From bitter to better: A collective effort to improve workers’ rights in the coffee industry

Ying Chen

From bitter to better: A collective effort to improve workers’ rights in the coffee industry

Ying Chen^*

^*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › Research › peer-review

2 Citations (Scopus)

568 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

Coffee has become a staple in our everyday life. We reach for our coffee machine or French press in the morning before turning our minds to work or school. We crave that caffeine hit to kick-start the morning and have a productive day. However, while we enjoy our coffee, very few of us think about where our coffee comes from and under what conditions the beans are produced. Nowadays, coffee production is still closely linked to child labor, forced labor, poor working conditions, unfair wages, and many other forms of human rights violations. These issues have attracted some media attention. However, they have not generated much academic interest among scholars. Existing literature often focuses on a single issue, such as child labor, or they favor a single-solution approach, such as fair trade. This Article acknowledges that the existing literature has provided great insight into individual labor issues in the coffee industry. However, piecemeal approaches often struggle to bring about rapid improvement and they lead to suboptimal results. This Article aims to provide a holistic approach to improve global labor practices in the coffee industry. It argues that no individual or individual organization can solve labor issues in the global supply chains on its own. Rather, a collective effort across both the public and private sectors is required in order to bring coffee workers out of the shadows. Hopefully, we, the world together, can end the shameful history of human rights violations in the coffee industry.

*******************************************************************************

Reproduced with permission as per Penn Carey Law: Legal Scholarship Repository Attribution and Usage Policy and Personal-use Exceptions Policy, which permits posting the article on the internet as part of non-commercial open access institutional repository affiliated with the author's place of employment.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	1-49
Number of pages	49
Journal	University of Pennsylvania Journal of International Law
Volume	42
Issue number	1
Publication status	Published - 2020
Externally published	Yes

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

SDG 1 No Poverty
SDG 4 Quality Education
SDG 8 Decent Work and Economic Growth

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From bitter to better: A collective effort to improve workers’ rights in the coffee industryFinal published version, 525 KBLicence: Other

https://scholarship.law.upenn.edu/jil/vol42/iss1/2/

Cite this

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title = "From bitter to better: A collective effort to improve workers{\textquoteright} rights in the coffee industry",

abstract = "Coffee has become a staple in our everyday life. We reach for our coffee machine or French press in the morning before turning our minds to work or school. We crave that caffeine hit to kick-start the morning and have a productive day. However, while we enjoy our coffee, very few of us think about where our coffee comes from and under what conditions the beans are produced. Nowadays, coffee production is still closely linked to child labor, forced labor, poor working conditions, unfair wages, and many other forms of human rights violations. These issues have attracted some media attention. However, they have not generated much academic interest among scholars. Existing literature often focuses on a single issue, such as child labor, or they favor a single-solution approach, such as fair trade. This Article acknowledges that the existing literature has provided great insight into individual labor issues in the coffee industry. However, piecemeal approaches often struggle to bring about rapid improvement and they lead to suboptimal results. This Article aims to provide a holistic approach to improve global labor practices in the coffee industry. It argues that no individual or individual organization can solve labor issues in the global supply chains on its own. Rather, a collective effort across both the public and private sectors is required in order to bring coffee workers out of the shadows. Hopefully, we, the world together, can end the shameful history of human rights violations in the coffee industry.*******************************************************************************Reproduced with permission as per Penn Carey Law: Legal Scholarship Repository Attribution and Usage Policy and Personal-use Exceptions Policy, which permits posting the article on the internet as part of non-commercial open access institutional repository affiliated with the author's place of employment.{\textcopyright} 2021 University of Pennsylvania Law School. All rights reserved.",

author = "Ying Chen",

note = "Personal-use Exceptions The following uses are always permitted to the author(s) and do not require further permission from Penn Carey Law: Legal Scholarship Repository provided the author does not alter the format or content of the articles, including the copyright notification: Posting of the article on the internet as part of a non-commercial open access institutional repository or other non-commercial open access publication site affiliated with the author(s)'s place of employment (e.g., a Phrenology professor at the University of Southern North Dakota can have her article appear in the University of Southern North Dakota's Department of Phrenology online publication series)",

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N1 - Personal-use Exceptions The following uses are always permitted to the author(s) and do not require further permission from Penn Carey Law: Legal Scholarship Repository provided the author does not alter the format or content of the articles, including the copyright notification: Posting of the article on the internet as part of a non-commercial open access institutional repository or other non-commercial open access publication site affiliated with the author(s)'s place of employment (e.g., a Phrenology professor at the University of Southern North Dakota can have her article appear in the University of Southern North Dakota's Department of Phrenology online publication series)

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N2 - Coffee has become a staple in our everyday life. We reach for our coffee machine or French press in the morning before turning our minds to work or school. We crave that caffeine hit to kick-start the morning and have a productive day. However, while we enjoy our coffee, very few of us think about where our coffee comes from and under what conditions the beans are produced. Nowadays, coffee production is still closely linked to child labor, forced labor, poor working conditions, unfair wages, and many other forms of human rights violations. These issues have attracted some media attention. However, they have not generated much academic interest among scholars. Existing literature often focuses on a single issue, such as child labor, or they favor a single-solution approach, such as fair trade. This Article acknowledges that the existing literature has provided great insight into individual labor issues in the coffee industry. However, piecemeal approaches often struggle to bring about rapid improvement and they lead to suboptimal results. This Article aims to provide a holistic approach to improve global labor practices in the coffee industry. It argues that no individual or individual organization can solve labor issues in the global supply chains on its own. Rather, a collective effort across both the public and private sectors is required in order to bring coffee workers out of the shadows. Hopefully, we, the world together, can end the shameful history of human rights violations in the coffee industry.*******************************************************************************Reproduced with permission as per Penn Carey Law: Legal Scholarship Repository Attribution and Usage Policy and Personal-use Exceptions Policy, which permits posting the article on the internet as part of non-commercial open access institutional repository affiliated with the author's place of employment.© 2021 University of Pennsylvania Law School. All rights reserved.

AB - Coffee has become a staple in our everyday life. We reach for our coffee machine or French press in the morning before turning our minds to work or school. We crave that caffeine hit to kick-start the morning and have a productive day. However, while we enjoy our coffee, very few of us think about where our coffee comes from and under what conditions the beans are produced. Nowadays, coffee production is still closely linked to child labor, forced labor, poor working conditions, unfair wages, and many other forms of human rights violations. These issues have attracted some media attention. However, they have not generated much academic interest among scholars. Existing literature often focuses on a single issue, such as child labor, or they favor a single-solution approach, such as fair trade. This Article acknowledges that the existing literature has provided great insight into individual labor issues in the coffee industry. However, piecemeal approaches often struggle to bring about rapid improvement and they lead to suboptimal results. This Article aims to provide a holistic approach to improve global labor practices in the coffee industry. It argues that no individual or individual organization can solve labor issues in the global supply chains on its own. Rather, a collective effort across both the public and private sectors is required in order to bring coffee workers out of the shadows. Hopefully, we, the world together, can end the shameful history of human rights violations in the coffee industry.*******************************************************************************Reproduced with permission as per Penn Carey Law: Legal Scholarship Repository Attribution and Usage Policy and Personal-use Exceptions Policy, which permits posting the article on the internet as part of non-commercial open access institutional repository affiliated with the author's place of employment.© 2021 University of Pennsylvania Law School. All rights reserved.

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IS - 1

ER -

From bitter to better: A collective effort to improve workers’ rights in the coffee industry

Abstract

UN SDGs

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