“What exactly is fair trade?” You might hear someone ask commonly, “Why should I care about it?”

At least I’ve been asked such a thing multiple times. It’s a fair question, and definitely one that a vastly larger amount of consumers need to know the answer to. Fairtrade practices arise in socially driven consumer habits that call for more sustainable and also ethical working conditions for farmers and workers of ingredients in every-day products. This provides for a plethora of necessary human rights (redundant, sorry) and also creates safe working environments for members of communities, particularly in developing countries.

The Logo to Look For
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 It allows for safety in industries where children are a major fraction of the work force and also creates protected relationships between industry and actual workers. As a result, fewer workers world-wide have been diagnosed with diseases or sustained injuries from work-related matters. These results stem from the Fairtrade Organization and its relationship with farming cultures and communities and their efforts to ensure and adhere to sustainable and safe cultivation and production methods. Not only this, but equally distributed pay is taken into consideration and applied to every reach of the farming process. The standards also call for restrictions on use of harmful man-made chemicals in natural growing processes.

Squint Closely at the Label on the Banana; It'll Make You Smile Too
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Like any movement driven by social patterns and understandings, there is existing criticism. Farmers are spending more of their income on their workers and working environment, and if sales of that particular good are not good, the farmer really is forced into a tough position and sometimes must completely lay-off workers, leaving them with no working conditions at all.

Tea Leaf Worker for Fairtrade Farm
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With a greater awareness of the answer to “what exactly is fair trade,” more products with the Fairtrade logo will [hopefully] be bought and consumed, motivating other farming industries and communities to push toward adhering to Fairtrade practices, expanding the number of farmers and workers positively influenced by it. I definitely believe the practices make a difference and it will continue to exponentially grow with greater consideration and knowledge of the standards. 

     This field study was certainly a field study for the ages. It was a grey and dreary day and the cold bit at our faces with every gust. The bare branches of the Kelleris Winery’s plants and vines rattled in the wind but our fearless guide, Søren, held his stance strong as he enlightened our eager class with the magic that was grape cultivation and Danish wine production. Reflecting on our visit, it was really interesting to feel and stand in the harsh elements that the plants must thrive in at some point and what care and effort goes into their proper cultivation. 

Kelleris Winery, Denmark
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      Søren gave his detailed account on the product that his 4,200 plants could produce while also holding up his award-winning product against the scale of all Danish wine production, which is a very narrow niche. He spoke of his specialty in red wine and the variations in flavor and alcohol content based on small factors such as the wood of the barrels and time spent aging/fermenting. I really valued how much he cared about his work and also the healthy growth of his plants and I find it to be an indicator of the quality of what he produces and also the impact wine has on a community.

Italian Viticulture
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    There are very few wineries in Denmark and Kelleris definitely assists in keeping Danish wine production to be held in high regard. Upon entering the work cellar, our class was met with a welcome activity for 11:00 am: wine tasting. Throughout my time in Europe this semester, my perception of alcohol as a social tool and discussion facilitator was continuously reinforced. This day only solidified this concept in my mind in watching (and being part of) this wonderfully awkward group of history and environmental studies majors and the quick and genuine conversation that struck up shortly after the first glass or two of the six total we tasted. Of course, the specifics of the economics behind the international wine industry and also those of the Danish wine industry in particular are clear and significant. But the social impact of wine and the wide variety of honest conversation and (sometimes) political discussion incited through the product cannot go unnoticed. 

Truth in Modern Humor
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Which are the ‘Top Three’ most important / influential plants of power today (and I don't necessarily mean by the amount or value produced).  Justify and explain your answer.

This is a very tough question. Myriad arguments can be made for the case of any plant or type of cultivation. Some may argue the plant that served as the foundation of prosperity in the colonial Americas: tobacco. Others may argue for major food sources like wheat or rice. Their existence is crucial to society as we know it and even more significant in historical terms. But if one were to argue purely in terms of the modern day, I must assert that cannabis, palm, and soy beans are the most influential plants of power.

