Tag Archives: forced labor

Washington closes forced labor loophole

2016-03-03 Comments Off on Washington closes forced labor loophole

The biggest news in coffee last week did not come out of Portland or Seattle or LA, but out of Washington: President Obama signed the Trade Facilitation and Trade Enforcement Act of 2015 into law.  Here’s what it has to do with coffee. . .

Brazil and the “S-Word”

2015-12-11 Comments Off on Brazil and the “S-Word”

The Atlantic slave trade left a ruinous legacy everywhere, but in the Americas, perhaps no country was more affected than Brazil.  During a ghastly period of more than 300 years, estimates suggest that somewhere between four and five million slaves were delivered to its shores by slave traders—more than one-third of all Africans dragged to […]

Can we afford to protect children in the coffee fields?

2015-08-20 Comments Off on Can we afford to protect children in the coffee fields?

The text of the 2008 U.S. Farm Bill is more than 600 pages long.  Buried somewhere near the middle, under “Subtitle C–Miscellaneous,” is section 3205, which calls for the creation of a Consultative Group to Eliminate the Use of Child Labor and Forced Labor in Imported Agricultural Products.  Its mandate?  Recommend actions companies can take […]