Sweet Sugar for Us, Bitter Life for Bolivian Children

Luis is thirteen now, but he first left school to work full-time harvesting sugarcane when he was ten. He spends all day, sometimes up to 14 hours, every day cutting, hauling, and chopping the plants to be eventually processed into chocolate and slurpies and cupcakes for Americans and other wealthy Westerners. It's dangerous and incredibly difficult work. But Luis is not alone. He is just one of around 320,000 children in Bolivia thought to be exploited in child labor. And sugarcane production is one of the worst forms exploitative child labor.

Exploited and forced child labor in sugar production is an issue all over the world, from the Philippines to Bolivia. Sugarcane harvesting is an industry in which child labor and slave labor thrive for a number of reasons. First of all, the price of raw sugar today is the highest it's been in over 30 years, which is causing many farmers who left the industry to switch back. The crop is also an economic draw for poor and migrant families; the long growing season and multiple harvests provide steady income roughly between April and November, longer than most crops. Harvesting sugarcane is a dangerous and dirty task since most of it is still done manually.  The crops must be cut in the field, burned to remove unwanted foliage, and then chopped down the canes. They also must be stacked and loaded for transportation and processing. All of these factors mean that the job of harvesting sugarcane often go the the most powerless -- children and slaves.

Too much of the sugar available at the grocery store today and used to the create sweet treats that we enjoy come from places like Bolivia and the Philippines, where large portions of the industry uses child and exploited labor to harvest the sugarcane. In part, exploitation is so prolific because of a global demand for cheap sugar. And we are the people who are demanding that sugar.

So how can you reduce that demand and help reduce child labor in sugar? The easiest step is to buy Fair Trade sugar at the grocery store. Increasingly, grocery stores are carrying Fair Trade staples, like sugar and coffee, but they may still be difficult to find in some areas. If that's the case, you can buy it online.

But if you're busy and/or domestically-challenged like me, you're not making a lot of cookies from scratch. So how can you make a difference? There are a number of ways you can encourage the products you buy and the businesses you frequent to buy Fair Trade sugar. Does your workplace provide coffee and sugar for employees? Try creating a petition for Fair Trade sugar. Do you have a favorite coffee shop or bakery? Let them know that you're concerned about the sugar you eat being made by exploited children. When businesses hear from customers they value, they are more likely to meet those customers' requests and increase demand for fairly-produced sugar.

Child exploitation in the sugar industry is a serious problem, but it's something you can help by making better choices about the sugar you buy and encouraging businesses to do the same. When sugar is fair, it can be a sweet life for all of us.

Photo credit: dweekly