Granola, "More with Less" and Fair Trade

This morning I made a batch of granola, out of my “More With Less” cookbook. Cereal here is really expensive - $7 / box for mediocre, weevil-infested no-name cereal. But there are oats, and I’ve been intending for months to make granola. It’s a hot job because it requires the oven to be on for 45min. But now I have breakfast cereal for the next several weeks.

Flipping through the cookbook though got me thinking… the premise of the cookbook is that people in North America / Europe should reduce their consumption of over-packaged, high fat, high protein, high sugar foods. Hard to argue that. But I paused this morning, thinking, I am living in Africa, where the effects of rich world overconsumption are stongest. And in fact, one thing that I have realized is that rich world overconsumption includes the rich in poor places too. Even on a salary which would be very modest in North America I can have a lavish lifestyle compared to those around me. And I do; I drink imported coffee, eat canned tuna, buy fancy French cheese, have a computer and internet access at home. While 40% of the children in my clinic are stunted or wasted or both.

The CBC Radio “Dispatches” podcast from April 17 had an article about chocolate. And the fact that much of the mainstream chocolate is produced by virtual (or actual) slaves, often by children. They even featured a discussion on child slaves trafficked from Burkina Faso (which sadly had a seemingly unending supply of uneducated, impoverished families with nothing to eat with multiple children to feed) to Côte d’Ivoire to work on cocoa plantations.
(As an aside, you may find something interesting on the April 30th edition too).

I knew about these things long before I lived in Africa. I tried to buy fair trade, to live relatively simply, to commute by bike / transit rather than car when possible. Most of my friends are the same. But living (albeit in a protected way) it is something else entirely.

So the question that arises – yes, but is there anything one can do?

I think there is; I think if everyone tried to make some effort, we could make a difference… for example…
- buy fair trade coffee and chocolate and other goods; support stores such as “Ten Thousand Villages” and don’t support stores with exploitive practices.
- become aware of the issues, support global NGOs
- encourage the government to work towards their commitments of 0.7% of GDP to go towards foreign aid (both Canada and the US donate much, much less than that).
- act locally – volunteer, donate to your local food bank, plant trees
- decrease your carbon emissions – walk/bike more, drive less, lower your thermostat / raise the temp of the AC, avoid over packaged goods

Some food for thought (its better to be doing something than wallowing in guilt!).