Thursday 14 July 2016

F.E.P. top 10 eating tips

The Food Empowering Project has a list of tips on their website that will help you eating with purpose and make conscious choices. I find them really important and useful, so I copied them here. But don't forget to check their page for links and more useful information. Knowledge is power!


F.E.P. TOP 10 EATING TIPS:
1. Go vegan – For the animals, the environment, humanity, and your health.
2. Shop with care – Minimize your support of corporations that violate human and animal rights.
3. Choose organic – Agricultural chemicals hurt workers, the environment, and your health! Strive to buy organic whenever possible.
4. Ethical chocolate – Before buying, check our chocolate list.
5. Speak up! – Use your voice when you shop. Fill out comment cards, send email comments, or speak to store managers about available food options.
6. Bring your own – Use reusable bags, silverware, and containers when you shop and eat out. Avoid plastic and bring your own bags when you buy groceries and produce (reuse!).
7. Buy local – Support the farmers’ market in your community.
8. Sign up for our e-alerts.
9. Spread the word – Share what you learn with others!
10. Think outside the bottle – Avoid buying water in plastic bottles.
And although the following are things you might not be able to do immediately, they are just as important to consider:
    • Grow Your Own! Convert part of your yard to a garden and grow your own food, or find a community garden in your area.
    • Join a food Co-op or Community Supported Agriculture program.

Tuesday 12 July 2016

There's a bitter side to chocolate and you should know about it

I was browsing the internet the other day and I found a documentary called The Dark Side of Chocolate (look for the link in the end of the article). I'm kind of a chocoholic, so that got my attention. It was about something I had never heard about before or even thought about: child traffic, labour and slavery in cocoa plantations, especially in Ivory Coast and Ghana. 

 I watched the full documentary, I red some articles about that too and now I want to tell you all about it.  Apparently, that wonderful candy most of us love is made with the blood of suffering children that are ripped off their families, abused, deprived of education and they aren't even payed. This goes against everything stated by the International Labor Organization and by the United Nations International Conventions on child labour. The greatest problem is that this is done with the knowledge of this countries governments and also of the major chocolate manufacturers, such as Nestle and Hershey, for example. 

But let's start from the beginning.

According to the Food Empowering Project and Anti-Slavery, Ivory Coast and Ghana, in West Africa, are the main cocoa producers in the world, responsible for 70% of the world cocoa beans production. According to the same sources, chocolate industry is worth more than 100 billion dollars a year, so, to begin with, we have a huge contrast here: one of the most profitable industries of the planet gets its main ingredient - cocoa beans -  in some of the poorest countries and harvested by some of the poorest people of the world. 

It all starts in the countries nearby, such as Mali and Burkina Faso, that, as we all know, are two of the poorest countries in Africa. There, children ages between 12-16 (or younger) are kidnapped, sold by their families to smugglers or allured with promises of a better living and a good salary. They are taken by middlemen and smugglers and, in most cases, they never see their families again. 

When they arrive at Ivory Coast or Ghana they are brought to cocoa plantations where they have to work 10 or more hours a day, carry heavy loads and use dangerous tools such has hatchets. Poorly fed, these children are deprived of any education. If they slow down, complain or try to escape they suffer beatings. They don't get any payment. Sometimes it's the family who sold them who gets a little money. 



Farmers, governments, industries, they all deny this, but the hidden cameras in the documentary "The Dark Side of Chocolate" show us the real truth behind all this "happy" industry. So, while our over weighted kids are playing and eating mouthfuls of chocolates, african kids are starving and being abused so they can harvest cocoa for us. Probably, they never even tried chocolate in their lives.  



Major companies such as Nestle, Mars, Hershey say that they don't know anything about child labour and slavery on the plantations and suppliers they buy from. They claim they don't own the plantations and can't control what's going on there. But can we really believe this? Do they really want us to believe that they are impotent before this major issue? We're talking about some very powerful and rich companies. They can buy and control their plantations. They can implement rules, they can CHOOSE from where to buy their cocoa beans. West Africa is not the only place where cocoa beans are produced. If those companies made a stand for what's right, maybe there wouldn't be so many abused children in those countries. Maybe they could be enjoying proper education and playing around like OUR kids, while adults go to work for a fair salary. The thing is, child labour, slave labour actually, is cheaper. And that's what those companies live for: money, profit, numbers. And that's what those children are for them: another number, profit. 



I'm not saying you should stop buying chocolate. I'm saying you should KNOW WHAT YOU'RE BUYING. And look for alternatives. Because there are some. I totally understand that some brands are hard to find, especially for those who live outside USA, like me. But if we demand them, things start showing up.  HERE is a link for chocolate brands approved by the Food Empowerment Project. So next time you have chocolate cravings, please favor those slavery free brands. For them. For me. For you. For our future.




BIBLIOGRAPHY
Pictures found on Google.
Watch the documentary The Dark Side of Chocolate HERE


Thursday 7 July 2016

The Go Green Movement

Hello and welcome to my new space!

So, what is the Go Green Movement?

The GGM is a movement I'm starting to raise awareness to the harms we're doing our Planet and ourselves. The goal is to help inform you how your small everyday choices are affecting and endangering the environment, our Home planet, your own self and even other people. We should all be making conscious choices, but with the way things work, we don't get enough information to understand the real impact of our actions. 
Here you'll find some of that missing info, tips, alternatives and so on. So stick around if you're interested in:

√ Making conscious choices
√ Know what you're eating and wearing
√ Eco-fashion
√ Environment
√ Save the planet
√ Help other people
√ Organic food, clothes, materials, brands...
√ Sustainability
√ Cruelty-free
√ A healthier way of life
                                        And much more!


    Save the Earth, save yourself!

    PS- I do not belong to any NGO such as PETA or GreenPeace. This blog is not endorsed by any group, brand or association.
    © THE GO GREEN MOVEMENT
    Maira Gall