Reader Challenge: Can You Find 10 Slave-Free Consumer Products?

by Jennifer Kimball · 2009-07-30 13:08:00 UTC
Topics:

This post is part of a challenge in tandem with the Human Trafficking Project.  You can check out the other half of the challenge there.

The Reality: My name is Jenn Kimball, and I am a contributing writer for the Human Trafficking Project blog. Earlier this month, I wrote a post about slavery and the products we buy and use every day. Amanda Kloer wrote a post for this site about fair trade and "the slave behind your bargain" as well. Sadly, even without intending to, we can be promoting slavery through our habits as consumers.

We decided to cross post this week to continue this conversation and to challenge readers to research options for buying products that were not made with slave labor.

As more people are becoming aware of the ways that the products we buy may be made in exploitative conditions and/or by slaves, more people are demanding fair trade products. Fair Trade products are made in non-exploitative, sustainable ways that pay their producers a fair, living wage. Yet, despite increased attention to the need for fair trade products, many industries still use slave labor; it can be incredibly difficult to know for sure if the t-shirt you bought was made by someone laboring in terrible conditions (and the "Made in the USA" label is no guarantee). While the role slaves play in the coffee and chocolate industry has garnered a great deal of attention, many other products we buy and use daily are also tainted by slavery, even if we do not realize it.

The Challenge: Find places to buy all of the items on the shopping list from fair trade or other slave-free sources.

Perhaps because I am in the midst of moving, I am particularly struck by the fact that the furniture and household goods that I buy (or hopefully pick up for free. . .) may be available to me because someone else was exploited in their production. Electronics, furniture, and other basic household items do not get the kind of fair trade/slavery free attention other types of items do.

Here is the shopping list:

  1. Couch

  2. Stereo

  3. TV

  4. Flowers

  5. Rug

  6. Lamp

  7. Rice

  8. Curtains

  9. Coffee Table

  10. Coffee

The Reward: Amanda and I will post the best list/resources that we receive and credit the authors. In addition to being credited on our sites, your work will help others find and buy products that do not support slavery.

Image from gsl.uml.edu

Jennifer Kimball
PREVIOUS STORY:
The Body Shop Fights Child Sex Trafficking with..... Lotion?
NEXT STORY:
Today is National Human Trafficking Awareness Day, how are you going to take action?

COMMENTS (7)

    Comment Policy

    · All fields are required to comment.

    [X]

    Comments on Change.org are meant for further exploration and evaluation of the campaign on Change.org. To that end, we welcome constructive comments. However, we reserve the right to delete comments which, as determined solely in our discretion: (1) are offensive, abusive, or off-topic; (2) include content solely intended to personally attack the campaign creator, (3) are designed to subvert or hijack comment threads rather than contribute to them; and/or (4) violate our terms of service and/or privacy policy. Repeat offenders may be permanently removed from the site at our discretion. Please also be advised that: (A) we do not actively curate and/or monitor in any manner whatsoever the comments made on the Change.org platform, and (B) the creator of each campaign on Change.org may remove any comment at her/his/its discretion.