A Segue into bananas...#2

I love a good segue. I love the word, it's just a cool word. The only thing I like better than a segue, is this...

(Total digression, but did you know you can do a Christchurch red zone tour on segway?! If you're visiting, seriously check it out!)

Anyway, that pretty much ruined my segue so I'll start again. In my last blog post I shared a great recipe for Banana Nut Butter Choc Chip Cookies. Really easy and yummy. However, the issue concerning me today is with the key ingredient in my recipe, bananas. Specifically, the problem I have is with the bananas we eat here in NZ.

I won't discuss Fairtrade products at length in this post (a topic for another time, definitely) except to say that I love Fairtrade and I buy it wherever possible. In the absence of Fairtrade certified products, I look for other indications of ethical trading practice.

However, today I've been informed that what I thought was an ethical choice (in fact what I was TOLD was an ethical choice by the supplier) in my purchase of 'Dole' bananas, may not, in fact, be particularly ethical at all.
Have a look at this...

These are the bananas I buy every week. And this is what Dole claims on their own website.

Providing a safe, healthy, fair, and productive environment for all of our workers.

At Dole, ethical and fair treatment of our employees is one of our highest priorities. Working conditions in our operations are always designed to protect the health, safety, and well-being of all our employees. Our workers are trained and required to wear protective clothing appropriate to their activities. Health and safety programmes are also implemented.

We practice non-discriminatory policies and are an equal opportunity employer following the International Labor Organization’s principles. With a full-time, stable workforce in more than 90 countries worldwide, we strictly comply with applicable labor laws in each of the countries where we operate.

We have adopted the SA 8000 certification, a global social accountability standard promoting management systems that upgrade working conditions. It is therefore our policy not to employ children and to instruct our suppliers not to purchase from producers that do. We also work with credentialed trade union representatives elected by its workers.

That sounds pretty good right? Well, when you hit the ground and do some research the findings are quite different according to this OXFAM study which has just been released.

Despite claims to the contrary, many of the individuals interviewed by the Oxfam team confirm that children under the age of 15 are employed working long hours on the banana plantations.
There are existing OHS concerns, especially in relation to chemical spraying which is known to happen even while workers are in the plantations.
Together with unreachable quotas of production, intensely physical work with few breaks, minimal pay (sometimes below the minimum wage), worn out safety gear failing to be replaced, failure to pay overtime wages even though workers are expected to meet required targets or face suspensions, poor communication and lack of safety training and even military involvement in trade union affairs (?!), it's amazing the 'ethical' stickers ever made it to the fruit in the first place. By who's standard of ethics are they trading, I'd like to know?

I, for one, do not want people to have to work in these conditions in order for me to be able make my banana cookies. I hope you can see how completely ridiculous this is! These people work with blood, sweat and tears, every day for hours and hours, just scraping by...so that we can...what? Eat a banana? This particular quote from the very lengthy Oxfam report really got me cranky. Be reminded that this is the equivalent size of approximately 4 rugby fields...

"A woman worker under Asiapro working as a deleafer in a Dole-managed farm in  Maragusan, said that she has to deleaf a 4.0-hectare land all by herself, twice a week. In order to keep her job, her grade must not go below 78 percent. Otherwise, she will be relieved from work. Thus, in order to meet the grade requirement, she sometimes works beyond the prescribed time and even when aerial spraying is ongoing. " 

The Labour and Environmental Situation in Philippine Banana Plantations Exporting to New Zealand pg32

It turns out that I'm not the only one who has a problem with this. Oxfam has mounted this media campaign today which has concluded with Dole deciding to withdraw their 'Ethical' labeling on their products. It's a win...right?! Well, no actually. I want the label back!

Dole, I don't want you to take the labels off, I want you to FIX the problems in your plantations with your workers so that you can legitimately leave your labels on. That is the real problem and this is what we want thank you very much. I am really pleased that you have stopped duping the public with your unethical 'ethical' labeling, but in the end - it's still just a label. I want your plantations to continue, I don't want these workers to lose their jobs, but I DO want you to start treating them fairly. What we want is changed practices in your plantations, and then I'll gladly start buying your products again.

Oxfam's campaign

But until you can show me that you've changed, I will be changing my supplier. For those of us in NZ, you can look out for All Good Bananas, which are certified Fairtrade (sometimes a little green, but still tasty). I can get them in my local New World and I did buy some just the other day. Slightly more expensive than the Dole option, but what kind of price are we going to put on someone else's fair and ethical labour conditions?