Last Sept. 27, 16-year-old Andres Damian Florez Rodriguez was on his way home from school when he was forced into a van by three armed men. Andres is the son of Jose Domingo Florez, a leader of the Coca-Cola bottling union in Santander. The assailants drove along, beating the boy while they received radio instructions. Then they gave him a message to convey: "Tell your papa that we won't rest until we see [the union leaders] quartered in pieces."

Excerpt from article:

Didier Leton, from Costa Rica, spent 18 years picking pineapples and bananas for Del Monte, earning minimum wage in inhumane conditions.

Savin Phal, from Cambodia, was recently fired from her sewing job for trying to form a union at her factory.

Goshen College students along with faculty and community members heard stories like these last Sunday night at the Sweat Free Communities Presentation held in Newcomer.

It may be more than 200 years since there was a legalised slave trade, but today the illicit trade in humans is thriving.

It is estimated that more than 27 million people are trafficked or enslaved in an industry worth almost $US31 billion ($A33.3 billion). It is growing so fast it is third in size to the black market for drugs and arms... 

If you eat chocolate or drive a well-known brand of car with tyres from one of the bigger-name companies, chances are these products have raw ingredients linked to human slavery, exploitation and trafficking.

By Charlotte Eyre

Increased consumer sensitivity to ethical shopping will send the global fair-trade market rocketing to over £800m (€1,000m) by 2012, according to a new report.

The report, compiled by market analysts Datamonitor, indicates that ethical trading is a trend that the food industry cannot ignore, especially since many fair-trade operations relate to products such as tea, coffee and chocolate.