Above: Second Announcement Flyer, 25 September 2011, pdf
Fair trade tobacco doesn’t exist. Tobacco farming is associated with health, environmental and human rights violations.
The goal of FairTradeTobacco.org is simple: to draw attention to tobacco as a human rights issue and to corporate malfeasance in the global tobacco farming sector. The purpose is to encourage member states of the World Health Organization (WHO) to request the WHO to use the theme “Tobacco Agriculture and Industry Practices that Undermine Human Rights” for World No Tobacco Day, 31 May 2013. The theme for World No Tobacco Day 2012 is “Tobacco Industry Interference.” The 2012 theme will increase public awareness of tobacco companies’ efforts to undermine tobacco control policies around the world, and help to justify the need for a 2013 theme showcasing tobacco industry agriculture exploitation.
View petition created in support of the initial call for the theme “Tobacco Agriculture and Industry Practices that Undermine Human Rights” as the Theme for World No Tobacco Day 2012. Stay tuned for an updated petition reflecting the new target of 2013.
The purpose of this public anthropology website is to document the direct links between tobacco companies’ exploitative farm-level practices and livelihoods of farmers and farm workers. Also, the project contributes to momentum to reduce the imbalance in global tobacco control where funds and activities are primarily focused on consumption/demand issues, particularly in affluent countries.
Each year the World Health Organization selects a theme for World No Tobacco Day. Beginning in 1988, World No Tobacco Day themes have consistently focused on consumption/demand issues. World No Tobacco Day 31 May 2013 is the time to draw global attention to production/supply issues such as
Child Labor
Bonded Labor (Debt Servitude)
Poverty Wages (As Opposed To Living Wages)
Green Tobacco Sickness
Pesticide Poisoning
Soil Depletion
Water Pollution
Food Insecurity
Deforestation
Monopolistic Leaf Buying Practices
Downgrading of Leaf Quality by Tobacco Companies
Tobacco Leaf Smuggling
‘Corporate Social and Environmental Responsibility’ Schemes
The website is a repository of photos and videos about tobacco industry exploitation in tobacco growing developing countries.
New visual material will be uploaded monthly. Unless indicated, photos and videos on this site are Marty Otañez’s (Marty Otañez). FairTradeTobacco.org builds on Otañez’s ongoing anthropological research and advocacy projects that focus on tobacco growing in economically disenfranchised communities, tobacco industry practices that perpetuate child labor, debt servitude and environmental degradation (e.g. deforestation, water pollution), and alternative livelihoods to tobacco growing.
Also, FairTradeTobacco.org is a natural next step in Otañez’s activities pertaining to visual ethnography and new digital media that form the basis of the Center of Excellence in Digital Storytelling.
FairTradeTobacco.org was not and is not funded by tobacco industry sources, directly or indirectly, in whole or in part.
Visit the contact page or email marty[dot]otanez[at]ucdenver[dot]edu comments and/or your tobacco-related photos and videos and brief details about your work if you want them featured on FairTradeTobacco.org. Only individuals who agree to the declaration above will be able to feature their visual work on this site.
Below is the first announcement flyer created when this website was launched in August 2011.
