Working conditions in plantations

One of the main features of plantation agriculture is cheap labor. Farmers work the lands owned by multinationals  with their hands in really hard conditions (heat, humidity, long working days…) and they receive very little money in exchange. Sometimes workers are slaves. Many people in the richest countries are not aware that they are consuming products made by slaves (or they prefer not to think about this).

Here you have some links where you can learn more about working conditions in the plantations:

COCOA PLANTATIONS AND CHOCOLATE:

http://www.antislavery.org/english/campaigns/take_action/take_action_on_cocoa.aspx

http://www.johnrobbins.info/blog/is-there-slavery-in-your-chocolate/

http://www.globalexchange.org/blogs/fairtrade/2010/08/04/film-shows-cocoa-child-slavery-continues/

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/john-robbins/is-there-child-slavery-in_b_737737.html

PINEAPPLE PLANTATIONS: 

 http://www.consumersinternational.org/news-and-media/press-releases/2010/10/supermarket-price-wars-wrecking-developing-world-communities,-new-investigation-reveals

http://www.fairfood.org/blog/blog-post/2009/06/29/the-pineapple-sweet-or-sour/

SUGARCANE PLANTATIONS:

http://www.hrw.org/en/news/2009/09/16/child-labor-sugarcane-plantations-el-salvador-drops-70

RUBBER PLANTATIONS:

http://www.newsfromafrica.org/newsfromafrica/articles/art_10283.html

http://www.samfu.org/downloads/the_heavy_load_2008.pdf

BANANA PLANTATIONS:

http://www.bananalink.org.uk/content/view/79/39/lang,en/

And this is a video that shows some former slaves who worked in a cocoa plantation in the Ivory Coast. They were freed by an antislavery organization. The video is short and it´s subtitled and you won´t find difficulties to understand what their experience was like. I strongly recommend you to watch it: 

What can consumers do to stop abuse and help improving the working conditions of the workers of the plantations?

In developed countries consumers can choose among a large variety of products and their choices can put presure on those multinationals that use cheap or slave labor in their plantations. Choosing a specific brand of chocolate or coffee is a personal decision and everyone has to decide if he/she prefers to buy products  produced by slaves or products made by farmers who receive a fair salary. 

National and international organizations have started boycott campaigns to make the multinationals change their policy towards plantation workers. This is a link that suggests some actions people can start to fight against unfair situations in plantations: 

http://www.antislavery.org/english/campaigns/take_action/take_action_on_cocoa.aspx

And finally, this is a list of places where you can buy fair trade products, that is, products cultivated or made by workers who have been fairly payed and whose rights have been respected. Many of these products are also organic (produced ecologically, respecting the natural cicle and without using chemical fertilizers and pesticides): 

http://www.sellocomerciojusto.org/stakeholders/