Foundation)

Much of these hazardous pesticides are a threat to global freshwater resources. “Hazardous pesticides are known to contaminate rivers in USA, India, Pakistan, Uzbekistan, Brazil, Australia, Greece and West Africa” (Environmental Justice Foundation). In the processing stage of cotton, the average volumes of water use in wet processing (bleaching, dying and printing) are 360m3/ton. About 136m3/ton is in used the cotton textile stage (Chapagain, 193). Perhaps the worst case of water consumption due to the processing of cotton is happening in Uzbekistan. The Aral sea, once the fourth largest body of water, has been reduced to just 15 percent of its formal volume in order to irrigate the 1.47 million hectares of cotton fields in the area. The depletion of this body of water has also caused the disappearance in the sea’s twenty four species of native fish in its waters (Environmental Justice Foundation). There are also many human right violations happening in the cotton producing and manufacturing industry that many consumers are not aware of, as it is ‘not happening in their backyard’. In China, the number one producer of cotton and also the worlds largest importer and consumer of cotton (The Dying Fields), there is evidence of sweatshop labour in the textile production of Cotton. The Pingdingshan Cotton Textile company has been reported to employ workers that only make sixty-five cents and hour and must work two-day shifts in often 100° plus heat. (New York Times).. Even when people hear about the atrocities surrounding the production of cotton, the want and need for simple cotton products outweigh the disasters surrounding its production.