Indigenous Peoples' Economic Exploitation in Farming Practices

Based off the documentary film Black Gold

The film “Black Gold” is a documentary following the people involved in the trade of coffee. This includes the CEOs of corporations, managers of franchises, wholesalers, and stock brokers. Not to mention the most important and also most overlooked producers; the third-world farmers that are the source of the coffee trade. A sad but obvious truth regarding environmental principles is that those in third-world developing countries are dealt the short end of the stick when it comes to environmental cleanliness. The same apparently reigns true in the realm of economics.

Though those peoples that farm the coffee beans themselves are inarguably the most important players in the coffee trade game, they are those who reap the least reward of the immense profit that the market generates (coffee is the second most traded commodity in the stock market). The coffee prices (those that were used as an example and basis for the film) are determined by the New York Stock Exchange rates at the coffee auction in Ethiopia. Ethiopian farmers get sometimes as little as $0.08 per kilo of coffee sold. This unfair and unlivable compensation has lead to some farmers having to turn to other plants in order to get the money they need to survive. One such plant is chat, a drug that can be sold on the black market for enough for the farmers to survive. The fact that those who produce our products are treated so unfairly is a sickening testament to the global economy. This mistreatment of indigenous peoples encourages the unsustainable and environmentally degrading farming practices because of the economic stress that is placed upon them as a result.

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