A recent and ongoing source of mass controversy and debate, the cannabis plant and the legality of its consumption are now relevant issues in modern American voting as well as on the international front. Its cultivation certainly has not affected the world’s population in the way tobacco or spices have, but it is globally known and consumed and a leading factor of entire black market industries. Before it reached the Mexican drug cartels or the Danish pushers in Christianhavn, the cannabis plant was used for its oils as well as a fiber (hemp). Today it is consumed in recreational and medicinal practices. When looked at recreationally, the common perception is it is neither good nor entirely bad for one’s health, but often time a method of pain mitigation. This is large topic of contention around the world today, but there are now four states in the U.S. that regulate the plant as a legal substance similarly to alcohol and a handful of others that maintain it for medicinal status.  

Heavily regulated medicinal cannabis today
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            The palm oil industry is also a major source of contention around the world today for its immense impacts on environment and industry. A now booming industry in Indonesia, the palm oil cultivation is a leading cause of the region’s deforestation in national forests. The loss of trees and the method in which they are cut down for the industry leads to habitat loss for wildlife and eventually a terrible loss of biodiversity, soil and water degradation, as well as emission of greenhouse gasses. The product itself is rampant in foods in developed countries, adding saturated fats to many food products leading to adverse health effects. The demand for palm oil is increasing and heated activism is arising between major producers and nongovernmental organizations.

Greenpeace protest of palm oil
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            Soybeans may be argued as such power plant due to its nutritional benefits for humans. A bean contains all of the “necessary” amino acids. Not only may be the beans be used as an efficient fertilizer, but when held up against the issue of food security, such a nutrient-packed crop may provide alleviation to a growing demand for certain food products. The urgency of the food security problem that the world faces is what brings this crop to the most powerful of modern plants.

Soybean product
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Food security is one issue comprised of a vast amount of very pressing individual problems. The world’s population is ever-increasing at exponential rates. With consumption rates continuously pushing the limits on and shortening the supply of finite resources such as fuels and land, food security is becoming an increasingly pressing issue on the global stage. In order for food supplies to supply the population and the concurrent necessary consumption, emissions and pollution is growing in the food industry; farmers and agricultural industries are competing for land and conflict is arising over water scarcity. This does not even cover the ecological degradation of soil producing lower yields with fossil fuel and pesticide use.

Water Shortages Becoming a Rampant Issue Globally
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            Large-scale industrial farming is tearing up much-needed lands used in food production and unsustainable yet cost efficient farming practices are running rampant in modern industry, only adding to the stresses on the issue of food security. Genetic modification and engineering of seeds has led to “self-terminating” plants, or plants that are unable to reproduce for themselves. This forces farmers to buy and cultivate entirely new seedlings and no similar food product.

Sustainability in Industrial Crop Production?
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         There have been attempts in addressing and fighting food security. In the “Green Revolution” of the 1960’s and following years, sustainable practices in the conservation and use of irrigation resources along with a changing perspective on widespread pesticide use led to healthier, higher yields of crop and food supplies. This solution did not end at a higher yield however. Successful crop growth assisted in population booms and higher consumption. Higher demand for food supplies leads to increased needs in land for farming, a problem often easily addressed by Biopiracy and land-grabbing techniques which have immense effects on indigenous cultures.

Altered Irrigation Techniques Following the Green Revolution
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            In all, food security encircles a multitude of issues that cannot be solved in a single effort. 

Biopiracy is a phenomenon that has plagued world cultures and contributed to mass cultivation of crops all throughout world history. It is the discovery and commercialization of crops indigenous to a particular region without proper compensation, permission, or recognition of the locals or indigenous people who initially presented their knowledge. There have been countless examples throughout history of Biopiracy or “bioprospecting.” Examples include tea, rubber, and the hoodia tree native to South Africa.

