Millions of people around the world who farm, fish, and process the food in our stores are working extremely long hours, toiling in unsafe conditions, and earning only poverty wages.

The report and its accompanying methodology note launch Oxfam’s new campaign to expose the economic exploitation faced by millions of small-scale farmers and workers in food supply chains.

Summary
Inequality is rampant across the global economy, and the agro-food sector is no exception. At the top, big supermarkets and other corporate food giants dominate global food markets, allowing them to squeeze value from vast supply chains that span the globe, while at the bottom the bargaining power of small-scale farmers and workers has been steadily eroded in many of the countries from which they source.

The result is widespread human suffering among the women and men producing food for supermarkets around the world. From forced labour aboard fishing vessels in Southeast Asia, to poverty wages on Indian tea plantations and hunger faced by workers on South African grape farms, human and labour rights abuses are all too common in food supply chains.

In an era of gross global inequality and escalating climate change, this business model is increasingly unsustainable. But it doesn’t have to be this way. Governments, food companies, small-scale farmers and workers, and citizens around the world can all help to rebalance power in food supply chains and ensure they more fairly reward those producing our food. The supermarket sector is ripe for change.

There is no justifiable reason that the human and labour rights of women and men supplying supermarkets cannot be respected. There is no moral excuse for anyone  producing our food to go hungry. This report launches Oxfam’s new campaign to expose the root causes behind human suffering in food supply chains and to mobilize the power of people around the world to help end it, starting with a focus on the role of supermarkets.

Ripe for Change: Ending Human Suffering in Supermarket Supply Chains - Oxfam International, 2018 DOWNLOAD
Ripe for Change: Methodology Note - Oxfam International, 2018 DOWNLOAD

post

page

attachment

revision

nav_menu_item

custom_css

customize_changeset

oembed_cache

user_request

wp_block

wp_template

wp_template_part

wp_global_styles

wp_navigation

wp_font_family

wp_font_face

acf-taxonomy

acf-post-type

acf-field-group

acf-field

ai1ec_event

exactmetrics_note

Are you Complying with the EU Sustainability-related Disclosures Regulation?
Publications

The legal landscape for financial market participants (FMPs) regarding sustainability and human rights has drastically changed and more regulation is on its way, both at the EU and AT national levels. This briefing paper is meant to give a short ove...Read More

National Hotline 2017 Texas State Report
Graphics & InfographicsPublications

The data in this report represents signals and cases from January 1, 2017 through December 31, 2017 and is accurate as of July 11, 2018. Cases of trafficking may be ongoing or new information may be revealed to the National Hotline over time. Conseq...Read More

Global Report on Trafficking in Persons 2022
Publications

This 7th edition of the Global Report on Trafficking in Persons captures our world at a fragile tipping point. For the first time in the 20 years that the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) has collected data on trafficking in persons...Read More

TAGS: Global
Unlocking What Works: How Community-Based Interventions are Ending Bonded Labour in India
Publications

New findings from external evaluations of the Freedom Fund’s hotspot programs by leading research organisations have validated our model of working with vulnerable communities. The headline findings from these evaluations are: Between 2015...Read More

TAGS: Asia