The Labor Behind Your Food

Cocoa From Child Labor

The cocoa in the chocolate you love may come from the Ivory Coast, where child labor and trafficking is rampant. More than 100,000 children as young as 9 labor long hours under difficult working conditions in the Ivory Coast’s cocoa industry. At least ten thousand children have been the victims of human trafficking and enslavement.

The International Labor Rights Forum is currently calling on Hershey, Mars and Nestle to stop sourcing from suppliers who use child labor [PDF].

High Marks on LBGT Issues

Studies consistently show gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender employees are at serious risk of employment discrimination.

However, some companies stand out for promoting sexual orientation diversity. Campbell’s, Coca-Cola, and Pepsi all received perfect scores from the Human Right Campaign’s annual Corporate Equality Index of the best companies for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender employees to work for.

Not-So-Sweet Pineapple

The pineapple industry is riddled with issues surrounding worker labor rights and working conditions. The International Labor Rights Forum sites numerous violations in the Philippines and Costa Rica. In Costa Rica, workers can be legally fired for attempting to form unions. In the Philippines, employees are often replaced with contract laborers—more than half of Dole Phillipines’ workers are contract laborers. Dole and Del Monte are the largest global suppliers of pineapple.

Work Hazards

The U.S. Department of Labor reported in August that more than 5,000 people were fatally injured at work in 2008 [PDF]. Nearly one out of four deaths was the result of a transportation-related accident, the most common source of workplace deaths.

Nine percent of deaths in the workplace were the result of exposure to harmful substances or environments.

Unhealthy Farmwork

Farm workers labor for low wages under difficult working conditions. The median farm worker earned $382 a week in 2006, and farming had the highest poverty rates among occupational categories [PDF].

Annual work-related deaths are 2 to 4 times higher for farmworkers than for the general working population. It has been estimated that at least 10,000 to 20,000 farm workers experience pesticide poisoning each year, although actual cases are likely much higher.