Fair trade.

This term and last term we have been finding out about Fair trade. At first I did know any thing about Fair trade but now I know lots. So next time when I go shopping with mum. Mum you better watch out. We learnt about how Fair trade helps the producers and pickers in third world countries. As a consumer I will buy more Fair trade goods so I am supporting these poor child slaves. So next time you do your weekly shop buy Fair trade products and not Nestle, Mars or Hershey go cadbury all the way if you want chocolate.

Here is my writing about Fair trade.

Child slavery in the Chocolate Industry

Man don’t you love that sweet bar of Kit-Kat with the nice crunch of biscuit in the middle. Well behind the label it isn’t so sweet.

Child slavery has been used for years big company bosses employ them simply because its cheaper. That’s not right! If children do the work in place of adults they should get paid the same. One of the biggest cocoa producers the Ivory Coast has up to 200,000 children working on cocoa plantations alone. Most of these children are working under the worst form of child slavery. Would you like to send your children to work under these conditions? These are children from the ages 6-14 working 12 hours a day using dangerous tools like machetes and they aren’t even getting paid! These kids should at least have a minimum wage. Some children are forced to work. Other children get kidnapped straight of there door step. Or the other poor orphans get sold to companies for no more than $20 US each! That’s not fair humans are worth more than anything else on this planet!

Some of the cocoa plantations on the Ivory Coast supply brands like Nestle, Hershey’s and Mars. These companies’ especially Nestlé have been known for using child slavery. I have found out that Nestle have a factory in the Ivory Coast just down the road from a port. Doesn’t this tell you something? A brand known for using child slavery having a factory by a port in a country that has up to 200,000 children working on cocoa plantations alone! I think these poor children should be at school getting an education at least.

What would your life be like if you were one of these poor children?

Well you would wake up at 6.00 am and be shivering after another cold night in hardly any clothes and bare feet. You would walk out and grab your machete and start work. Now you have spotted your first cocoa pod you hold the branch carefully trying not to slip and cut your arm off. THWAK you slip and cut a massive gash in arm you need medical help. Your boss has none of it you are still forced to work. You keep working until 6.00 pm, your cut is still bleeding you are starting to feel drowsy so you lie down on the floor and try get to sleep. All of that just so you can enjoy an small bar of Kit-Kat. Don’t you feel selfish?

If you want to make a difference buy fair trade certified goods because they give more money to the producers and growers and they help build schools and medical centres. Also if you think Mars, Nestlé and Hershey’s should stop using child slavery or you want to help. Don’t buy their products it’s a simple as that!

By Callum Bryan. YR 8

8^th/4^th/13

Here is a sing that also goes with my writing.