We know this, we knew this. The story is being told over and over. And yet all stays the same for farmers of coffee, cacao, bananas, etc. We, the consumers in the "developed world", are addicted to low prices. For food and also for clothing. And the stockholders of big co.'s want their dividends.
So the farmers farm till the very end. Then they pack up and go to the big cities. Where there is no work for all the newcomers. They live in deplorable conditions. Young men leave and try to get to elsewhere: the US, Europe. They are the immigrants that are not welcome. They have problems and in some cases they are a problem. Usually those who already have a hard life pay a (too) high price.
On the other hand there are many success-stories when it comes to immigrants - enriching the country they moved to.
It would be so much better for all, and so much cheaper in the end, if we paid a bit more for what we consume. People should not be forced to leave their family, their country. They should not be traveling in overcrowded boats, risking their lives, trying to reach a better country.
It would be so much better if we spent our money on Earth and better the conditions of our fellow-inhabitants.
Thanks so much for this great analysis, and for going into so much more detail than on the podcast. I wrote my senior thesis in 1979 on the failure of production strikes by cocoa farmers in Ghana in the 1930s. My thought was that the concentration of power in the hands of the urban colonial elite led the trading class to undermine the strikes. What you say about the Rawlings approach fits with that -- only when farmers gained more political power could they get a bigger slice of earnings. But it's also clear that no one country can offset the increasingly concentrated power of global buyers. So maybe the only route forward for the farmers is, as you say, if a big jump in demand from India and China meets ecological constraints on expanding supply. That said, I'd rather have the farmers benefit from a more equitable distribution of revenues than from skyrocketing prices!
Great piece, thanks for sharing again. And interesting that the world cocoa price really took off since you wrote this piece, with farmers getting record farmgate prices (even if not matching world price increases) as Ivorian production remains historically high (with fluctuations). As I understand it, higher farmgate prices can reduce farmer poverty and so child labour, while also making it possible to make greater use of fertilizer to increase yields.
For all its faults, all is not lost if the internet can still make such analyses available.
We know this, we knew this. The story is being told over and over. And yet all stays the same for farmers of coffee, cacao, bananas, etc. We, the consumers in the "developed world", are addicted to low prices. For food and also for clothing. And the stockholders of big co.'s want their dividends.
So the farmers farm till the very end. Then they pack up and go to the big cities. Where there is no work for all the newcomers. They live in deplorable conditions. Young men leave and try to get to elsewhere: the US, Europe. They are the immigrants that are not welcome. They have problems and in some cases they are a problem. Usually those who already have a hard life pay a (too) high price.
On the other hand there are many success-stories when it comes to immigrants - enriching the country they moved to.
It would be so much better for all, and so much cheaper in the end, if we paid a bit more for what we consume. People should not be forced to leave their family, their country. They should not be traveling in overcrowded boats, risking their lives, trying to reach a better country.
It would be so much better if we spent our money on Earth and better the conditions of our fellow-inhabitants.
Thanks so much for this great analysis, and for going into so much more detail than on the podcast. I wrote my senior thesis in 1979 on the failure of production strikes by cocoa farmers in Ghana in the 1930s. My thought was that the concentration of power in the hands of the urban colonial elite led the trading class to undermine the strikes. What you say about the Rawlings approach fits with that -- only when farmers gained more political power could they get a bigger slice of earnings. But it's also clear that no one country can offset the increasingly concentrated power of global buyers. So maybe the only route forward for the farmers is, as you say, if a big jump in demand from India and China meets ecological constraints on expanding supply. That said, I'd rather have the farmers benefit from a more equitable distribution of revenues than from skyrocketing prices!
This is a scholarly work. Thanks for your enlightenment.
Fascinating!
Paul Giles
Coffee and cocoa grow in the same regions in similar situations. How do the two businesses interact?
Great piece, thanks for sharing again. And interesting that the world cocoa price really took off since you wrote this piece, with farmers getting record farmgate prices (even if not matching world price increases) as Ivorian production remains historically high (with fluctuations). As I understand it, higher farmgate prices can reduce farmer poverty and so child labour, while also making it possible to make greater use of fertilizer to increase yields.
Great read! I especially appreciated the cocoa supply chain charts.
I also wrote on Ghana here:
https://yawboadu.substack.com/p/how-countries-get-into-currency-crises
Ivory Coast here:
https://open.substack.com/pub/yawboadu/p/history-of-cote-divoireivory-coast?r=garki&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
Can African chocolate set up their own grinding and export operations.
Can they do more of the supply chain
Another hidden, differed cost of capitalism: exploitation of farmers.
The world is reaching a point where capitalism’s debt cannot be serviced, so to speak.
That was amazing! I learnt so much and such a span of history.
Wow, this a great piece! Pass it on.