Fair Trade: Is it Fair?

How do we help producers in developing countries achieve better trading conditions?  Through an organized movement known as Fair Trade.  What is Fair Trade you may ask?  The concept is simpler than you think: fair.  Products that have the Fair Trade label ensure that the farmers and laborers who cultivate and produce these goods are rightly compensated.  Fair Trade aims to aid farmers in third world countries to improve sustainability not just for them, but also for the surrounding community.

Fair Trade hopes to ensure quality products, improving lives of others, especially in developing countries, and ultimately protecting the planet as a whole.  By educating disadvantaged communities about free markets and how to use them to their benefit, they hope to make these communities sustainable.  By buying fair trade goods, you yourself can make an impact, improve lives, and protect the environment.  When you buy fair trade goods, you are making a choice that ensures that farmers and workers are getting a fair deal, funds are invested in community development, and that the goods are overall good for the earth.  Noteworthy Fairtrade goods include handicrafts, sugar, tea, bananas, cocoa, honey, cotton, wine, other fresh fruits, chocolate, and flowers.

While Fairtrade seems to be a brilliant idea, there are many criticisms of the movement regarding ethics and limitations.  One problem is that little money may actually reach the developing countries.  The Fairtrade Foundation doesn’t monitor how much more retailers charge for fair trade goods, so it is very difficult to determine how much reaches the producers.   Other criticisms include that less money reaches the farmers, there is a lack of evidence of Fairtrade having an impact, it has an inefficient marketing system, it actually causes corruption instead of controlling it, it harms other farmers, and imposes politics on developing countries.  Even though these negative aspects exist, I think Fairtrade has the right aim and it is important to have a system like this in hopes to strengthen relationships with and development in these developing countries.


Check this site out!
http://www.fairtrade.net/

Photo Sources:
http://www.thewhyofdevelopment.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/Fair-Trade-Certified.jpg
http://www.j-sainsbury.co.uk/media/233682/fairtrade_coffee_farmer.jpg
http://www.haverford.edu/generated/organizations/fairtradeinitiative_logo.jpg

Kelleris & Wine

Vineyards in Denmark? Not your everyday sight.  With a mild to relatively cold climate, with long, dark, and cold winters, you wouldn’t expect many vineyards to be successful in this Welfare State.  Especially with the behemoth brewery Carlsberg, one might not think wine was very popular here.  However, to my surprise, wine consumption in Denmark is actually higher than beer consumption, with consumption levels at 48% for wine and only 38% for beer!

The past week we went to Kelleris Vineyard, located outside of Copenhagen in North Zeland, an area close to the Øresund coast.  The winery is owned by Susanne and Søren Jensen, where Søren showed us around, told us about wine’s history in Denmark, and let us taste some of their award winning wines!

Søren discussed how they are able to grow grapes in a colder climate.  One key factor was the process of crossbreeding certain vitis strains that allow hybrid plants to have a quicker maturation so cultivating can happen before the cold.

He also elaborated on the history of winemaking in Denmark; a very short history that is.  Danish wine has been a developing wine industry since the 20^th century and production wasn’t legalized until 1999.  Viticulture has continued to increase in Denmark ever since then.  In 2006, there were twenty vineyards in the country who together produced around 40,000 bottles of wine.  Today there are a little over 100 vineyards and they continue to produce good and consistent wines.

Wine emerged and became popular in Europe with the expansion of the Roman Empire throughout the Mediterranean, when many major wine producing regions that still exist today were established.  The Greeks, as well, were one of the major civilizations that involved wine in their culture.  Dionysus, the Greek god of wine, represented not only the intoxicating power of wine, but also its social and beneficial influences.

Wine has evolved as part of European life, culture and diet since the time of the Ancient Greeks and Romans.  As wine production became progressively refined, its popularity increased, and wine taverns became common features in cities throughout Europe.  The role of wine has changed from an important source of nutrition to a cultural complement to food.  Viticulture and winemaking as a whole have also evolved.  While wine still remains a natural product made almost solely from grapes, new technological innovations have provided better hygiene and control of the production process.

Check this site out! http://vinepair.com/wine-colonized-world-wine-history/

Photo Sources: 

http://coast-to-coast.dk/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/Kelleris-Ving%C3%A5rd-2.jpg

https://alisonmeetsworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/09/dsc_0005.jpg?w=520&h=348

http://media.trb.com/media/photo/2013-03/74909011.jpg

Plants of Power

While the focus of the course has predominantly been about how plants have changed world history, it is extremely important to focus on how current plants affect our lives.  Many plants have enormous impacts in everyday life, whether it is food products, clothing, medicines, or other uses.  Three of the most important “plants of power” today are corn, rice, and wheat.

