What do coffee, chocolate and tuna have in common? They’re all commodities produced in Africa — often under exploitative circumstances. Consumers are sometimes unaware that some of their food staples perpetuate abject poverty, irregular migration and even slavery in Africa.
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00:00 (gentle music)
00:02 Oil, gas, gold, cotton.
00:08 We all know that Africa is absolutely resource rich,
00:13 but what we don't think about quite as often
00:16 is the fact that many of our foods also come from Africa.
00:20 There's often a dark side to what the world sources
00:22 in Africa and keeps in its pantries.
00:26 Welcome to the flip side.
00:29 Across the African continent,
00:30 the production of many food staples,
00:33 such as coffee, chocolate, and fish,
00:37 involves exploitative methods.
00:39 And you, as the consumer, might be part of the problem.
00:44 For example, it's common practice in the coffee industry
00:47 that when the trading price of coffee is low,
00:50 farmers have to sell off their beans
00:52 for less than the cost of production.
00:55 And some of those farmers who grow those beans
00:57 are in Africa living in abject poverty.
01:01 And meanwhile, the middlemen involved in the trade
01:04 from national governments to global conglomerates
01:08 pocket the vast majority of the change.
01:12 I think one of the encouraging things that's happening
01:15 is that the dialogue has moved to the importance
01:19 of farmers being able to earn a living income.
01:22 And really, this is key towards
01:25 the improvement of lives for farmers and their families.
01:29 'Cause if we think about what a living income is,
01:32 it allows access to basic human rights.
01:35 And basic human rights include access to education.
01:38 But it's not just coffee
01:40 that can leave a bitter taste in your mouth.
01:42 Let's talk tuna.
01:44 At a fancy restaurant in Paris or London,
01:47 a small tuna steak of about 250 grams
01:50 can easily set you back 25 euros.
01:53 But the fisher in Senegal who caught the tuna on your plate
01:57 made only a few cents for it.
01:59 That's a thousand times a markup.
02:01 Exploiting the people who put food on our plates
02:04 has some serious repercussions.
02:06 (speaking in foreign language)
02:22 Senegalese fishers are now even resorting
02:25 to using their boats to carry irregular migrants
02:28 to Spain's Canary Islands.
02:30 (speaking in foreign language)
02:34 If only we paid Africa's small-scale coffee,
02:45 cocoa, or fruit growers what they deserve,
02:48 or gave the Senegalese fishers more than just a few cents,
02:52 we may not see such repercussions
02:54 that lead to more and more problems.
02:57 - There are a number of ways that you can get there.
02:59 And some of those ways include
03:02 that those actors in the supply chain
03:04 take a bit less profit from the product that they're selling
03:08 or that there's an increase
03:09 in the cost of the final consumer product.
03:11 How that's done is really up to that part
03:13 of the supply chain, but that's the dialogue
03:15 that really needs to happen now
03:17 because we can't continue for another 10, 20, 30 years
03:20 having the same conversations between you and I
03:23 or other actors.
03:24 I mean, it's just not acceptable.
03:26 - However, as a consumer, you can change this a little
03:30 by making better choices while shopping.
03:33 - Smallholder farmers are people just like me, like you,
03:38 like everybody listening to this program.
03:40 And they want their families to prosper.
03:44 And we have a role as consumers in enabling that.
03:47 (gentle music)
03:49 (crowd shouting)
03:54 - No!
03:55 - And that's the flip side.
03:57 (gentle music)
03:59 (gentle music)