On this edition of Your Call’s One Planet Series, we discuss a New York Times / Fuller Project investigation about human rights abuses in the global sugar trade.
New York Times reporter Megha Rajagopalan and independent journalist Qadri Inzamam write that Coca-Cola and PepsiCo have helped turn the Indian state of Maharashtra into a sugar-producing powerhouse. The investigation found that these brands have also profited from a brutal system of labor that exploits children and leads to the unnecessary sterilization of working-age women.
They write, "Young girls are pushed into illegal child marriages so they can work alongside their husbands cutting and gathering sugar cane. Instead of receiving wages, they work to pay off advances from their employers — an arrangement that requires them to pay a fee for the privilege of missing work, even to see a doctor."
Guest:
Megha Rajagopalan, Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative correspondent for the New York Times
Resources:
The New York Times / The Fuller Project: The Brutality of Sugar: Debt, Child Marriage and Hysterectomies
The New York Times: How a Sugar Industry Stamp of Approval Hid Coerced Hysterectomies
The New York Times: Labor Abuses Abroad