Brazilian Rubber Tappers
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Biopiracy has been a major contributing factor in the dispersal of various plant species and crops around the world. Plant hunter and biologist Robert Fortune contributed to the phenomenon in 1848 alongside the British East India Company and their endeavors to establish trade with China. The British were growing increasingly frustrated with the Chinese tea trade as China would only break trade barriers for silver as opposed to other goods. Fortune nearly went “undercover,” sent by the EIC to learn more about the cultivation of production of tea and report back for their own use. The man disguised himself and entered China, realizing many secrets of the trade and growing process, including the differentiation between black and green tea. The EIC by this time had acquired sufficient land in parts of Southeast Asia that were beneficial for the production of tea plants. At this, the EIC had, through Biopiracy, began their dominance the tea trading industry, giving only themselves the recognition.

Robert Fortune
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Another example of British Biopiracy can be seen in the mass cultivation of latex and rubber production. The cultivation began in the Amazon Rainforest and was brought to Europe by Old World explorers. The substance gained traction (puns) and quickly began to be improved by scientists and experimenters around the world. Charles Goodyear accidentally discovered the vulcanization process, a process that increases the strength and durability of rubber, and demand for rubber skyrocketed. The Amazonian sources were soon at capacity and the industry called for expansion. The British sent a man by the name of Henry Wickham to collect seeds from the region and bring them back for their own cultivation needs. Britain then began mass production in Sri Lanka and other parts of Southeast Asia with this prospected information and seed bank, thereby collapsing the Brazilian industry with no compensation.

In the modern day, bioprospecting still exists. The hoodia tree for example, a succulent native the Kalahari Desert of South Africa has been known to the indigenous population of the San people and their use of the plant as a control for appetite. In the mid 1990’s, the South African Center for Scientific and Industrial Research began developing dietary supplements. The San people were not set to receive compensation or payment for the industrial use of the plant and their knowledge on its use until agreements were made with the research institute that called for payment to the indigenous peoples, but only on a minor scale. 

Hoodia Plant
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The major crops of the world such as tobacco, sugar, cotton, tea, the entire spectrum of spices, rubber, and coffee and chocolate have had myriad impacts on world culture in both social and economic manners when looked at through the most rudimentary lens. The impact of these crops however goes beyond just the social and economic layers of society; in fact, they are a foundation for society as a whole, contributing to the discovery of all corners of the Earth and the technological progress needed to accomplish such feats. However, before each new crop could be discovered in its native region and then mass cultivated and produced, explorers needed a means to discovery and cultivation, a means brought about by the plant and byproduct most influential on world history: wood.

Timber
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            Before technology, wood served as a fuel source for man, burnt for warmth and preparing food beneath their shelters constructed of timber. This use of wood lies at the heart of the human ability to survive and it has been maintained (and over-harvested) in our species’ history as a primary resource for continued life in all regions of the world. Beyond being used as a fuel for fire (which encompasses endless uses within itself) wood and trees have been used structurally since the beginning of time in both transportation and shelter needs. Without the wooden ships that brought Europeans to the far-East and also the New World, all of the aforementioned crops would not have been cultivated and produced in the way we know them today. This also includes the entire populations of enslaved peoples brought to the New World for cultivation of all of such crops and other appalling “uses.”

Slave Ship
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Basic technologies such as baskets and hunting and gathering tools constructed from wood contributed to the commencement of the Neolithic Revolution, the basis of all agriculture in the modern world. With agriculture came the need for increased production and therefore technology such as plows and mills--constructed from wood--to supply entire societies with food and a wholesome livelihood in general. The paper used from wood and used as money in its earliest uses still serves as nearly the entire basis of functioning societies and economies today. Likewise, the transfer of information through written literature and scientific report now serves as the entire basis of the world’s collections of knowledge and data. Beyond these crucial uses that have molded society into its modern form, wood has also contributed to ceremonial purposes and also a building material for the weapons that paved the way for world discovery and the annihilation of entire cultures. It is used medicinally and in sport as well. The list goes on.

