Cashews

[Springtime]

I don't know if this has been discussed on here before, but i stumbled on an article last night about cashews.

Well, (sarcastic "surprise surprise"),the workers in the "cashew industry" in India and Sri Lanka work under terrible conditions. The reporters who wrote the article had been to cashew-factories and talked to the workers, and the stories made me feel so angry and powerless.

The women whose job it is to crack the shells sit on the floor, working 10-hour shifts for under the national Indian minimum-wage. They didn't even have a bathroom, they had to go outside.
Noone in the factory had any ind of protective clothing, even though cashew shells contain toxins, so the workers hands were completley deformed by scars.

Please, please, please cashew eaters, buy fair-traded cashews! We have to support the workers!

I know there are so many things out there that are dead wrong, and we should do our best to buy fairly traded goods every time, but i think it's important to spread this kind of information to boost the change.

love
/r

[rayofsunshine]

Thanks for the information

[Blazin'Jane]

Yes, thank you!

[spicyfull]

How do you know what you are buying? Is it on the Label? Thanks for Sharing.

[Springtime]

Fair Trade is basically a certification that the thing you buy has been made by people who have gotten a decent pay. look it up on wikipedia, lots of info on there. You should be able to find a link to your national fair trade-organisation, and they will list the produce avaliable.

Basically it has to do with produce that comes from "the thrid world": cotton, coffee, cacao/chocolate, bananas et.c. to stop the rich western world from exploiting workers. I think it's very important to look for fairly traded things, because if it's not fair trade and made in a "thrid world" country, you can be pretty sure the workers are being exploited somehow.

/r

[sport]

I get mine from Shazzie but she get them from David Wolfe.
I have checked both sites and they say nothing about the condition of the workers. The entire emphasis is on the fact that they are so carefully produced by hand for my benefit. It made me feel very selfish.

[Dimond]

I was very happy to find out the cashews I've been selling are Fair Trade. :) Now I will try to always ask.

[SweetTangerine]

thank you for sharing. I will talk to my co-op next time I am in.