Black Gold

Today's case about Starbucks and the coffee supply chain reminded me of a particularly impactful documentary I watched in one of my classes in undergrad called Black Gold:  http://blackgoldmovie.com/story. The movie highlights the inequalities present in the coffee supply chain with a focus on struggling coffee farmers in Ethiopia. The documentary is definitely worth a watch.

Thinking about this movie and the plight of Ethiopian coffee farmers made me realize that I haven't really given much thought to the farmers and field laborers who produce the grapes that we enjoy as wine at the end of each class session. Some cursory research has revealed that inequality and poor labor conditions unfortunately extend to wine production as well: https://qz.com/818622/denmarks-supermarkets-are-refusing-to-stock-south-african-wines-made-by-slavery-in-the-vineyards/.

I don't know what the answer is here. I know Fair Trade coffee has risen to prominence, but I'm less sure of its actual impact beyond making the end consumer feel a little better at the register, and the practice has come under extensive criticism: https://ssir.org/articles/entry/the_problem_with_fair_trade_coffee. It appears that the world of wine is trying a similar model, with Fair Trade wines available (albeit in small quantities): https://fairtradeusa.org/products-partners/wine and http://www.fairtrade.org.uk/en/buying-fairtrade/wine. We also saw Starbuck enact C.A.F.E. Practices, but I'm not sure those are directly applicable to the wine industry.

At the end of the day, as a consumer we can hold wine producers accountable for how they treat their workers, but this assumes we have awareness of the conditions these workers face. Not exactly a perfect solution...

Feel free to share any ideas/solutions in the comments!