Couperwife Posted August 17, 2009 Share Posted August 17, 2009 did anyone watch this? it was about 6 (or so) Brits who went across to Indonesia and Thailand (I think) and looked at the way that our cheap food is produced. they all started off doing the "oh, yuck, we arent doing that its horrible" and finished with, "oh my word, we are the reasons that these people work in such horrendous conditions" they looked at this chicken portion factory 5000 people were working in this factory and sending out more than 150,000 chickens to places including the UK. I picked a number of things up watching this programme, some not so pleasant, one of them is that we need to buy stuff from places like indonesia or Thailand to keep these workers employed, the second is that we need to push fair trade. I assume that it was a life changing experience for all of the people involved in this, and also very informative for the viewers. what did anyone else think. cathy x Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xScrunchee Posted August 18, 2009 Share Posted August 18, 2009 Didn't see it Wonder if it will be shown again Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Egluntyne Posted August 18, 2009 Share Posted August 18, 2009 Have you tried BBC Iplayer? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
..lay a little egg for me Posted August 18, 2009 Share Posted August 18, 2009 Watched the last episode last night kind of by accident. I was surprised by two things in particular: 1) the wages for rice workers being so low that people had to leave the country and go into Bankok just to be able to feed their families (that poor woman who only got to see her 12-month old son twice a year ) 2) the standard of hygiene in the chicken portion factory. My OH has to visit a chicken factory in a town near where we live in the course of his job and he says the hygiene standards are not nearly as good as in the Bankok one! I always knew fair trade was a good thing but did not try quite as hard as I should to ensure I bought it. So now when shopping everything has to be free-range, organic and fair-trade...finding produce to match those criteria in your standard supermarket is much like looking for a needle in a haystack it seems! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Dogmother Posted August 18, 2009 Share Posted August 18, 2009 I always knew fair trade was a good thing but did not try quite as hard as I should to ensure I bought it. So now when shopping everything has to be free-range, organic and fair-trade...finding produce to match those criteria in your standard supermarket is much like looking for a needle in a haystack it seems! Try your local farmers' market - ours has fair trade stalls too. That way we support our local farmers as well as foreign products through fair trade. I buy very little from the supermarket. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
..lay a little egg for me Posted August 18, 2009 Share Posted August 18, 2009 I always knew fair trade was a good thing but did not try quite as hard as I should to ensure I bought it. So now when shopping everything has to be free-range, organic and fair-trade...finding produce to match those criteria in your standard supermarket is much like looking for a needle in a haystack it seems! Try your local farmers' market - ours has fair trade stalls too. That way we support our local farmers as well as foreign products through fair trade. I buy very little from the supermarket. Yes, I buy v little from supermarkets, mainly going to our local farm shop and the farmer's market and getting staples from Suma wholefoods, which sells a lot of organic, fair-trade stuff (e.g., rice etc and the kinds of things that were highlighted in this programme). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
craftyhunnypie Posted August 18, 2009 Share Posted August 18, 2009 Please do not think badly of Thailand & Thai people. They are extremely clean & friendly loving people. Their are horrors to be found in every country. Do not let this put you off ever visiting! I have never been to a cleaner place than Phuket, Thailand. However, Goa, India is a different story - the beach gypsies from Kannatika are just like something from Slumdog millionaire. There is so much sad truth in that film. It is very dirty in areas too. Emma.x Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Couperwife Posted August 18, 2009 Author Share Posted August 18, 2009 Please do not think badly of Thailand & Thai people. this programme made it very difficult to think badly of Thailand and Thai people, it was showing that these people will do virtually ANYTHING to send money home to their family. and anything is a rather huge word. As was posted before, one woman had seen her 12 month old son twice, and lived on very little to enable her family to survive she actualy thought it would be at least 7 years before she could see this getting any easier there was one scene where a rather manky american was having a go at the brits, saying that the brits were all phoney (dont know what he thought they were doing there) saying that the women were empowered having all the western men after them and the whole of the brit team went on the defence of these women, I think part of the crew stepped in to stop a big street fight happening, it was anyway, if you get chance, watch it cathy x Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
craftyhunnypie Posted August 18, 2009 Share Posted August 18, 2009 Honestly - they literally will do anything for you. They would even give you their skin! Such beautiful people. The most genuine I have ever ever met. Emma.x Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chelsea Posted August 18, 2009 Share Posted August 18, 2009 We watched the whole series. Very thought provoking and lovely hard working people. I agree that the standards of cleanliness was exceptional, however I still cannot understand why there is any need for this country to import. The company my OH catches chickens for slaughter 135,000 chickens a day for UK supermarkets ......where on earth does all this chicken go?? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Dogmother Posted August 19, 2009 Share Posted August 19, 2009 I may be wrong Chelsea, but a 'friend in the know' told me that British chicken is used for joints, whole birds and dishes, whereas the cheap imports are used in salads and sarnies. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PurpleTree Posted August 19, 2009 Share Posted August 19, 2009 I watched Blood, Sweat and T-shirts, a while ago. Seems the same sort of thing, but this was looking at the cheap clothing trade in India. Very thought provoking, made you want to buy Fairtrade cotton wherever possible. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Couperwife Posted August 19, 2009 Author Share Posted August 19, 2009 oh, purpletree, I saw that, wasnt that the programme that caused havoc in Primark? showing that they actually have children working for them in a roundabout knd of way I agree, fairtrade is definiately the way to go, regardless of what you buy cathy x Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
