Blog post -inspections of import;pesticides

           

         Food consumed by the general public should be inspected, sanitary and free of pesticides. if it is not the people should be informed of such and able to make the decision on whether or not they want to take the chance of consuming food that may or may not be up to code. In a general sense, food should be kept in a
clean, sanitary, space. The Quality of food, unadulterated, is important because peoples lives matter, they shouldn't have to worry about their children or themselves getting sick because the quality of their food is questionable. Transporting and receiving food is a major part in the process of importing food and keeping it up to good quality. Many of the factors during transportation include food temperature, food condition, timeliness of storage, etc. these are essential because if any one of these are not done correctly it could drastically change the food.
       who is responsible for ensuring food safety? The FDA, which stands for food and drug
 administration, is responsible for protecting the health of  human and veterinary drugs, biological products, medical devices. Timmerman mentions arsenic pesticide multiple times throughout his book, which is a naturally occurring element widely distributed in soils and minerals.  Old agricultural soils may contain high levels of arsenic resulting from its former agricultural uses, levels too high to be considered legal. There is no real way of knowing whether our food contains this pesticide because this information is not open to the public "in 2001 the food and drug administration (FDA) inspected less than one percent of imported foods"(timmerman 189) not even half of our food was inspected so if the don't know, how are we supposed to know? It is their job to inspect and assure that that the food that is being imported is safe for human consumption,they're not doing what they should be if only one percent of food that will be distributed to the public is inspected.More than the legal amount of arsenic pesticide may or may not have been in the food however we would not know because the food was not inspected properly which is necessary for the welfare of the public.
      This is not something that can just go unaccounted for, this is something that can become extremely deadly to millions of people if not handled properly, this is important and that needs to be understood specifically by the FDA. Their jobs and millions of lives are on the line, the need to make a change quickly.

 





 

 








 

 

Blog post four-sustainable,no solutions.

 The lifestyle of a diver is not sustainable,especially not  with the conditions in which they're doing it in. Over the last century the price per pound that the divers get paid has be substantially decreased. In the video “my village,my lobster” it describes the life and working conditions of the divers and their families that have no choice but to live with them.

The people of Puerto Cabeza were making three fifty a Pound until it was cut almost in half,this only further limits their ability to provide for their family. In comparison to the other three found groups that we have read about the divers make more and have slightly better Living conditions however,all four are still living below the poverty line. When their wages were cut,unlike the south Americans, the people of Nicaragua and Puerto Cabeza protested to demand a fair living wage.

Many of the divers turned to Commercial diving in hopes that it would increase living standards with higher pay. Hundreds of the miskito diver have died,become injured,or even paralyzed due to poor work conditions. Many of them are not provided with proper gear to dive or care to help them after they resurface. Diving is one of the most dangerous jobs to have considering all of the extremely possible occur occurrences such as shark attacks,oxygen tanks cutting off,getting disease such as the bends and the men that risk their lives are not treated for.

This is not by any means a sustainable lifestyle,the average Nicaraguan live of off two cents a day. Two cents a day is not enough for anyone to live,eat,or survive, economically it took a turn for the worse in 2008 which in turn cut divers payments in have by over fifty percent. Due to the low income divers are forced to leave their families for long periods of time to make as much money as possible,which still won't be enough for them to live, while they work on the Boats where they don't eat or sleep well many of them starve,get sick and are poorly clothed. They will soon lose their only way of making ends meet due to the depletion of the lobster population which means that the two cents that they live off of now will soon come to an end. Most of these men will not be able to find another job or make a better life for themselves or their families because of the neurological damage that Timmerman mentions briefly that makes it hard for them to function. This is not a life anyone would as for,diving over a hundred feet fifteen times a day,suffering from mental and physical Ailments that go uncared  for. This life is no good and although there seem to be no solutions people still need to work around the negatives to find a plausible solution that'll benefit the people and uplift the economy. 

Looking into the plantations.

 Pesticides have become overwhelmingly popular as plantations have began to grow steadily along with demand.a Pesticide kills all unwanted creatures and insects however at some point that pesticide starts to sink into the crops. If you don't think about it the Pesticides arent that bad however once you come to the realization of what's in it and what it does to you,you begin to see the underbelly of it and wonder how healthy can it really be.  There are thousands of earth friendly ways to do the same job as the pesticide that are good for you and your food however the remain over looked by major corporations even though it is highly doscouraged (Timmerman 141). Just like anything else Pesticides have their pros and cons, they can protect you from diseases spreading but at what cost? It was noted in Timmerman book but that many people went on to sue due to the effects of Pesticides,one specifically because the chemicals in the food made them sterile.   These chemicals do more damage than anything and even though they are needed for the mass production of crops there are alternative ways to do the same thing In a healthier way.

