La Strada Documentation Center

Black Gold

Document number
1569
Date
2007
Title
Black Gold
Author/publisher
Marc Francis, Nick Francis
Availability
LSI library
Document type(s)
Multimedia,
Keywords
Labour exploitation, Ethiopia, Coffee, Trade, Human trafficking, Slave Labour, Slavery, Servitude, Forced Labour, Debt bondage, Slavery-like practices; Agricultural labour;
Summary
Multinational coffee companies now rule our shopping malls and supermarkets and dominate the industry worth over $80 billion, making coffee the most valuable trading commodity in the world after oil. But while we continue to pay for our lattes and cappuccinos, the price paid to coffee farmers remains so low that many have been forced to abandon their coffee fields. Nowhere is this paradox more evident than in Ethiopia, the birthplace of coffee. The movie follows Tadesse Meskela on a mission to save his 74,000 struggling coffee farmers from bankruptcy. As his farmers strive to harvest some of the highest quality coffee beans on the international market, Tadesse travels the world in an attempt to find buyers willing to pay a fair price. Against the backdrop of Tadesse's journey, the enormous power of the multinational players that dominate the world's coffee trade becomes apparent. Official website: http://www.blackgoldmovie.com/
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