Written Notes of Leonardo Da Vinci
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Trees and the wood produced from them are the foundation of society’s most influential factors today. The production of crops that developed the world was not possible without wooden resources. Without wood life as we know it in the modern day simply would not exist, and it is clear that beyond their ecological functions, trees and wood have had the greatest impact on world history.

           The British Empire played an immense if not the largest role in the development of Global Westward and Eastward exploration, discovery, and development. This was accomplished largely in part due to the merciless and all powerful East India Trade Company (EIC). This nationally funded agent of imperialism acted as the boots on the ground and catalyst for opening up major passageways of trade and colonial expansion on the global stage, and the major contributing factors to this are the cultivation and consumption of cotton, tea, and opium.

Cotton Crop in India
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            The EIC held a forceful monopoly over most of Southeast Asia at the peak of their prosperity due to their successful efforts with cotton cultivation in India. They nearly conquered entire cultures and manipulated indigenous peoples into labor by the masses while taking advantage of the rich and fertile soil of the region that was prime for cotton crop growth. The huge English demand for cotton as well as industrial and technological progress taking place at the time sent the cotton back to the mills of England, thereby funding the EIC and providing for further growth.

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            This led to satisfying the growing demand for tea in England, a feat made possible by trade relations with China. The Chinese at the start of this trade industry refused trade with Westerners however and would strictly accept silver and gold as payment, no other goods.

Shanghai Opium Den, 1907
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            Through clever (scheming) logistics, the EIC established firm opium cultivation in Bengal by the hand of a man named Warren Hastings, a prominent English statesman. Along with EIC, he colonized the Bengalese region and began shipping out vast amounts of the highly addictive plant (when consumed via drinking or smoking) to China. The Chinese became hooked on consumption of the substance and as a result, allowed opium as opposed to silver for the tea trade, thereby quenching the overwhelming thirst for tea in England. 

Tea in its various forms
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Beginning with the Neolithic Revolution, the consumption of beer and other drinks produced from wheat and barley reigned prolific throughout world-wide cultures. Since nearly 6000 BCE, many societies heavily consumed beer and other related beverages and it fueled social and economic growth. But before any of this change came about, the process in which beer is produced through wheat and barley cultivation began to develop.

Barley Plant
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 Discovered by accident, fermentation was a process realized by humans of hunter-gatherer lifestyles when grain was left out in moist environments for extended periods of time. Once the necessary steps required to brew this early form of beer were discovered and taste for the beverage grew, these hunter-gatherers began to cultivate grain on a larger scale.

Development of Agricultural Lifestyles
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Prior to the cultivation of barley, the Earth’s Last Glacial Maximum occurred; this was a period in which the ice covering the Earth’s surface between 24,500 and 17,000 BC reached its peak. With the melting of continental regions of ice, a period known as the Younger Dryas, or a consistent cold period after the ice melted, began. The collapse of the American ice sheets is believed to be a major contributing factor to this “cold spell.” With a difficult climate for the wheat and other grains and cereals to grow in, the hunter-gatherers needed to store seeds to protect the longevity of their crops. With this, the earliest forms of agrarian societies began to develop.

Cereal Crop
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With agriculture, certain crops such as cereals, pulses (lentils), and also flax were domesticated and specialized roles in society began to emerge. This created structure for civilizations as well as a sustainable food and living source. With the shift from nomadic lifestyles stemming from wheat and barley cultivation involved with beer, social and technological progress was brought about on a vast scale. This eventually incentivized world exploration and colonial expansion.

Today beer is consumed worldwide as a social, recreational, and tasteful beverage among all socioeconomic classes in developed and developing countries. It is a major industry leading back to the earliest forms of society, having contributed to the development of world cultures.

               Today, spices are seen as average household commodities of basic value, purchasable at your nearest local supermarket. The path taken by most common spices to reach the common use that they hold today is that of simultaneous cultural expansion and loss as well as global development. Spices today however are due a great amount of appreciation in that they fueled major European colonial endeavors, in turn altering the course of world history.

