With the season of indulgence upon us, maybe we should try taking some time to wonder where the things we're indulging in might be coming from.
Whether it's indulging in that succulent slab of salty holiday ham, tapping the touch screen of your new two-tone tablet or just modelling your new modes of fashion found under the Christmas tree this holiday season, it might also be worth considering the source of the things we choose to consume.
It may hurt to find out the new electronic gizmo you just unwrapped is made with coltan mined in Congo amongst unbelievably complex conflict and corruption and human suffering. Or that it was assembled by workers in China employed by a factory that also employs anti-suicide nets – to, as the name suggests, prevent suicides, not of upper management or executives of the stores distributing the cheap-to-make goods, but of underpaid low-level employees, as you may have guessed.
You may be upset to hear the clothes you are wearing were made in a factory in Bangladesh that recently burnt down. That's not so bad you say? Well, what if the company running the factory happened to tell workers, while the building burned, that the alarm is just a drill and they ought to remain at their work stations and continue producing profits. It's alleged fire escapes were blocked and no fire training was ever offered, contributing to the deaths of over 100 workers stuck inside. Is that the kind of company we want producing our stuff? Is that the kind of company we want to even exist?
All those far off, overseas examples are all well and good at making a detached, other-worldly point, but what about here at home in Canada?
Just this month, CTV's W5 released a story on the terrible treatment of pigs on a pork-producing factory farm just outside of Winnipeg, servicing some of our largest grocers in the country.
Factory farms, which have all but pushed family farms to the fringes, are continually striving to make more meat and produce with less cost, all to increase profits.
On this factory farm and in the corporate model, we're seeing the pursuit of profits at the expense of the health and wellbeing of not only the animals and the planet, but also us, the consumers.
It doesn't have to be this way. Ultimately, we have the choice as to what and what not to purchase. If we at least try to make the better choice not to support conflict materials, brutal working conditions, hellish living conditions for animals, environmental degradation and other obviously absurd tactics carried out with blinders on, in search of ever-increasing profits, perhaps these practices will eventually end.
And wouldn't that just make it a merry Christmas and happy holiday season for us all if they did?
