The document outlines the steps involved in transporting a banana from farm to supermarket shelf. It describes the roles of banana farm workers, plantation landowners, shipping companies, importers, wholesalers, processors, distributors, and retailers. It then asks readers to guess how much of the $1 price of a banana each party deserves and reveals the actual distribution is unfair, with most money staying in developed countries. The document questions whether this system is fair and how fair trade aims to improve conditions for farmers.
2. Going Bananas This is the route that a typical banana takes to get from the banana plantation to our supermarkets ....
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11. Going Bananas So, it looks something like this: Banana Farm Workers (Honduras) Plantation Landowners (Honduras) Shipping Company (USA) Importer (USA) Wholesaler (USA) Processor (USA) Distributor (Canada) Retailer (Canada) Each time the bananas change hands, people need to be paid
12. Going Bananas To make things easy, we are going to pretend that the price of this banana is $1.00
13. Going Bananas Now that you know what each person along the way does, how much of the $1.00 price do you think each one deserves for the work that they do? Decide as a group & write down your guesses
17. Food for thought How close were your answers? Why do you think your guesses were close, or different from, the reality?
18. Food for thought In which country did most of the money stay? Why do you think most of the money ended up there?
19. Food for thought Do you think this system is fair? If you answered NO , then what is not fair about it? How can we change this system?
20. Where we are NOW We have been using this system for decades to buy & sell products. The main goal of this system is for consumers to buy a lot, but pay little.
21. How can we focus more on money than on the people that actually make the things we buy? Where we are NOW
22. Where we are GOING At MCIC’s Generating Momentum for Our World: Go Fair Trade you will learn what fair trade is doing to bring the focus back to the farmers and improve the quality of life for millions around the world!
