Food Production

The life of a Chilean activist was threatened last week as a result of his involvement in a Danwatch investigation into avocado production and water theft in Chile. “Absolutely reprehensible,” say supermarkets that have been buying avocados from Chile.

Avocado production in Chile is draining water resources to such a degree that local residents now lack water. In the area where most of Chile’s avocados are grown, a battle is being waged over water rights. At least one supermarket chain has indicated it will change its purchasing policy for avocados from this area.

Avocado production in Chile is draining water resources to such a degree that local residents now lack water. In the area where most of Chile’s avocados are grown, a battle is being waged over water rights. At least one supermarket chain has indicated it will change its purchasing policy for avocados from this area.

Madagascar’s vanilla farmers struggle with serious problems of theft, debt spirals and child labour. A new Danwatch investigation reveals that businesses that sell vanilla in Danish supermarkets don’t know for sure whether or not they are selling stolen goods or vanilla grown using illegal child labour.

A new Danwatch investigation of Guatemala’s coffee industry reveals serious problems with illegal child labour and signs of forced labour such as armed guards, debt spirals, and confiscation of ID papers. Pricey, high-quality coffee is apparently no guarantee against violations.

In Brazil, coffee may be sprayed with pesticides that are illegal in the EU because they are acutely toxic and cause disease. Many workers apply pesticides without sufficient protective equipment, and pesticide poisoning is widespread. Even the drinking water contains traces of these dangerous pesticides.

Brazil’s coffee industry has serious problems with working conditions that are analogous to slavery, life- threatening pesticides and scarce protective equipment. Danwatch has confronted the world’s largest coffee companies with the facts of these violations. Jacobs Douwe Egberts admits that it is possible that coffee from plantations with poor labour conditions ended up in their products, and coffee giant Nestlé acknowledges having purchased coffee from two plantations where authorities freed workers from conditions analogous to slavery in 2015.

Danwatch har besøgt Brasiliens største kaffeproducerende stat, Minas Gerais, hvor halvdelen af Brasiliens kaffe bliver dyrket. Vi har besøgt kaffeplantager, interviewet kaffearbejdere, fagforeninger, eksperter og lokale myndigheder.

Danwatch har været med politiet og det brasilianske beskæftigelsesministerium på inspektion på en brasiliansk kaffeplantage, hvor 17 mænd, kvinder og børn, som var ofre for menneskehandel, blev befriet fra slavelignende forhold. To børn på henholdsvis 14 og 15 år havde arbejdet med at plukke kaffe på plantagen.

Francisco Paulo Pereira used to apply pesticides on a coffee plantation in Minas Gerais in Brazil without protective equipment. Today he is very ill and cannot feel the ground when he walks. Hear him explain how he learned to use pesticide by reading the label on the bottle.

40-50 percent of coffee workers in Brazil are working without a formal contract giving them the right to pension and sick leave. Hear coffee worker Elisabete Vitor da Costa explain how she was forced to sign blank documents instead of an official contract during the coffee harvest in 2014.

Serious exploitation and illegal immigrants behind canned tomatoes

For two Euros any European supermarket can sell you a bag of Basmati rice, but the Indian migrant workers, who carry the heaviest burden, see the smallest profit and remain in poverty.

Loans with usurious interest rates and aggressive marketing of fertilizer and pesticides imprisons Indians rice farmers in a debt spiral. Those who embarked upon organic rice farming say that the yields are not lower.

Ethiopian specialty coffee is big business, just not for the farmers who grow it. With scarce information and low cash-reserves they are easy prey for middlemen and see little of the profits made with the organically grown Arabica bean.

The Brazilian coffee market is a wild west of toxic pesticides, possibly leading to depressions, suicides and cancer.

Child labour, forced labour and violence in the shrimp industry

The farmers pay with their lives

Malformations is the price of eggs and bacon

Danish banks are betting on hunger

The EU is stealing tuna from Africa