Slavery in the ivory cost

 

 

 

 

 

 

Slavery

Slavery in Africa is not new, there has been slavery in and out of this country for centuries.

People have been sold  for labor so intense that anyone with a choice would not do so. These people live and work  with no chance of freedom, and if they so chose to try to escape they would be  viciously  beaten and punished. Much like the coffee farmers in south America slaves age ranges everywhere between small children and the elderly, usually families are auctioned off and children are separated from their parents at a young age. Growing up without any real will to live working for someone much stronger, more powerful, and in most cases highly educated is  not the most ideal living situation.
       Chocolate is something that most people enjoy however, not man people know the under belly of what really happens to make the chocolate they love so much. I ,for one, know the big corporations that have gone on to monopolize the chocolate industry, if you don't know try thinking of the most recognizable chocolate brands , think hard, got it? the ones you thought of would be the monopolizers. Im sure a lot of you have not stopped to think of how the chocolate is made or even where it comes from. The chocolate you love so much is harvested from slave labor, hard to believe but very true. This is an extremely disgusting and highly disturbing truth of the chocolate industry, many people without a way out get sucked into the slave work and with no other options this is how they live their lives. "The world is full of injustice and Ivory Coast is full of slaves."(timmerman 55) These are people, not property, not objects, there people with lives and families.  I applaud the brave men, women and children who endure this kind of life without a choice, who find a way to survive in conditions that most people couldn't adapt. Timmerman devotes substantial effort into the study of these people who are treated horribly, in hope that it'll bring enough light to the overwhelmingly disgusting situation to cause a change.
             Im sure that life for the farmer or middle men isn't ideal either, however I believe wholeheartedly that no one receives as bad of treatment as the slaves doing the heavy work. I know that, the things that timmerman describes in his book is not something I could deal with because much like most of the world, or at least the united states, I have been protected and sheltered my entire life. Much like the south Americans these people are put in unfathomable situations where there is no clear cut answer or solution because there are so many people above them who are there to hold them down and keep them in a position to where they can not get up. However unlike the south Americans these people on the ivory cost are in much worse shape, living in worse conditions with absolutely no chance of change. I know that this is a terrible situation for anyone but I also know I don't have the power to change this myself so I prompt more people to read the book, do the studying and help me make a change by helping them. I know that these people matter you should know as well.

Blog post one- campesinos

Deijah Lord-Pugh

Mrs. Mcgowen

ENG IV

August 16 2016

Campesinos

Who are they?..Campesinos are roughly translated to a Spanish peasant farmers. Throughout the book timmerman describes the work they endure under the conditions they are forced to do so in. As the author continues to describe his experiences while searching for answers it comes out from a Starbucks service agent that “the information you're requesting is proprietary information”. The workers who are not paid a living wage are further dehumanized when stripped of their identity and named property. The conditions are so terrible that “There are over one billion farmers and sixty percent of them live in poverty” the workers only receive a fraction of what Americans receive this includes money,food,clothing,etc.

What do they do?..One farmer has the productivity of ten workers, however they “get less than a dollar for selling the same amount” as the ten workers who have the productivity of one farmer. The worker's age range anywhere between small children to the elderly. They pick the pits out of cherries ,leave them out to be dried and processed. In continuation to this process one farmer is given three coffee processors and expected to do the work of ten or more people by themselves. Instead of hiring more workers to do the heavy lifting they utilize the farmers children to do tedious task such as bean picking or carrying heavy sacks.

        Why does this matter? Why is it important?. Because it's unfair. Many people have complained about the fact that “100% Columbian coffee” isn't exactly a hundred percent, However this is a first world problem with simple resolutions. The real problems such as poverty, abuse of child labor and underpaid, over-worked farmers are overlooked and ignored. These people who are stripped of their identities, named as property and work twice as hard as any American do not earn a living wage and can not possibly work to earn a living above poverty. They do not experience first world problems such as mislabeling, but much worse. They've been put into a hole they could not possibly dig out of without any idea that it was done.

                       These farmers..These families..This community of people are stuck living a life that they can not rebuild, can not leave, can not save. The cruel truth is that they're not paid enough to create a better life for themselves, which in turn means that they are stuck in an everlasting cycle that may be broken but is very unlikely. They remain unaware to the damage that has be done by the major corporations that make millions of dollars off of them while they make less than a dollar. Even if they possessed the knowledge and understood what has been going on there's not much that they can do about it, they can not leave because they don't have enough money to go anywhere, they can not quit because that would ensure little chance of survival. Their only option at this point is to wait it out and hope that it gets better.