Anna Canning

@annacanning.bsky.social

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Communication/campaigns. I talk a lot about labor, human rights, & calling out corporate nonsense. Also making gardens, woolen things, attempts at a better world through food systems. Portland, OR

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Even as they were paying off death squads, Chiquita was: *Rainforest Alliance certified *Winning Social Accountability Int'l's top award for "Social Conscience" *An Ethical Trading Initiative member "Corporate responsibility" is a smokescreen for corporate abuses. inthesetimes.com/article/chiq...

The Landmark Ruling Against Chiquita Exposes the Failure of Voluntary “Corporate Social Responsibility”inthesetimes.com Chiquita’s financing of a Colombian paramilitary group while claiming a reputation as a “responsible corporate citizen” shows the need for robust civil society institutions.

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Will brands step up and pay suppliers more to meet the new minimum, up 56 percent but just 14 percent when adjusted for inflation?

Bangladesh’s ‘Disheartening’ 14% Wage Hike Under Firesourcingjournal.com Will clothing brands step up and pay Bangladesh garment suppliers more to manage rising wages? Few global buyers have offered their explicit support.

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You know how some streetside retail spaces stay vacant for what seems like forever? And maybe you wonder, how come the landlord doesn't just lower the rent? Turns out that often their financing deal won't allow it—a problem spreading across downtowns and shopping high streets.

The hidden culprit driving America’s apocalypse of boarded-up storefrontswww.businessinsider.com The pandemic kicked off a "doom loop" that has gutted cities and towns across the country. Big banks are making it worse.

New report: Behind the "fair trade" & "ethically grown" claims are widespread abuses of workers, including forced labor. Every week, seems there's another expose of the failures of certifiers. This time it's in the voices of 200+ Mexican farm workers, thanks to my coauthor’s fieldwork Thread

New report coming soon! Join the webinar looking at how Fair Trade USA & Equitable Food Initiative certifications are papering over labor abuses on farms in Mexico. This produce goes to Driscoll's berries, Costco, & (probably) produce departments near you. Sign up: us02web.zoom.us/webinar/regi...

It’s no longer just workers speaking out about how the social audit industry is designed for corporate PR, not meaningful worker protections. Now auditors are speaking out too.

I've spent recent months digging into the auditing industry for The Guardian, a for-profit intervention meant to stop exploitation of foreign workers by US companies that critics say is instead just protecting companies and their profits from costly PR scandals. www.theguardian.com/global-devel...

Corporations are paying for worker abuse audits that are ‘designed to fail’, say insiderswww.theguardian.com US and UK companies with foreign operations use audits to prevent worker abuse – but auditors say the checks aren’t working

Looking forward to joining this impressive group of organizers, advocates, and academics to talk about innovations in organizing and campaigns for human rights & corporate accountability. Options to join in-person or online - please come! peri.umass.edu/press-events...

Conference: Advancing Well-Being and Power Among Low-Wage Workersperi.umass.edu Register at http://bit.ly/PERIWorkerPowerConf This three-day conference will feature presentations by a range of labor organizers, policymakers and researchers. The speakers will present local,...

Good thread - & also a good example of why I so appreciate food writing from people who have worked in multiple parts of the food business

wrote up a thread about DTC products and why they beome so omnipresent

In which I talk about coffee, colonialism, certification, & the limits of ethical consumerism with Manpreet Kalra, one of my favorite conversation partners. artofcitizenry.substack.com/p/deconstruc...

Deconstructing Ethical & Sustainability Certificationsartofcitizenry.substack.com From greenwashing to fairwashing - are certifications truly transparent? Unpacking their intent and actual impact.

All the talk about "ethical" & "fair trade" fashion is just marketing if at the end of the day, the model is the same when things go wrong: leave suppliers holding the bag. Per this, some suppliers are owed up to half million dollars. www.theguardian.com/business/202...

Ethical fashion brand People Tree puts UK arm into liquidation, owing £8.5mwww.theguardian.com Creditors include UK suppliers, customers and staff, as businesses in Europe and Japan continue

The world was rocked by the murder of union organizer Shahidul Islam 3 months ago. Now we see how social audits helped paper over violent oppression and labor rights abuses with a certification stating that everything is fine - & even ethical. www.hrw.org/news/2023/09...

Bangladesh: Social Audits Shortchange Workerswww.hrw.org The social audits and certifications that brands and retailers use are totally inadequate to monitor and respond to threats to workers trying to organize independent unions.

Young people dying & getting injured in the fields is the grim headline. & once again, the growers & their lobby speak up to declare that the only possible end to the exploitation is the extinction of farming or replacing people with robots. www.theguardian.com/global-devel...

‘It’s slavery for modern times’: how children of 12 toil in Colorado’s fieldswww.theguardian.com As Democrats in Washington fight looser child labour laws, the debate is more nuanced in the farms of San Luis valley. It’s hard and hazardous work but the Hispanic migrants need every cent

Absolutely adding "mycologically inclusive" & "funga" to my vocabulary. www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Flora, fauna and … funga: campaigners call for new term for conservation talkswww.theguardian.com Fungi should be recognised and protected on equal footing with plants and animals, says Fungi Foundation

This is such a fantastic conversation on land, power, & popular education - & the importance of sharing conversations across borders hammerandhope.org/article/braz...