Corn, especially in the United States, is a staple and is used in a myriad of different products.  The United States is the largest producer of corn in the world,  They produced 32% or the world’s corn crop in the early 2010s and exports about 20% of the corn production.  Corn grown for grain accounts for almost one quarter of the harvested crop acres in this country.  According to the National Corn Growers Association, about eighty percent of all corn grown in the US is consumed by domestic and overseas livestock, poultry, and fish production.  About 12% of US corn crops end up in foods that are consumed directly (like corn chips) or indirectly through high fructose corn syrup.  Corn also has a variety of industrial uses such as ethanol, a popular oxygenate in cleaner burning auto fuels.  Even a multitude of household products contain corn such as paints, candles, drywall, fireworks, sandpaper, dyes, crayons, shoe polish, antibiotics, and adhesives.  Because of Corn production, Americans consume far more processed foods and corn-based sweeteners in their diet.  Plant biologists at the University of California-Berkely, can test a strand of hair to determine how much corn is in your diet by looking for a form of carbon found in corn.  After tests, it was found that 69% of the carbon came from corn for the typical American.  One of the biologists Todd Dawson tested a strand of his hair after spending just three months in Italy and it dropped to 5 percent corn (http://edition.cnn.com/2007/HEALTH/diet.fitness/09/22/kd.gupta.column/). This just shows how much corn we Americans use in our diets, but also how it is not necessary with proof that countries like Italy and most of Europe live fine without it.

by far.

A more universal plant, wheat, has a rich history and is still a frontrunner in importance and production today.  Over 160,810 farms in the United States produce wheat and production exceeds 2.27 billion bushels a year (2007 Census of Agriculture).  The U.S. produces about 10% of the world’s wheat and supplies about 25% of the world’s wheat export market.  Wheat is predominantly used for food products, where a smaller amount is used for animal feeds and residuals.  Wheat started the Neolithic Revolution ten thousand years ago and continues to be a necessity, where it can survive in cold and dry climates where rice and corn cannot.

Like Wheat, Rice is an extremely important staple food for many countries across the World.  Rice is predominantly used for direct food consumption, unlike corn where it has many uses outside consumption.  Universally, rice accounts for more than 1/5^th of all calories consumed by humans.  Although it is a staple for so many countries, it is difficult to grow, requiring at least 2,000 liters of water to make one kilogram of rice.  Rice has the third largest annual production of all crops, below corn and wheat where China is the leading producer.

Check this site out! 

http://www.businessinsider.com/10-crops-that-feed-the-world-2011-9?op=1

Sources: 

http://edition.cnn.com/2007/HEALTH/diet.fitness/09/22/kd.gupta.column/

http://www.ncga.com/upload/files/documents/pdf/WOC%202013.pdf

Photo Sources:

http://www.motherearthnews.com/~/media/Images/MEN/Editorial/Articles/Magazine%20Articles/1972/07-01/Grow%20Your%20Own%20Corn/Corn.jpg

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3a/Wheat_harvest.jpg

http://all-that-is-interesting.com/colorado-aspen-forest/bali-rice-fields-2

Secure Our Food!

Food security is the state of having reliable access to a sufficient quantity of affordable, safe, and nutritious food at all times.  If a country does not have food security, they become increasingly at risk of famine, disease, and other negative issues.   With ever going threats to food security, the world looks for possible solutions.

 

One major threat to food security is population growth.  Global population has been growing for years and doesn’t look like it is slowing down.  Currently, the global population is around 7.3 billion people.  In 2050, the world population is supposed to grow by 1.7 billion to reach 9 billion people.  That means, in just 36 years, there will be 1.7 billion more people to feed.  There will need to be more land in order to produce more crops, but the additional population will also need places to live, so you see the conflict here.  There are already numerous challenges we face with the current population.  Millions are in extreme poverty and suffer from daily hunger while billions of people live in nations without food security.

With in increase in demand for food, solutions need to be presented in order to solve the problem of food security.  In the 1960s, a period of agricultural development known as The Green Revolution took place, where plants produced a higher yield, increasing food production.  Unfortunately, the focus on increasing plant yields left a multitude of consequences.  Fertile land was degraded, water and soil were polluted by new agrochemicals, and land eroded as well.  With the increasing population, urbanization and industrialization have plagued fertile land, caused climate change, depleted forests, and decreased the amount of farmland available; all contributing factors to countries food security.

So what are the solutions?  How can a country ensure food security?  One solution, that is not completely ethical, fair, or necessary is land grab.  Stronger nations take advantage of poorer countries by purchasing or taking land in order to grow crops to safeguard their own food security.  These countries receive little to no compensation, farmers have to relocate, and the smaller holder farming gets converted to large industry farming.  This strategy is not a maintainable solution to the problem of food security.

Global populations need to realize the importance of sustainable smallholder farming also known as “save and grow.”  While it is definitely more difficult, this environmentally friendly way of farming is necessary for the future of food security.

Check this site out! http://www.who.int/trade/glossary/story028/en/

Photo Sources: 

http://www.counterpart.org/images/uploads/CPI_Food%20Security_Infographic_Rev(1).jpg

http://www.cartoonmovement.com/depot/cartoons/2012/02/upVkyajFSbGStsKzMjSKyw.jpeg

http://www.afhdr.org/wp-content/themes/AfHDR/timthumb.php?src=./AfHDR/images/chapter3.jpg&w=540&h=386&zc=1&cropfrom=