Fair Trade Organic Coconut Oil & Social Economic Development
Fair Trade Organic Coconut Oil & Social Economic Development
Where the World is Still Healthy
My wife Christel and I spentthree weeks in the Solomon Islands of the South Pacific earlier this year.We witnessed first-hand the Third World conditionsthe majority of the 860,000 people that inhabit the 300 islands live with a drastically low level of poverty.
Of all island states in Micronesia,Polynesia and Melanesia, the Solomon Islands are the most underdeveloped in the South Pacific. Outside of the capital of Honiara, a town of 80,000, most of the people live off their land or earn some money fromfishing. They live without any luxuries and most villages have no electric power or running water. We were shocked at the primitive conditions.
Coconut corruption
Because of the lack of accommodation and even the most simple of comforts or transportation, there is no tourism in this splendidly beautiful place. Instead, production of coconuts is the biggest export sector. Unfortunately,we sawmuch evidence of exploitation by large foreign business corporations, who eroded the forests of valuable tropical trees.
Profit-oriented multinational corporations treat the earth and everything that grows and lives on it with such a low level of respect that it exploits natural resources and plunders the
population without any vision for the future.Nowhere is this more visible than in Third World countries and places like the Solomon Islands. Their population, and weak government, cannot withstand the destructive actions of multinational industries.
Until now nothing substantial has been done to help the Solomon Islands in any positive, significant way on a grand scale. Well intended agreements by local governments and the powerful group of eight leading industrialized nations (G-8), as well as initiatives by charity movements such as Oxfam and World Vision, are just a drop in a bucket or, at best, represent only scanty repair work.
Charities require bigger support to make a bigger impact. Our politicians often fear personal unpopularity by being associated with so-called "radicals" like Greenpeace, who recognize and push for urgent global changes.
You can help
I believe the greatest change starts with us.We, as consumers, can make a significant and positive impact on Third World nations by matching our buying habits to our world knowledge, caring nature, and philosophy. We can do this by supporting Fair Trade, organic and environmentally sustaining products.
When I first heard about the direct micro expelling (DME) coconut oil production project Dr. Dan Etherington was establishing in remote island communitiesenabling villagers to
press their own coconut oil and be independent of the slavery of collecting copra from dried coconuts for the big multinationalsI got very excited. The possibility for these native families to sustain themselves while doing environmentally sustaining work touched my heart. When I learned that there was enough raw, organic DME Extra Virgin Coconut Oil to allow for export I got even more excited. I decided to get involved in marketing this excellent product in Canada. The rest is history.
Many conscious consumers, who shop for high quality health products in Canadian health food stores, have recognized the potential and positive impact of a Fair Trade product like DME Extra Virgin Coconut Oil. They've responded to the opportunity to support those on the Solomon Islands and they do so with every purchase. With 19 DME production stations, each employing 34 people in two shifts of five hours each, an average of 646 jobs have been created on the Solomon Islands. Along with this comes the building of schools to educate children and running water for the villages.
Visiting a village
Christel and I visited one of these villages. After two bumpy hours by 4-wheel drive through the jungle and an hour by canoe, we received an enormously enthusiastic welcome. We were, as it turned out, their first ever visitors from North America.
They proudly showed us around the DME Coconut Oil production facilities. We spoke with many workers and villagers and sawmany happy faces.The average family has five children, which are happy and healthy. Malaria is widespread and kills many babies and also the very elderly. However, degenerative diseases are practically unknown, except diabetes, which has recently become popular, actually since people began drinking imported sweetened soft drinks and colas.
The village then treated us to a spread of fresh fruit from their gardens, including papaya, bananas, pineapple as ripe and sweet as I've ever tasted and, of course, fresh coconut milk. We felt like royalty and proud to represent their high quality coconut oil in Canada.
Hope for the future
In addition to the Solomon Islands, Dr. Etherington's group, Kokonut Pacific Pty, has set up DME Systems on other islands in the South Pacific, such as Fiji, Samoa, and Tonga, and also in India, Indonesia, Kenya, and Mozambique. These coconut farmers and oil producers are earning more than three times the amount they were during their copra-making days. This is full and Fair Trade at its best. These native islanders have been empoweredmany of them say that for the first time they have hope for their futures.
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