According to a report by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation titled, FORCED LABOR IN THE UNITED KINGDOM, it states, “At the core of forced labor is the nexus between an individual’s vulnerability and a setting in which this individual’s
According to a report by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation titled, FORCED LABOR IN THE UNITED KINGDOM, it states, “At the core of forced labor is the nexus between an individual’s vulnerability and a setting in which this individual’s work or services can be exploited for profit without too much risk of discovery or prosecution. Tackling forced labor therefore requires attention to both of these”.
That attention then, needs to 1) eliminate their vulnerability and 2) create a setting to ensure the potential for exploitation is continuously monitored for possible prosecution. Technology is already under development to address both of these simultaneously to eliminate forced labor in supply chains; a starting point to eliminating modern slavery wherever it occurs.
Developing a platform for collaboration on the leading-edge technologies required to eliminate modern slavery allows ongoing research beyond supply chains alone and creating the team to make that happen is an underlying focus of this project with the development of a sustainable, long-term solution being the ultimate end goal. Collective action offers better results.
We have chosen the banana value chain as our first use case due to the enduring shelf life of green bananas and the ease of dealing with an autonomous product. The banana supply chain is also notorious for the labour abuses that it forces on its workers due to the imbalance of power between the production workers and the retailers that buy their products. But, to understand the inequality of this relationship and how to balance it better, we need to back up a bit and determine the causes of worker vulnerability and the setting that allows the exploitation. And to do that requires a deeper dive into understanding the supply chain between production workers at the plantation and the retailers in your local supermarket.
The current supply chain for bananas has the fruit grown, harvested, cleaned, pre-cooled and packaged into cardboard boxes at the plantation which are then stacked onto wooden pallets and loaded into intermodal containers (seacans) by local workers before being shipped by ocean freight to overseas markets. As soon as they arrive overseas they are trucked to local ripening centers that can rival the size of a football stadium where they are unloaded into temperature-controlled ripening chambers and exposed to ethylene gas, a catalyst found in nature that turns bananas yellow, tomatoes red and ripens many varieties of fruits and flowers found in nature. This natural climacteric ripening cycle in plants produces CO2 and heat as by-products of the ripening process which are easily monitored and controlled at the ripening center, but once the ripening process is started, it cannot be stopped.
After exposure to ethylene the fruit is reloaded and trucked to a distribution center which is often larger than the ripening center where it is unloaded once again and then stored until it is ready for distribution when it is loaded back onto trucks and delivered to retailers. This is a labor intensive chain of processes with a capital intensive asset base that is usually owned and operated by a few downstream power brokers focused on shareholder value. Very little, if any, of this asset base is owned by production workers and this is where the division of power becomes grossly out of balance. It allows these downstream power brokers to basically dictate the terms of production requirements (inputs, volume, timing), purchase pricing, terms of acceptance and terms of payment, any of which can easily create the setting for exploitation.
The vulnerability side of this equation is the result of the worker’s personal situation. Immigrants need sponsorship from an employer to maintain their working visas in that country and the threat of that visa expiring or the simple threat of dismissal can leave many workers vulnerable to the dictates of employers. This same working class is usually uneducated so contractual agreements, if they exist, are not fully understood and may not even be prosecuted in countries lacking respect for the rule of law.
This nexus between vulnerability and exploitation is an interplay of problems that has developed over many years and usually to the advantage of the power brokers. Many humanitarians have tried to balance the playing field, but this is easier said than done. These days, policy change needs to encompass environmental and social concerns as well as economics to enact meaningful legislation and policy change is just the tip of the iceberg in any effort to apply an effective humanitarian solution. And, well-intentioned humanitarians do not want to succumb to a never-ending role of support for the recipient. Therefore, the best solutions will teach recipients to become self sustaining, so they can gain the freedom to develop their own personal social surroundings for themselves, their families and their associates and build the social network required to maintain such achievements. As the old proverb says, “Give a person a fish and you feed them for a day. Teach them to fish and you feed them for a lifetime”.
The Required Technologies to Make it Happen
Circular Supply Chains Inc. (CSCI) is a for-profit enterprise that is working with the public, private and philanthropic/impact investment communities to eliminate moder