In “ancient times,” anything with a strong aroma could be considered a spice. It was the European desire to control the trade and use of this valuable commodity however that led to the development and classification of the various spices known today. Starting with the Crusades (1095-1275), the spice market was opened up and expanded into Europe in large scale for the first time.

The European monarchies and governing bodies sought religious and colonial expansion and as such, explorers such as Portuguese navigator Dom Vasco da Gama sailed eastward into uncharted regions of the globe. What they discovered and developed contributed the shaping of world history. The spices found in India as well as the Moluccas and current day Sri Lanka in the Age of Discovery brought about European governing bodies promoted further world exploration and colonial expansion while also spreading the goods that were spices (pepper, nutmeg, cloves cinnamon, etc.) from continent to continent.

Vasco da Gama
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Intercontinental trade markets formed and prospered and the European aristocracy and wealth behind the various countries’ desire to control the spice trade brought about huge pools of financial security for governments but also a myriad of human and cultural conflict. Entire indigenous populations in the Moluccas were wiped from existence as the powerful European governments traded weapons and hard goods to tribes in civil conflict for access to spices. In addition to the fueling of wars, explorers such as the Dutch and British East India Company in the early 17^th century exterminated entire local populations to gain control of the world-sought spices and control of their trade.

European Spice Trade
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The European monarchies and governing bodies that pushed eastward in search of spices and dominance in their trade altered the course of world history in that they colonized and discovered entirely untouched civilizations, lands, and cultures. World economies developed, but at the cost of vast cultural loss and human life.    

World Wide Spice Accumulation
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Tobacco and Cotton were two founder crops of the United States of America.  Explain how and why, highlighting any connections / similarities between the crops.

Both the tobacco and cotton crop were essential to the founding of independent colonies in the western world that would become the United States of America. The two crops could grow profusely in the warm, temporal climate of eastern North America and as a result, Britain found itself in a time of major colonial expansion. As major trade markets opened up in Europe and Asia, tobacco and cotton spread across the world, consumed in an enormous variety of fashions. 

Photo credit: Paul Owen 2012

When colonist John Rolfe arrived at the hell that was the Jamestown settlement, the British Empire was on the verge of abandoning and losing the settlement due to the impact of famine and disease. Rolfe’s work on the cultivation of tobacco crops began in the ideal climate and environment of the settlement lands and the colony prospered.

Jamestown Settlement, early 17th Century
Photo Credit: Nasa.gov

The tobacco crop allowed the colonists to persevere through the initial winters and move out of the terrible existing living conditions and into a thriving effort of imperialism that brought thousands of new settlers and eventually, horrifyingly enough, slavery.

Tobacco Crops
Photo Credit: LearnNc.org

Similarly synonymous with the evils of slavery in the United States’ development is the cotton crop. Like tobacco, cotton was a widely popular and highly useful good around the world and as such there was a very high global demand. With the foundation that tobacco laid for society in the Western World, cotton provided economic and material resources for the expansion of the American settlements. This exposed an appalling cycle that led to the growth and prosperity of the tobacco and cotton industry in which slave labor was used as a manner of production of the crops as well as a currency to acquire goods and further common assets. This boosted an entire economy which in turn provided autonomy and self sustaining resources for the founding of the United States of America.

Photo Credit: Slave Breeding in The US, Wikipedia

Tobacco and cotton’s widespread popularity and global consumption in the 17^th and 18^th century provided financial stability to Britain’s endeavor in colonizing the Western World and as such, the American colonies saw continuous backing from the British Empire and prospered exponentially. This led to a mentality of independence among the colonists and with the mismanaged tariffs, taxes, and legislation imposed on  the colonies by the British government, the settlers were on the path to American independence. The tobacco and cotton crops were only players in the full development of the United States, but the usefulness and resilience of the colonists brought about by the two crops are what allowed for such a monumental expansion of a new, independent society.