Conscientious Consumerism

What is Conscientious Consumerism? 

con·sci·en·tious  

/ˌkänCHēˈenCHəs/

Adjective (of a person) Wishing to do what is right, esp. to do one's work or duty well and thoroughly.

con·sum·er·ism  

/kənˈso͞oməˌrizəm/

Noun The preoccupation of society with the acquisition of consumer goods.

Conscientious Consumerism is the practice of making ethical choices in the products that you use or buy. In 2012, I spent an entire year purchasing only fair-trade and ethically produced products as an experiment in promoting social justice and learning about ethical production.Through this project, I've come up with a set of guidelines that I use for all of my purchases: 

Food: 

-Fair Trade Chocolate ONLY

-Fair Trade Coffee ONLY

-Fair Trade Sugar ONLY

-Fair Trade Bananas ONLY

-Fair Trade Nuts and spices whenever possible

-Locally produced food whenever possible

In other areas, whenever possible, I will buy: 

Clothing:

-Certified Fair Trade garments

-Clothing made in the USA 

-Used/ cast off clothing/shoes from thrift stores

-Handmade from recycled materials

Household Goods:

-Fair Trade

-Used/cast off

Health and Beauty:

-Fair Trade

-Handmade

The goal is to not send  money to any company that does not tell me where its products are coming from, and to tell them why, meanwhile living a more simple and less stuff-filled life.  I also want to focus on supporting Fair Trade cooperatives and local artisans and farmers with my dollars. 

What IS Labor Trafficking?

The Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA) defines Labor Trafficking as "The recruitment, harboring, transportation, provision, or obtaining of a person for labor or services, through the use of force, fraud, or coercion for the purpose of subjection to involuntary servitude, peonage, debt bondage, or slavery."

The International Labor Organization provides a similar definition: "[Forced labor] is a situation where work or service is exacted from people under the menace of any penalty, and for which they have not offered themselves voluntarily.

Labor Trafficking general falls under one of three categories:

• Bonded labor, or debt bondage, is probably the least known form of labor trafficking today, and yet it is the most widely used method of enslaving people. Victims become bonded laborers when their labor is demanded as a means of repayment for a loan or service in which its terms and conditions have not been defined or in which the value of the victims’ services as reasonably assessed is not applied toward the liquidation of the debt. The value of their work is greater than the original sum of money “borrowed.”

• Forced labor is a situation in which victims are forced to work against their own will, under the threat of violence or some other form of punishment, their freedom is restricted and a degree of ownership is exerted. Forms of forced labor can include domestic servitude; agricultural labor; sweatshop factory labor; janitorial, food service and other service industry labor; and begging.

• Child labor is a form of work that is likely to be hazardous to the health and/or physical, mental, spiritual, moral or social development of children and can interfere with their education. The International Labor Organization estimates worldwide that there are 246 million exploited children aged between 5 and 17 involved in debt bondage, forced recruitment for armed conflict, prostitution, pornography, the illegal drug trade, the illegal arms trade and other illicit activities around the world.

{Source: ACF}