“We Are People of Resistance”hammerandhope.org Five agricultural workers from Brazil and the U.S. share strategies to take back the land.

Whether it's dubbed forced labor or modern-day slavery, the continued exploitation of farmworkers isn't just an unfortunate coincidence. It's part of the legal & economic structure of our food system that traces back to chattel slavery. @tinavasquez.bsky.social prismreports.org/2023/08/29/s...

‘There is slavery in the fields of North Carolina’prismreports.org There is an unbroken line from the economic conditions developed to protect chattel slavery to the legal structures that allow for the abuse and exploitation of migrant farmworkers today

I currently have a semi-viral post on NextDoor & it's got me the closest to quitting all social media that I've ever come. (My cat disappeared for 2 1/2 weeks while I was out of town & then returned after I did, but not before I made a lost cat post).

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Carbon credits to me are another example of a cool idea where the market just devours it, slurps out its guts & spits it back out as if it could actually help. And then they scurry away to the next bullshit while things burn. Is that accurate?

It's past time to stop trying to sell the idea that there's one weird trick that'll make the status quo green & ethical. Speculators may lose big $$$, but the rest of us stand to lose a habitable planet. www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Carbon credit speculators could lose billions as offsets deemed ‘worthless’www.theguardian.com Many credits in the voluntary market going unused, with study finding some offsetting could make global heating worse

Stuck in a hotel room in Cambodia with covid for a week & now I’m googling things like “can you dye with mangosteen skins?” (The answer is yes -tbd if I’ll try it in a hotel electric kettle)

"It's clear that FairTradeUSA is guided by the opinions of coffee buyers while ignoring farmers...Under these conditions, it's fair to argue that the price paid for coffee in the FTUSA mkt is not actually a fair price" https://dailycoffeenews.com/2023/08/07/column-on-fair-coffee-prices-and-big-macs/

Column: On Fair Coffee Prices and Big Macsdailycoffeenews.com [Editor’s note and disclosure: The author of this column, Jos Algra, is an independent consultant who has worked with Fairtrade International in numerous capacities since 2011. Daily Coffee N…

Corporate lobbyist quotes in stories like this make it clear that they're OK working to death the people they've deemed disposable to save $$$. https://time.com/6299091/extreme-heat-us-workers-economy/

Extreme Heat Is Endangering U.S. Workerstime.com This summer's extreme heat is putting into relief the risks faced by the U.S.'s 50 million outdoor workers.

The CEO's defense is literally that the workers' claims of wage theft, exploitation, & retaliation couldn't be true because those bad vibes would have spoiled the kombucha. https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2023-08-01/kombucha-synergy-gts-living-foods-worker-lawsuit

L.A.’s kombucha empire exploited workers for yearswww.latimes.com GT's Living Foods' kombucha factory subjected workers to 'deplorable and abusive and disturbing working conditions,' according to a court ruling.

Peak summer (If we’re going to do a new platform, maybe I’ll not keep the beauty & the newsy commentary quite so separate?)

“These deaths are preventable. Neglecting to take care of them just really speaks volumes about our priorities as a society, b/c we can’t even take care of the lives of our most vulnerable workers.” https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/jul/31/heat-protections-workers-big-business-lobbies

Big business lobbies against heat protections for workers as US boilswww.theguardian.com It could take years for the federal regulator Osha to set new heat rules as excessive temperatures are killing Americans at work

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it's kind of weird that there are entire jobs that amount to having to undo the harms caused by other jobs.

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in all the remembrances about sinead’s passionate and righteous life, let us not forget how powerfully tender her music was. few people can sing about intimacy, longing, desire, and grief in a way that cuts to the quick every time and never feels hackneyed

Forced labor is often treated as an overseas problem. New research shows it's not. Over 1/2 of forced labor risk in US food system is in US production-& that exploitation has a legacy that connects chattel slavery to current guest worker programs https://www.nature.com/articles/s43016-023-00794-x

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Car culture is killing us. Perhaps we shouldn't treat car ownership as inevitable and imperative. https://slate.com/technology/2023/07/pedestrian-deaths-road-safety-traffic-accidents.html

Pedestrians Are Dying in Record Numbers. There’s Nothing “Accidental” About It.slate.com Our roads are designed for death. Regulators are asleep at the wheel.

Sustainable certification doesn't stop massive deforestation for palm oil in Guatemala. & pledges to buy certified don't change corporate purchasing behavior either. Palm oil production has already decimated forests in SE Asia, now the story repeats https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/996218

Palm oil plantations and deforestation in Guatemala: Certifying products as 'sustainable' is no pana...www.eurekalert.org Cheap, versatile and easy to grow, palm oil is the world's most consumed vegetable oil and is found in roughly half of all packaged supermarket products, from bread and margarine to shampoo and toothp...

These "smoke could actually make intense heatwave better" stories are so dystopian.